Rok, the nation’s local builder, has won “Most effective use of digital media to communicate benefits to staff” in the Employee Benefits Awards 2009 for their innovative DVD and online communication.
Rok was named the winner after defeating McDonald’s Restaurants, Chevron, Aviva and Malmaison and Hotel du Vin.
Rok Group specialises in low risk, relationship based service delivery providing building, repairs and refurbishment, and maintenance services that are tailored to local needs and customers’ wishes.
The judges commented that “Rok’s DVD was the best of those submitted in these awards. It used on-site, brief “peer-to-peer” interviews with staff to get the benefits messages across… a combination that kept the viewer engaged.”
They went on to comment that the online total reward statement “for this audience was perfect” and “reflected Rok’s internal communications guidelines which state: ‘We’re down to earth – we are builders – don’t use too many words.”
Rok and Thomsons Online Benefits worked together to create an innovative communication solution that would engage a very diverse workforce with their new online flexible benefits scheme, RokPay.
Focus groups were run to understand the needs of employees: they wanted a combination of media and clear, concise communications.
The DVD began with an introduction featuring Rok employees commenting on the benefits they chose and why, and how they have benefited.
This was followed by the details of each benefit on offer. The supporting packaging with the DVD provided a step-by-step guide to using the online system.
As a result of the launch, Rok exceeded their target login statistics, saw retention levels increase and saved substantial costs from the introduction of salary sacrifice.
Richard Sadler, reward leader at Rok comments “I’m delighted that RokPay was recognised at this year’s awards. We wanted to devise a communication programme that would be accessible, exciting and effective and Thomsons Online Benefits were essential in helping us realise this.”
Judith Inglis, director of consulting at Thomsons comments “The Rok DVD was part of a four month communication strategy to launch Rokpay.The success of this project is down to the team work and collaboration between the Thomsons team, the Rok leadership team and most notably the Rok employees. We spent over 30 hours working face to face with Rok employees in a series of national focus groups. This gave us the unique insight we needed to ensure the mix of communication media we used exceeded Rok’s expectations for the success of RokPay.
“Many of the Rok employees are fantastic advocates of Rokpay and we were keen to use their engagement with the programme to influence and educate new employees or those recently acquired by Rok Group.”