The pressures of an ageing population and strained public finances are challenging national pension systems and driving greater reliance on employer retirement plans. Employees have growing expectations for the experience and support provided by their retirement plan, and organizations are seeking to get more value from their benefit spend. Together, this is placing retirement benefits under the spotlight, and organizations are looking to transform how they communicate, deliver and support their retirement benefits.
Findings from the 2025 WTW Benefits Trends Survey show a clear direction. There is a drive to use retirement benefits as a differentiator and to enhance employee incomes in retirement. There is a sharp focus on enhancing the employee experience and building a wider framework of support around at-retirement decision making, broader retirement planning and financial wellbeing. However, with budgets under pressure and delivery challenges, this will require smarter spending and greater operational efficiencies.
Raising the bar for retirement benefits
European employers are increasingly reimagining the role of retirement plans. While regulatory compliance and market alignment still matter, many are now looking to enhance the role of retirement as a tool to strengthen talent strategies, redesigning them to be more employee-centric and provide better long-term retirement security. 70% of employers say their highest retirement plan's objective is designed to either attract and retain talent or to help provide an adequate income in retirement. For them, a retirement plan is no longer just a cost of doing business, but increasingly a differentiator.
But how are employers looking to do this? To build retirement plans that are fit for the future, companies are focusing on key areas, aiming to build engagement, enhance financial well-being, improve efficiencies and overcome delivery challenges (Figure 1).
Notably, priorities vary across Europe, reflecting local contexts. While employee experience and financial wellbeing emerge as common themes, Germany emphasizes reducing time spent on management, Belgium focuses on cost control and France and Ireland give greater weight to at-retirement support.
These objectives — while interconnected — are nonetheless ambitious. With limited resources and competing priorities, it's challenging for employers to realistically deliver on all fronts, and employers will need to prioritize on their core ambitions and what delivers the greatest value to employees and focus on greater operational efficiency.
Here are the four key trends emerging across Europe that will help deliver on these ambitions.
Modernizing retirement benefits in Europe
The findings from our 2025 Western Europe Retirement Plan Survey show that employers are recognizing the need to reframe retirement plans as a strategic tool, not only to deliver stronger retirement outcomes, but also to differentiate in the talent market and support broader financial wellbeing. Delivering on this ambition won't be easy. Most organizations face resource constraints and operational hurdles. The challenge is to translate intent into action — balancing ambition with practicality.
To achieve this, employers should look to reframe plans around what employees need and value, prioritizing stronger support, clearer guidance and a more engaging employee experience at the key moments that matter. Many are turning to digital portals and modellers to help employees understand and engage with their plan and provide guidance at retirement and, more broadly, to support financial wellbeing. At the same time, employers will need to focus on efficiency to be able to deliver these changes, streamlining administration, investing in digital tools and outsourcing where required.
At WTW, we work with leading employers across Europe to navigate this change — helping HR teams design retirement strategies that are both fit for purpose and fit for the future.
To delve further into our findings, download the report by completing the form on the right, or below on a mobile device.
If you would like a personalized benchmark summary to understand how your organization's situation compares to others and to examine the trends outlined above in more detail, or to help your organization build a plan to turn its ambitions into reality, please contact your local WTW representative.
Complete the form on the right, or below on a mobile device, to unlock more insights and to access the detailed report.
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