How to engage staff with company car schemes

By Cheryl Clements, head of business development at Tusker

Company cars are one of the most desired and valued employee benefits - offering a brand new vehicle is often more sustainable, whilst offering significant savings for the employee through pre-tax reductions.

But what employees want from these schemes has dramatically shifted in recent years, and as a result employers need to rethink how they engage employees with the benefit.

With a surge in demand for electric vehicles (EVs), salary sacrifice arrangements and an increased need for organisations to meet sustainability standards to attract and retain staff, car benefit schemes have transformed from another ‘perk’ to a strategic tool to improve employee wellbeing, meet ESG targets and reduce organisational costs.

Engaging employees relies on businesses understanding their workforce. Employees fall into three primary groups:

• Senior staff and frequent travellers who expect a car as part of their total reward package, or to properly fulfill their role.
• Employees who want greener, flexible mobility options that align with their sustainable values.
• Those seeking convenience and cost-savings through salary-sacrifice and any associated packages.

Engaging all three groups requires smart, targeted communications. Here’s our guide:

The critical need for pre-launch communications

When rolling out a car scheme for the first time, it is important to build anticipation and awareness. Employees expect transparency, clarity and interactivity before benefit launches. Tactics that ensure this is delivered include:

• Employee surveys and focus groups that can shape the scheme, how it’s delivered and show employees that you are listening.
• Interactive webinars and virtual roadshows that help staff explore EVs, hybrids and financing options no matter their location.
• A pre-launch communications campaign across multiple channels to maximise reach. For example, on Teams, across email and on your HR portal.

It is important however to make sure communications don’t stop after the launch. For all employee benefits, especially salary sacrifice car schemes, feedback loops are vital. Continuously collect insights from employees to improve your benefits and understand how campaigns can be better tailored to different employees.

For example, check whether senior staff are satisfied with vehicle range and executive features, gather feedback from sustainability-focused employees on emissions and charging, and address salary sacrifice participants’ concerns around hidden costs or insurance. By addressing employee concerns and questions, it gives you the ability to tailor your benefits and communications so that they best address workforce needs and boost organisational resilience.

Tailor communications to workforce demographics

A one-size-fits-all strategy is highly ineffective in the modern workplace. Workforces are more diverse than ever before - with unique generational needs, varied lived experiences and numerous communication preferences. To implement a car scheme successfully, your messaging should reflect both workforce demographics and the needs of the three core audiences.

Audience-specific messaging:

While a multi-method communications scheme should be used for every staff member to maximise reach, it is important to tailor messaging to the needs of different employees to make it stand out further. For example:

• For senior staff and frequent travellers, emphasise reliability, premium models and time-saving features. Connect the benefit to productivity, convenience and executive status.
• For eco-friendly employees, highlight EV options and how the scheme supports organisational and personal sustainability goals.
• For those focused on salary-sacrifice, provide comparisons to retail prices that demonstrate how the scheme is cheaper and more convenient.

Demographics should also alter how you deliver messaging:

• Employees in urban areas may not drive. Highlight how EVs avoid congestion and ULEZ charges, giving them the ability to enjoy a vehicle’s flexibility on weekends or for business travel without significant costs.
• Manual and frontline staff often lack regular technological access to workplace portals. Use offline channels such as posters in staff rooms, noticeboards, QR codes, or even sending mail to their home.
• Hybrid and remote employees may prefer digital-first updates through email, intranet, or collaboration tools like Teams.

Also ensure you combine employee values with practicality in communications. For example, a sustainability message about reducing CO₂ emissions may connect more strongly with staff if paired with information on salary sacrifice savings.

Encourage uptake with ongoing communications

Communications aren’t just for the launch, they need to be ongoing to sustain awareness, engagement and excitement. Not everyone will have been in a position to take up your car benefit at first, so it makes sense to keep communicating about the scheme so people are reminded to take advantage when they can.

Continuous communications reflect the decision journey, and answer it differently for each group. For example, through Q&A documents. Good questions to answer include:

Which car is best?

• Senior staff: highlight premium, tech-enabled options.
• Green employees: emphasise EV range and charging solutions.
• Salary sacrifice: make cost comparisons simple.

Is it right for me?

• Use positive experiences from real employees in each group to show fit.
• Demonstrate the practicalities of taking up a car - whether through short videos on HR portals, intranet banners or posters.
• Use gamification and dashboards to highlight company-wide C02 reductions.

Can I afford it?

• Salary sacrifice savings calculators are critical here.

Where should I get it?

• Reinforce scheme convenience and cost compared to the high street.

Am I getting a deal?

• Highlight savings from National Insurance and tax reductions as well as any included contracts through your provider like insurance, MOTs and servicing.

Making car benefits work for everyone

Car salary sacrifice schemes are an important tool for attracting talent, enhancing sustainability and improving the financial health of your employees. But their value will change depending on what is important to an individual employee.

By tailoring communications to different audiences of your workforce and reinforcing messaging with ongoing comms, your scheme will remain relevant and engaging.

Work with your provider to prepare ongoing communications that will appeal to your staff and ensure your car benefit programme is first choice when the time is right.