New research shows stark differences in the preferences employees in different parts of the UK have for employee benefits, with those in the South more concerned with saving for retirement and staff in Northern Ireland most concerned with insurance perks and life assurance.

Employees in the Midlands favour shopping discount vouchers more than their colleagues in other parts of the country, while Scottish staff have shown the lowest take-up rates for healthcare perks.

The survey, carried out by employee benefits provider Vebnet, included 74,000 males and 65,000 females. The benefit choices for these employees were analysed by gender, age group and geographical location. Highlights from this analysis are:

• Pension: 20% more men than women have increased the amount they contribute to their pension.  People in the South West are the most likely to increase their pensions savings, with 17% doing so compared with a national average of 10%.
• Medical and dental insurance: people working in the South East appear to be the most concerned about looking after their health, with the highest take-up rates for private medical and dental insurance. Employees in Scotland have the lowest take-up for these benefits.
• Sickness and injury benefits: employees aged 26 to 35 have the greatest concern over injuries as the result of an accident (showing the highest take-up of personal accident insurance), while the 36-45 age group are more worried about serious illness (highest take-up of critical illness insurance). However, the Northern Irish have a particular focus on both issues, with take-up of critical illness insurance and personal accident insurance being three times and four times the national average respectively.
• Travel insurance: the Northern Irish are also more prepared when it comes to travel insurance and have the highest take-up of annual travel insurance policies. Meanwhile, those in the Midlands have the lowest take-up.
• Retail vouchers: perhaps employees in the Midlands spend more time at home than taking holidays, because they have the highest take-up of discounted shopping vouchers, equal at 9% with people in the North West and Wales and almost four times as popular than in the South East at just 2.4%.  Shopping vouchers are also most popular with the under 25s, with cheap shopping proving to be three times more popular than making extra pension savings.
• Motor breakdown cover: another intriguing statistic shows people in the South West have five times the national average take-up for motor breakdown cover, with employees in the South East having the lowest.
• Time off work: on average, just under 20% of employees use their flexible benefit plan to vary the amount of annual leave they can take, although a third more females than males take advantage of this flexibility. Extra time off work is most popular in the South West (23%) and least popular at the other end of the UK in Scotland (just 14%). There is also a steady decline across age groups, with younger employees varying their annual leave much more than their older colleagues.

Richard Morgan, director of consultancy at Vebnet, said: "Flexible benefits are often grouped into four different categories - lifestyle/culture, health, security/protection and financial. It's encouraging to see that this flexibility is helping employees tailor their benefits to suit their individual needs, as is evidenced by these statistics. We did expect to see variations between the sexes and different age groups, but are quite taken aback by some of the regional differences.

 "Ten years ago there was very little on offer in the way of flexible benefits, but now we have an array of options that can be tailored to suit different lifestyles, allowing employees to really take advantage of the benefits and make some incredible savings. It is fascinating to see how individual preferences vary by gender, age and where we live. This underlines the importance of understanding the needs of the individual and developing employee communication strategies with a different balance and focus for each key segment of the population."