This article has been supplied by our channel sponsor, PeopleValue.
Company background
Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) has a long and prestigious history; established in 1845, it operates from headquarters in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. Its interests include owned or controlled corporate travel services operations in 25 key driver/growth markets throughout North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific, which are supported by a network of contracted partners. The HRG network extends to nearly 120 countries.
HRG’s philosophy is to focus on its clients underpinned by three differentiators — its people, its technology and its breadth of service. The company has experienced management and skilled operators together with a strong reputation for technology, which it develops and owns in house. In addition, HRG is the only major travel management company to offer a real breadth and depth of services, all of which combine to serve every client around the globe and deliver value, cost savings, efficiency and innovation, without compromise.
HRG’s client base spans a broad range of industry sectors including automotive, banking and finance, manufacturing, media and entertainment, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and telecommunications.
Totally committed to a value offering for clients, HRG offers a comprehensive range of corporate travel services including corporate travel management, consulting, events and meetings management and sports, as well as expense management through its Spendvision operation.
As businesses of all sizes continue to look for ways to maximise the value of their travel spend, HRG UK has recently launched SIMPLY HRG, a unique service designed for small and mid-sized UK-based companies.
Programme background and purpose
HRG UK is strongly committed to investing in its 1,600+ staff in the UK. They are widely dispersed across the UK in a number of dedicated business travel centres, implanted in customer sites and working from home. Similarly, their goal is to provide a market-leading reward package to their employees. This is reflected in their broad, innovative and competitive range of flexible benefits that they offer.
In considering an addition to their flexible benefit menu, a benefit solution has to show compelling and real value for the employees and be user friendly and easy to administer and manage. The selected benefit must represent value for money to the organisation itself.
In 2008, following a recommendation from its benefit consultants, HRG UK selected PeopleValue’s Advantage staff discount scheme.
The solution
The aim of PeopleValue’s Advantage at launch was very simple — to offer HRG’s UK employees the opportunity to make their money go further. Through Advantage, employees are able to enjoy preferential rates, discounts and free extras on groceries, clothing, fuel, holidays, insurance, electrical goods, days out, music and computers.
‘We are always looking to improve and enhance the menu of benefits we offer our employees. We recognised the excellent value that Advantage could provide our staff and today we offer it to everyone. It has been very well received and is widely used,’ said Vanessa Phillips, senior human resources consultant at Hogg Robinson Plc.
PeopleValue Advantage has acquired hundreds of partners in order to bring HRG employees the best deals, latest products and most valuable services available, straight to their desk.
The role and value of PeopleValue
PeopleValue supported HRG UK in the introduction of Advantage. Advantage is built entirely on an online platform, with all communications being made electronically and the HRG Advantage-branded website providing secure access to employees.
Since HRG selected Advantage, the company has worked with PeopleValue to continually improve Advantage both in terms of the value and the breadth of products and services it offers.
‘We regular communicate the value of Advantage to our staff. Monthly emails are sent directly to staff communicating the latest offers, which are also placed on our company intranet,’ said Phillips.
Providing a high level of customer care is one of PeopleValue’s cornerstones on which the business has been built. Any queries that HRG employees have regarding offers or deliveries are handled promptly by the customer support team at PeopleValue.
‘Since we set started offering Advantage, there has never been a single issue of concern raised by our employees. This is testament to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Advantage programme coupled with the excellent customer service that PeopleValue provide,’ said Phillips.
In summary, PeopleValue has provided HRG with: a valued and constantly updated and enhanced employee benefit; a highly effective online solution that has been tailored to fit HRG’s needs; high-quality account management; and responsive and effective customer support.
‘PeopleValue’s Advantage is a great product. It has become an important benefit offering for our employees. It represents excellent value for money and it’s great to be able to give employees such a range of discount offerings on a so many products and services,’ said David Kast, head of human resources at Hogg Robinson.
About PeopleValue
PeopleValue delivers proven loyalty, reward, incentive and employee benefit programmes to a diverse range of organisations. PeopleValue delivers programmes to a broad range of sectors including retail, pharmaceuticals, utilities, public sector, the hospitality and leisure industry and financial services. PeopleValue has more than 150 customers including Whitbread, Royal Mail, Corus, Twyford, npower, RAC, Yes Telecom (Vodafone) and Aviva.
