Meanwhile, the number of employers that enable staff to trade up or down in their current package has steadily decreased. Now just 20% of respondents use that method, compared with 30% in 2011.

What has remained relatively stable is that one in 10 employers (9% in 2014) opt to give staff a flex fund equal to the core benefits package.

The proportion of employers that offer staff a flex fund as a percentage of pay, or as a fund in addition to core benefits, has fluctuated in recent surveys and it is hard to discern a clear trend.

EB-FlexibleBenefitsResearch-Structure3-2014

Read more of the Employee Benefits/Towers Watson Flexible benefits research 2014