Employee Benefits Live 2022: Home improvement retailer Wickes has made a number of changes to its benefits schemes to bring cost savings to the business, while also supporting the financial wellbeing of staff.
Addressing delegates at Employee Benefits Live 2022 in a session entitled ‘How to structure a compelling cost-effective benefits offering’, Neil Goodwin (pictured), head of reward, explained that Wickes has enhanced its employee discount scheme in its own stores as a means of boosting its benefits offering to staff.
Wickes has also created an employee forum for staff to share ideas on cost-of-living support, such as money-saving tips; it then shares the best ideas in its newsletter each month.
After demerging from Travis Perkins in 2021, Wickes listed on the stock exchange as an independent business. This provided the opportunity to review its reward strategy and led to Wickes launching its first sharesave scheme in 2021, which meant it was able to offer its own shares to employees for the first time.
Focusing on cost will help the reward team to justify expenditure, gain credibility and it makes good business sense, said Goodwin. He explained that a starting point to making cost savings is to first of all define the benefits available, define the objectives of the reward strategy, and look at the success measures of benefits schemes, such as take up and return on investment.
“When reviewing cost savings, take a structured approach. Think about how much is spent overall an what does good look like,” said Goodwin.
