The workforce has changed. Has your benefits package?

Something has shifted in what people want from work.

It’s not just salary. It’s not just flexibility. Increasingly, the people businesses most want to attract and retain care about who they work for — what the organisation stands for, how it treats people, and whether it takes its responsibilities to the wider world seriously.

This isn’t idealism. It’s a measurable shift in workforce priorities that employers who ignore are starting to feel in their ability to hire and keep good people.

What the evidence shows

Survey after survey over the last five years has found the same thing – employees, particularly those under 40, place significant weight on whether their employer operates responsibly.

Research consistently shows that a substantial proportion of professionals would take a pay cut to work for a company that aligns with their values. In competitive talent markets, a strong position on sustainability and employee wellbeing isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a differentiator.

More practically, companies with credible, visible commitments to sustainability and employee wellbeing consistently outperform on retention metrics. The cost of replacing an employee — recruitment fees, onboarding time, lost productivity — typically runs to 50–200% of annual salary. Retention isn’t a soft outcome. It has a hard number.

Where mobility sits in this

Cars and how we travel represent one of the most visible and tangible ways a business can demonstrate its values in practice.

A business that helps its employees transition to lower-emission vehicles — through salary sacrifice, EV education, fleet electrification or simply providing the information people need to make informed choices — is making a concrete, visible statement about what it stands for. Not through a policy document, but through something that directly affects employees’ lives every day.

Conversely, a business that still operates an unrestricted high-emission fleet, offers no support for employees navigating the transition to EVs, and has made no effort to modernise its approach to mobility is sending a signal too — even if it didn’t mean to.

The practical opportunity

The good news is that doing the right thing here largely aligns with doing the financially smart thing. Salary sacrifice car schemes designed around electric vehicles don’t just reduce emissions — they reduce employer National Insurance, attract and retain staff, and provide a genuine, tangible benefit that employees value and use.

Fleet electrification doesn’t just lower your carbon footprint — it lowers your fuel costs, your servicing costs, and your exposure to future fuel price volatility.

Employee EV education doesn’t just help people make better personal decisions — it positions the business as a modern, forward-thinking place to work.

None of this requires a large budget or a dedicated sustainability team. It requires a clear-headed look at what’s available, who can help, and how to communicate it well.

Where Odigo Verve fits

We work with businesses that want to take their approach to mobility and sustainability seriously — whether that’s implementing a salary sacrifice scheme, helping employees understand the EV transition, reviewing an existing fleet policy, or simply helping HR and reward teams understand what’s available and what’s worth doing.

We’re independent of manufacturers, leasing companies and finance providers, which means our advice is shaped entirely by what’s right for the business and its people — not by what we have to sell.

If you’re looking at how to build a benefits and mobility proposition that reflects what your people actually care about, start a conversation with us. We’ll help you understand what’s practical, what’s cost-effective, and what will genuinely make a difference.