Key insights
- Only 19% of NZ workers say their workplace benefits are useful and well matched.
- 66% of Kiwi workers have never been told the dollar value of their benefits.
- Forced to pick one benefit, 39% of Kiwis chose time and flexibility.
A new study by Cultivate found that only 19% of employed New Zealanders say their workplace benefits are genuinely valuable and well matched to their needs, according to its 2026 Workplace Benefits Report.
The same research found 61% believe their base salary has fallen behind living costs over the past three years, and 30% say well behind. Stats NZ put living costs for the average household up 3.2% in the year to June 2026.
Benefits are carrying more weight in front of an audience that has never been harder to impress. Somewhere in that gap sits a fruit bowl nobody asked for.
What do New Zealand workers want from workplace benefits?
Time and flexibility, by a distance. Asked to name the single benefit they would value most, 39% of respondents chose time and flexibility and 20% chose help reducing everyday living costs. Wellbeing support came last, on 2%.
Read that 2% carefully. It measures what people pick when forced to choose one thing, and forced choices are brutal. Wellbeing support has been asked to carry more than it was built for.
Employee Assistance Programs make the point. 51% of workers have access to one, and 61% of those who do have never used it.
61%
Pay has fallen behind living costs
Employed New Zealanders whose pay has slipped behind costs since 2023, per Cultivate.
2%
Wellbeing support ranked last
Picked wellbeing support as the one benefit they value above all others.
“People are doing it tough at the moment. Under cost-of-living pressure, the benefits that really register are the ones that show up in giving them some time back, or in their bank balance.”
Rebecca Moulynox · General Manager, Great Place To Work Australia and New Zealand
Why do workplace benefits fail to land?
Because most people cannot see what they are being given. Cultivate found 66% of respondents had never been told what their benefits were worth in dollars. A package can be generous and still register as nothing.
Then there is who gets asked. Executive managers were more than twice as likely as specialists to describe their benefits as well matched, 34% against 16%.
“A lot of the time these programs are being built by people who will never use them, without consulting any of the people who they hope will,” said Rebecca Moulynox, General Manager for Great Place To Work New Zealand. “Which is just setting them up for failure. The only way people will use and get value out of these benefits is if they understand what they are, connect them to their daily lives, and most importantly know they exist.”
Here is how the wish list compares with the offer.
| Benefit | Top draw at a new employer | Offered it |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible working | 25% | About two-thirds |
| Extra week of annual leave | 21% | 22% |
| Health insurance | 12% | Not reported |
What do workplace benefits look like at New Zealand’s best workplaces?
Visible, and valued. In Great Place To Work® Trust Index™ survey data, 78.6% of employees at the Best Workplaces™ in New Zealand agree with the statement “We have special and unique benefits here”, against 45.0% at a typical New Zealand workplace.
“We have special and unique benefits here”
Best Workplaces in New Zealand
Typical New Zealand workplace
The pattern carries into the numbers HR leaders are measured on. At those same Best Workplaces, 83.6% say they want to work there for a long time and 86.4% would strongly endorse their employer to friends and family, against 56.3% and 54.1% at a typical New Zealand workplace.
The survey measures all of this at once, so treat the three as travelling together rather than one causing the other. Workplaces where benefits land are also workplaces people stay in and recommend.
How do you design workplace benefits people will use?
Ask the people who rely on them, then publish the numbers.
- Put a dollar figure on the package and tell every employee what theirs is worth.
- Co-design with staff before you buy, rather than after the renewal notice arrives.
- Protect time first. Flexibility and leave beat novelty perks in every ranking here.
- Break your engagement results down by level, so a healthy average stops hiding an unhealthy middle.
One question worth putting to your team this week: what is one benefit you use, and one you wish you had? The answers arrive fast.
Workplace benefits FAQs
What benefits do New Zealand employees want most in 2026?
Time and flexibility. In the 2026 Cultivate Workplace Benefits Report, 39% of employed New Zealanders picked time and flexibility as the single workplace benefit they would value most, ahead of 20% who chose help reducing everyday living costs. Asked what would draw them to a new employer, 25% named flexible working and 21% named an extra week of annual leave. Health insurance ran third on 12%. Wellbeing support came last, chosen by 2%.
Why don’t employees use their workplace benefits?
Mostly because they do not know what the benefits are worth. 66% of New Zealand workers have never been told the dollar value of their workplace benefits, so the package stays invisible. Relevance is the other problem. Employee Assistance Programmes are offered to 51% of workers, and 61% of those with access have never used one, partly because they respond after someone is already struggling. Telling people the value is the cheapest fix available.
Do good workplace benefits help staff retention in New Zealand?
They travel with it closely. Trust Index survey data shows 78.6% of employees at the Best Workplaces in New Zealand say they have special and unique benefits, against 45.0% at a typical workplace. Those same Best Workplaces record 83.6% saying they want to work there for a long time, compared with 56.3%. Benefits alone will not hold anyone, though workplaces where benefits land keep people far longer.
How do I know if our workplace benefits are working?
Ask, then segment the answers by level. The Cultivate research found executive managers were more than twice as likely as specialists to describe their benefits as well matched, 34% against 16%, so an organisation-wide average can hide a real problem. Track take-up rates alongside satisfaction, publish the dollar value of the package, and test any new workplace benefit with the people who would rely on it before you buy it.
Sources: 1News on the 2026 Cultivate Workplace Benefits Report, Stats NZ household living-costs price indexes and Great Place To Work Trust Index survey data, New Zealand.
