According to Drewberry’s 2025 Employee benefits and workplace satisfaction survey, published in October 2025, only 11% of employees say they receive regular communication around their benefits. One way of communicating benefits, that could address this, is through a total reward statement (TRS).
TRS typically include details of the monetary perks employees receive through their employment, such as salary, bonuses or incentives, or benefits allowances. Employer contributions to pensions, private medical insurance (PMI), and childcare assistance, in the form of emergency and back up care, meanwhile, are important to note.
A range of car, bicycle and home technology salary sacrifice schemes are also useful to feature if available, as are share plans and voluntary benefit schemes, such as retail and leisure discounts.
Group risk products, such as life insurance, critical illness and income protection, are additional perks to highlight within a TRS. Non-monetary initiatives that can be included are flexible-working arrangements, leave entitlement, and learning and development schemes.
A TRS should account for the value of the benefits the employee uses and be presented in an easy-to-understand format. Overall, anything an employer offers that contributes to the employee experience should be included.
A TRS acts as an engagement and retention tool to demonstrate the value employees are getting from their reward package, says Matt Russell, chief executive officer at Zest and Epassi UK.
“For total reward statements to be most effective, they should provide a clear and comprehensive view of an employee’s total offering,” he says. ”Ensuring that employee benefits platforms, which are often where TRS sit, are accessible is a key step to boosting engagement, improved value for money, and increased attraction.”
Assigning value to benefits
Employers can use cost, that is what they pay or contribute, as the base metric for each benefit within their TRS. This way, employees can see how much is invested in them.
Organisations should also use regularly updated real-time data, so that the value reflects current cost and usage, rather than static estimates, says Gethin Nadin, chief innovation officer at Benifex
“Employers can also use roll-back or historical comparisons to illustrate growth or change in value over time,” he adds. ”They can personalise valuations by adapting the TRS to reflect an employees’ specific entitlements to be accurate for them.”
Some benefits are valued based on their potential, such as national insurance savings for both the employer and the employee within salary sacrifice arrangements. Others are valued based on a contribution to a pension scheme or premium for PMI.
In the case of the latter, TRS often include the difference between an employer’s private medical insurance provision and the high street costs, explains Holly Coe, senior reward consultant at Personal Group.
“If employers include annual leave, it would be calculated based on the salary level of the individual, so would be different per person,” she adds. ”Ideally, calculations would flow through a flexible benefits system or HR information system, so costs can be calculated without any additional work.”
Employers can present the value of non-monetary benefits within a TRS by explaining how it can bolster employees’ experience. For example, they can detail the benefits of flexible-working arrangements and how these can improve employees’ work-life balance, make caring responsibilities easier and boost their wellbeing.
Effective communication
How a TRS is communicated to a workforce will depend on each employer. Some industries and generations will prefer a hard copy, whereas a digital version is immediate and more cost-effective in terms of printing.
Employers could also consider hosting it on an app that is always feeding off information and updated at the end of each month, rather than once a year, says Coe.
“This way, employees can see their TRS without waiting for a login or for it to arrive in the post,” she says. ”Employers should make sure access is streamlined and doesn’t require lots of touch points,” she says.
Technology such as apps that employees can view on devices anytime and anywhere can help demonstrate the value of their total reward package in an engaging manner. A visual and user-friendly design, with a clear layout, breakdowns and charts showing how much employees are entitled to, is useful.
Employers can use data and insights from an app to better understand what employees want and make informed decisions on delivering this effectively.
“They can also use these to send targeted communications and encourage employees to use their benefits on an ongoing basis,” adds Russell.
Branding consistency within a TRS ensures it feels part of employers’ culture and identity, says Nadin.
“Organisations could also combine their TRS with broader communications campaigns via email, push notifications or internal messaging to raise awareness of under-utilised benefits,” he adds.
Maximising engagement
In order to improve engagement and take up, employers could position their TRS centrally in their benefits platform so employees can easily find it and learn what they can access.
“TRS can be used in recruitment, onboarding and retention as a way to sell the full value of the employment proposition, not just salary,” says Nadin.
Regularly reviewing the benefits provided and then frequently advertising these will ensure staff can get the best out of them. Offering real-life case studies can encourage participation and help employers see a return on investment.
“To make sure benefits within TRS are engaged [with] and understood, organisations need to tell staff how to access them and what they can get from them,” says Coe. “It’s important they understand that full value goes beyond just their salary.”
To ensure a TRS is effective and achieves its aims, employers should ensure they detail everything of monetary value to employees and clearly present this, so that they can take full advantage of what is available to them and understand how benefits can improve their employee experience.
