LONDON, 17 March 2026 – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, has found that the UK insurance industry is leading other sectors in the breadth of its employee benefits - underscoring a significant opportunity for insurers to strengthen their employee value propositions and differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive talent market.
Recent studies from Aon provide clear insights into recruitment and retention, showing that while salary remains vital to attracting talent, benefits and company culture are key differentiators for employers.
- Aon’s 2025 Employee Sentiment Study found that 62 percent of insurance employees are actively seeking or considering new opportunities over the next 12 months - emphasising the need for competitive benefits to enhance retention.
- In Aon’s 2025 Global Risk Management Survey, insurers reported attraction and retention as a significant risk impacting their business, highlighting the importance of getting the right total reward package and benefits provisions.
- Aon’s 2024–25 UK Insurance Sector Benefit Benchmarking Study, found that insurers offer particularly strong pension contributions, preventative healthcare and family leave — often exceeding those found in other sectors. Employer-paid health screening is 30 percent more common in the insurance sector compared to the technology sector. There is also a focus on extended family leave to support work-life balance, with 25 percent of firms offering over eight weeks of paternity leave, compared to just 15 percent in professional services and 12 percent in financial services.
- In the past year, 54 percent of insurers made changes to their benefits programmes and 70 percent plan further enhancements within the next 12 months.
- With benefit costs rising, UK medical trend rates also rose by over 35 percent in 2025
Louisa Blain, partner and industry sector leader for insurance within Human Capital at Aon, said:
“It’s clear the insurance industry is investing meaningfully and competitively in employee benefits, but the message is not always landing. Insurance is a people business and the generosity and variety of benefits offered by insurers reflects this.
“However, the sector faces challenges in attracting and retaining talent, so finding ways to improve how these packages are communicated as a key part of the employee value proposition - both to current employees and potential recruits - has never been more crucial.
“Encouragingly, we are now seeing leading businesses leverage predictive analytics to help inform what benefits to offer and, importantly, how to communicate them in order to demonstrate a return on investment.”
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Through actionable analytic insight, globally integrated Risk Capital and Human Capital expertise, and locally relevant solutions, our colleagues provide clients in over 120 countries with the clarity and confidence to make better risk and people decisions that protect and grow their businesses.
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