In September 2014, Advent conducted an employee survey that highlighted a number of areas where the benefits package was overlooked or was not fully valued by the workforce. Benefits were not regularly promoted impacting on overall awareness. In response to the feedback, Advent appointed Xerox HR Services early in 2015 to design and deliver a complete benefits engagement campaign.
Advent and Xerox considered the requirements of a busy and diverse workforce of over 100 office-based employees. Advent wanted to improve morale and employee engagement by empowering staff to make positive choices around their own wellbeing – both physical and financial.
Advent has a competitive culture, and with all employees being office-based in London, this opened the options for creativity and all-inclusive activities. A strategy was devised with the aim of significantly improving components of the benefits package and raising awareness to ensure maximum value for money for Advent, and greater engagement and appreciation by the entire workforce.
Xerox HR Services worked with Advent to rebrand their total benefits (My Reward) and establish a Wellbeing programme.
The programme
Xerox HR Services developed an engagement programme tying together all the employee reward components, the new pension, voluntary and risk benefits. The rebrand of Advent’s total benefits (My Reward) used vibrant and fresh oranges to coordinate with and complement Advent’s branding.
The launch day was called ‘A fresh start’. Appealing to the senses, bowls full of oranges in the office were labelled with the new ‘My Reward’ brand and logo. Orange essential oil was used along with eye-catching visuals and content aimed to create a strong connection to the brand.
By getting employees to consider their own physical and financial wellbeing, Advent wanted their employees to engage more with the benefits available to them. Total reward statements were introduced to maximise and promote the full value of benefits.
Physical wellbeing
A wellbeing calendar of events was designed specifically to appeal to the competitive nature of Advent’s employees and evoke maximum engagement.
- Smoothie bike challenge – employees were invited to compete to make a smoothie in the quickest time – providing a quick burst of exercise to get a healthy and nutritious drink as a reward.
- Sports day – a company-wide team building event held in Greenwich Park to get teams to intermingle, collaborate and exercise while adding a fun rivalry to make a memorable day.
- Lunch and learn – lunchtime sessions on practical ways to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
- Wellbeing Tracker – online portal used to engage employees in their own health and wellbeing; accessed via computer, tablet or mobile.
- Interactive health kiosk – measuring key indicators of general health e.g. BMI/blood pressure/weight in the office.
- Fruit initiative – fresh fruit delivered for employees throughout the week. This tied in with the recently rebranded total benefits ‘My Reward’.
Financial wellbeing
A market-leading workplace savings proposition was implemented to meet the varying needs of Advent’s workforce.
Employees were offered group presentations, one to one ‘guide-me-tings’, bespoke booklets (for new joiners and those considering transferring benefits), online tools and a document repository. All designed and implemented within the consistent ‘orange’ brand.
- Employees’ value for money improved with lower pension charges – a saving of up to 66% for employees.
- Employees given easy access to pension, ISA and investment arrangements to support individual preferences and legislation changes in 2016.
- Tiered investment proposition to cater for employees’ different needs and levels of risk.
- Latest suite of online tools to aid self-service in retirement planning including access to new retirement freedoms options.
The results
A number of components of the benefits strategy were tracked to evaluate the overall success of the engagement campaign.
- 100% of Advent’s employees attended the group presentations and/or ‘guide-me-tings’.
- Employees were given the choice to remain in the existing workplace savings plan or to have future contributions paid into the new arrangements
- Over 95% chose to join the new plan for future contributions.
- Over 90% chose to transfer their benefits into the new plan.
- Employee retention rates are at an all-time high of 91.26% which is proof of a happy and engaged workforce.
- Advent saw an increase of employees using their health screening benefits. Medical assessments rose by 90% from 2014-2015 showing that awareness of their health and wellbeing benefits has led to action.
- Using the reports from the Wellbeing Tracker, Advent was able to target specific areas of concern and help to create an awareness of the employees’ own health.
- Excellent attendance at all events demonstrating buy-in to the campaign. 82% of staff measured their level of engagement in the campaign as “fully engaged”.
- An increase in Lunch & Learns, enhancing knowledge share, improving morale and cross-team interaction.
- Staff lunch time running club has been set up since, so employees can continue their friendly competitiveness on a weekly basis, whilst physically gaining from all the health benefits of exercise.
Feedback was collated from employees as part of the measurement of the success of the engagement campaign.