Employee Benefits Awards 2009: Grand Prix (Sponsored by Watson Wyatt Worldwide)

Winner
Ladbrokes Football Frenzy

Ladbrokes was primarily voted winner of the Grand Prix award because of the way its Football Frenzy motivation scheme fitted with the bookmaker’s culture and helped to engage staff with a key sporting area for the business. Ladbrokes also proved it has more than one string to its bow, having been highly commended in two other categories – Most effective use of a voluntary benefits plan and Communication strategy of the year for organisations with 5,000 employees or more.

The motivation scheme, which ran from May to September 2008, was designed to drive employee performance and service by incentivising staff during the latter part of the UK football season and throughout the Euro 2008 championships. The scheme sat within the bookmaker’s wider Serious About Service incentive scheme.

Employees were rewarded throughout the Football Frenzy campaign according to their performance against a number of criteria, such as demonstrating exceptional service during mystery shopper visits and beating set targets for store turnover. Prizes included £50 worth of retail vouchers and an extra day’s holiday. During the scheme, staff were awarded a total of £41,850 worth of retail vouchers and 120 extra days off.

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Overall, the programme rewarded nearly 500 employees more than the previous year’s motivation scheme, but at a lower cost and with a more targeted approach.

Pictured (from left): Sara Davies, HR director – reward, and Adrian Osman, head of customer insight and strategy. Davies said: ”This is just amazing. We’ve got an even better campaign next year. We concentrated on making our scheme fun and relating it to business strategy and were able to do so in a very challenging environment.”