Sleep and men’s health drive shift towards personalised employee benefits

Demand for sleep support, men’s health and hormonal health is rising sharply among UK employees, suggesting employers need to rethink traditional, single-issue workplace wellbeing benefits.

According to the  2027 Employee Benefits Trends Report, from workplace health benefits platform Heka, the number of employees setting better sleep as a health goal increased by 1,500 per cent year on year, while bookings for men’s health support rose by 152 per cent.

The findings are based on an analysis of more than 100,000 anonymised employee bookings made through Heka during a 36-month period. The platform allows employees to spend a monthly wellbeing allowance on services that meet their individual health needs.

The research suggests employees are increasingly seeking support across several interconnected areas of health, including sleep, nutrition, hormonal health, fitness and mental wellbeing, rather than focusing on individual conditions.

Sleep emerged as one of the strongest areas of growth. Alongside the 1,500 per cent increase in employees identifying better sleep as a personal health goal, bookings for sleep-related support rose by 90 per cent.

Sleep is now among the five most frequently selected health goals on the platform.

The findings are particularly relevant to workplace health, given the relationship between poor sleep, fatigue, concentration, mental health and productivity. Previous research from RAND Europe estimated that insufficient sleep costs the UK economy up to £40bn annually in lost productivity.

Men’s health also recorded significant growth, with bookings increasing by 152 per cent. For the first time, men using the Heka platform booked more fitness and movement support than women.

Heka said the findings suggest men will engage with preventative health and wellbeing services when they have access to support that reflects their interests and needs.

Hormonal health was another area of growing demand, with bookings increasing by 65 per cent and the category accounting for approximately one fifth of all platform activity.

Support extended beyond menopause to include menstrual health, fertility, perimenopause and hormone testing. Monthly fertility bookings more than doubled during the reporting period.

Gut health recorded the fastest growth in platform usage, with 13 times as many employees accessing gut health products compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, weight management remained the most-booked category across the platform.

Although weight-loss medications, including GLP-1 treatments, have attracted significant attention, Heka said its data indicates employees are approaching weight management as part of their wider health, with demand extending beyond medication to other forms of support.

The report argues that employers should consider how weight management benefits connect with nutrition, physical activity, sleep and other preventative health services.

Alex Hind, CEO and co-founder of Heka, said: “When employees have a genuine choice, they show us that health needs rarely arrive one at a time. Menopause shows up alongside disrupted sleep, shifting mood and changing weight. Poor sleep feeds into mental health and focus. People reach for support that fits the whole picture, not a single fix for a single label.

“Yet benefits are too often built around one condition at a time, when people need support that joins up. With absence at its highest level in over 15 years, 2027 is the year to build benefits around how people actually live.”

Heka argues that employers need to move beyond simply providing access to benefits and develop a better understanding of how employees use health support, where needs overlap and which services are most relevant to different workforce groups.

The report also identifies learning and professional development as an emerging part of employee wellbeing. Citing research showing that 88 per cent of employees consider effective leadership critical to business success, while only 48 per cent believe their leaders are prepared for the artificial intelligence era, Heka suggests that confidence, capability and professional development should form part of wider wellbeing strategies.

Heka said the findings highlight the value of understanding actual employee behaviour rather than relying solely on assumptions about which benefits employees are likely to use. The company has also introduced Heka Vantage, a workforce analytics tool that uses anonymised platform data to help HR teams identify emerging health and wellbeing needs and inform preventative interventions.

While the findings provide insight into changing employee preferences, they reflect bookings made by employees at organisations using Heka rather than a representative sample of the entire UK workforce. The figures measure engagement with benefits, not necessarily improvements in health outcomes.

The 2027 Employee Benefits Trends Report is available from Heka