Benfits Connection: Issue 1, July 2007 by Asperity

Insight, strategy and best practice in voluntary benefits from Asperity Issue no.1 - July 2007

Inside this issue: Why employee discounts are relevant again The changing face of voluntary benefits The SME voluntary experience Employer best practice - view from the leaders Implementation in focus : Kent County Council Benefits Connection from Asperity

Welcome Welcome to the first issue of Asperity’s Benefits Connections magazine which draws together recent thinking, insight and best practice in voluntary benefits. We’re using ‘voluntary benefits’ here to describe both straightforward employee discounts on products and services, paid for from post-tax income, and also salary sacrifice schemes (childcare vouchers or mobiles, for example) which come from pre-tax income. There hasn’t been a lot that’s new, either by way of products or providers, in the employee discounts market in the last few years but the dog days of washed-out schemes are numbered - with recent advances in technology and a fresh look from providers like Asperity, employee discounts are back in a big way and creating levels of employer value far in excess of that previously seen. Research from a number of industry sources tells us that around 25% of employers currently offer VB in some form to their employees - but how many of these employers are really generating the high value that they could achieve? Employers who don’t at least consider a VB portfolio as part of their employment proposition are certainly missing a trick and employers who haven’t taken advantage of changes in the provider marketplace could see significant additional value from a revamped scheme. Much of the insight and best practice that go into creating a good VB scheme are featured in this issue, together with how to integrate other voluntary benefits with employee discounts. We believe that employee discounts have never been so valuable and Asperity is now recognised by most as the market leader by some considerable margin. Maybe we would say that, wouldn’t we, so we’d like you to see for yourselves – go to www.asperity.co.uk/employers for more information or vip.rewardgateway.co.uk to see what you could be providing for your staff.

Contents 02. Welcome 03. The changing face of voluntary benefits 04. The SME Experince: discounts for all shapes and sizes 05. HR Professionals share their experience 06. Value from Voluntary: using scheme design to drive employer value 07. Communicate, Schmoonicate - It sounds easy but... 08. A single ‘workforce demographic’? Not in my organisation! 09. Why are so many of us looking a gift phone in the mouth? 10. Total Reward - reach the summit: a light-hearted look at TRS 12. Implementation in Focus - Integrated VB at Kent County Council 14. Childcare and cycling - why aren’t these schemes simpler? 15. Discounted gift vouchers can save your employees hundreds of £s 16. Real employees tell us how they use Reward Gateway

Best Wishes

Glenn Elliott MD, Asperity Employee Benefits glenn@asperity.co.uk Register now at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk to see for yourself what your scheme could look like.

Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

The changing face of voluntary benefits By Glenn Elliott, MD Asperity

Leading edge technology + total focus and commitment to volutary benefits = exceptional employer value When we set about developing Reward Gateway one thing was certain - this wasn’t going to be another “me too” provider of voluntary benefits. We had only one goal revolutionising the voluntary benefits marketplace and delivering a scheme that truly delivered exceptional employer value. Our research showed that employers often found flex complicated to implement, ‘Total Reward’ only applicable in certain environments and their voluntary benefits schemes had poor or unquantifiable results.

• a measurable, easy-to-track ‘my account’ facility for employees to see how much they’ve saved, demonstrating and highlighting the value to them of the scheme • highly bespoke websites, online and offline (printed) communications for each employer making a strong, positive link to the employer brand or benefits brand • seamless connections to other benefits, in-house or externally provided ... and just about anything else you could want in an online discounts scheme including 1300 retail partners! We also have an ambitious, ongoing development programme with 2 major upgrades released already this year and 4 more planned in the next 12 months. One thing you can rely on with Asperity is that we’ll never rest on our laurels. Ease of use for employees and power for employers

Voluntary scheme providers in particular have a lot to answer for in this area. With many having their eyes off the ball, perhaps on flex or complicated IT and payroll platforms, no one was really concentrating on delivering a voluntary scheme, and in particular employee discounts, with the focus that they deserved. You could hardly get a sheet of paper between the existing providers in terms of value - with many procurement decisions simply coming down to price or which provider you seemed likely to get on with the best.

Our technical expertise has been brought to bear on the ‘front’ of Reward Gateway as well as behind-the-scenes. The design, ease-of-use and massive range of retailers are the features that employees will appreciate most whilst employers can, for the first time, get high-quality, online management information on scheme usage in realtime.

2 years of product development creates a market leader

As reported in the April issue of Employee Benefits magazine, Michael Whitfield, MD of Thomsons Online Benefits, is disappointed with a lack of management information that he believes is offered to employers. He continues:

The goals for our 2 year development and investment programme in Reward Gateway were simple. We needed to create a scheme that was undeniably the market leader, creating exceptional employer value and make that demonstrable through accurate, up to date management information on usage and uptake. We also wanted to take the best of leading edge technology and apply this with passion, enthusiasm and a total focus on a single product.

“It’s disappointing that where we are currently with advances in technology that the providers out there cannot provide the type of information that the employer needs to be able to say ‘my employees value days out and my employees value discount holidays’. There has to be joined-up thinking between the offering of a voluntary benefits package, the effect on the employee and the benefit to the company”.

The result of this investment and dedication has delivered a lot, really a lot. Asperity’s Reward Gateway offers: • sophisticated, real-time MIS (for which see more below) • tailored email communications, personalised for each employee • personalised home pages for each employee, highlighting the offers they want to see most whilst still giving everyone access to all benefits

Reward Gateway’s online admin console for employers gives access to just such information and more – it includes the number and value of purchases by category and retailer, value of spend by department or location, and even the total amounts of discount obtained by staff. It enables HR managers to monitor and understand where the value for the company and staff lies and report on this back to the board. Gone are the days of patchy information and guesswork - real hard facts and analysis are here now and here to stay.

Benefits Connection from Asperity

The SME Experience: discounts for all shapes and sizes By Helen Craik, Director of HR Policy & Strategy at Asperity Availability of credible online discounts products to smaller employers has been limited. Most schemes cater for organisations with 1000+ employees but there isn’t any reason why SMEs shouldn’t have access to the same benefits for their staff. Developments in the employee discounts markets mean that, while the price per head for smaller employees is likely to remain higher than for large organisations, SMEs can now provide an excellent discounts offering to their workforce adding great value for a still small investment. Ark Leisure Management run in-house corporate gyms for some of the UK’s best-known employers. Ark itself employs around 100 staff in dozens of locations, ranging from finance and office staff to sales and gym professionals. Mhairi Fitzpatrick, Director of Ark, was very pleased to be able to add a discounts portfolio to their salary package, Mhairi said:

Reward Gateway was no trouble at all to implement which is key when you don’t have a dedicated HR resource, let alone an HR team. Our office manager had loads of help from Asperity and the ready-to-go communications media got us off to a great start. Mhairi Fitzpatrick Director, ARK Leisure Management

“We are in a high turnover, highly competitive industry and like many smaller employers we don’t have a dedicated HR function, it falls into the general management role. Reward Gateway was no trouble at all to implement and its ready to go kit of posters, emails and other media means we can communicate to new staff as they join and keep it relevant for all our staff on lots of sites, sometimes working on their own. Employees really like it.”

Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

The rise of the Lessons from the wise: nanny employer – your employees’ HR professionals share are lives your responsibility? their VB experience By Alan Voyle MMRS, Director of Research, Alan Voyle Associates

Early results from the biggest ever survey on best practice in voluntary benefits In May this year, Asperity announced its sponsorship and support of the UK’s biggest ever survey of employers completely focused on employee benefits. The research is being conducted by independent researchers at Alan Voyle Associates to identify and quantify the successes and value generated by voluntary benefits and then demonstrate through repeatable best practice case studies how other employers can build on this success. Phase 1 - the qualitative research - is now complete with in-depth, face to face interviews conducted with 12 leading UK employers. The valuable information from these interviews will now feed into phase 2, a quantitative study open to some 12,000 UK employers. During the phase 1 research interviews a number of senior HR people kindly offered us pearls of wisdom from their experience of benefits in general and discount schemes in particular. Here is a short selection.

From Ford we learned the decision processes and dilemmas in migrating from a legacy zero-cost scheme to a current generation operation. Also that a workforce is likely to remain wedded to continuation of a discount scheme even if uptake is minimal. Travis Perkins showed us how communications of benefits information to staff can remain effective even though dispersed to several hundred small units nationwide, and despite many individuals lacking access to a computer terminal. From Sainsbury’s we saw how a fragmented set of offerings could be rationalised and drawn together through alignment with a cohesive set of corporate responsibility goals. From Dell we saw the constraints that a strongly sales performance-oriented culture imposes on benefits strategy. Also reinforcement of the expectation that in benefits services ‘you get what you pay for’. Network Rail demonstrated that advanced thinking could transform an ageing, complex, fragmented set of legacy benefits into a slick, cutting edge offering that would act as a strong motivator for their national workforce.

From BSkyB we learned how a benefits scheme can mirror – and even assist the driving of – the cultural principals of the organisation, and how a single scheme can be tailored to fit a diverse organisation, top to bottom.

We sincerely thank all these companies and the others who have contributed their experience to this knowledgesharing project.

From Xansa we learned the stringent criteria and highly professional selection process that can be marshalled by a leading international outsourcing company in the selection of its benefits suppliers.

Phase 2 of the research is open from July to August 2007, with the full results made available to all participants in September, and will be summarised in the trade press in the autumn. To participate, go to www.vbexcellence07.co.uk

“A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay” The phrase is attributed variously but there is some consensus around it having its origins in a work by Thomas Carlyle: “A fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work it is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing. It is the everlasting right of man.“ We have come a long way from that simple understanding. In the last 10 years in particular, more and more areas of an employee’s life are routinely considered to be the concern, if not the outright responsibility, of the employer. It’s increasingly important to be clearsighted about an overall reward package, to get the balance right between cost and value – and that’s value to the employer as well as employee. Legislation in the field of employment relations and elsewhere is the key driver for employers getting caught up in all sorts of welfare issues outside the core employment relationship. So what is a bona-fide employee benefit and what is an intrusion, albeit a potentially welcome intrusion, into areas that should properly be an employee’s own responsibility?

To read the full article, go to www.asperity.co.uk/employers

Benefits Connection from Asperity

Working at KBR just got a lot more

rewarding

Special employee savings and discounts at over 1000 retailers

Value from Voluntary How employers should use scheme design to maximise employer value from voluntary employee benefits This is a précis of a presentation delivered by Glenn Elliott, MD of Asperity, at the HR Solutions and Employee Benefits conference in Manchester in May 2007. To download the full presentation, go to www.asperity.co.uk/employers You need to consider 3 key things to deliver value from your voluntary benefits. These are design, communications and management information (MI). We look at comms and MI elsewhere in this supplement; this article focuses on the design of a scheme that drives employee use, therefore returning maximum employer value. No amount of communicating will get employees to use or value an employee benefits scheme that is poorly designed so it’s important that to understand what a well designed scheme looks like.

Key factors in benefits scheme design

Making a benefits scheme your own

What we want is a scheme that is:

s well as creating frequent use it’s A important to understand how to make a scheme reflect your corporate values.

• used frequently by staff • a positive experience for the employee • aligned with your corporate values Schemes which only have a few discounts in a few categories mean that the chance of frequent use is low – you should aim for at least monthly use by your staff (our MI Shows many employees use Reward Gateway far more frequently). These schemes tend to have around 100 discounts which sounds a lot, but the detail shows that the retail offers will only appeal to a minority of staff. Staff are individuals with preferences about where they like to shop. Your employee discount scheme will fail to deliver maximum value if you only provide discounts at one or two retailers offering each product and service. Take shopping for CD’s or DVD’s as an example. Many employee discounts schemes offer only a couple of choices, often CD WOW and The Hut. But many of your employees won’t know these retailers, or won’t want to shop there. The ideal scheme will allow them to continue to shop at their own favourite retailer whilst enjoying a great employee discount.

Key steps to building your scheme 1. Remove offers incompatible with your company 2. Create highlight offers that align with your strategy 3. Look for alliances with other employee programmes within the business 4. Rely on the core lifestyle offers to build the repeat usage and enable the rest 5. Don’t forget local offers where you can – they build personality and relevance

Making a scheme your own “the three layers approach”

1. T he core layer, at the bottom of the pyramid, is the wide range of lifestyle benefits from a huge choice range of retailers. This creates the regular high level of use from your staff 2. The next layer highlights offers aligned to your corporate strategy, reflecting products and services that your organisation produces. An example of this is a broadcaster of HD programmes which, as well as providing their HD boxes at a discount to staff also provides a great discount on a range of HD TVs – complementing their own product and communicating to staff that High Definition TV is a critical strand of their corporate positioning. 3. The final layer aligns with internal communications projects. Many organisations have a wellbeing focus and that should be mirrored in the discounts programme. Ethical and environmental is another example and if your organisation is looking at ways to reduce its carbon footprint, it makes sense to align your benefits scheme by offering real shopping choice in this sector. By taking this layered approach you can develop a scheme that aligns closely with your organisation’s corporate and strategic values. This approach creates a highly valued scheme that is used frequently by staff and therefore delivers maximum employer value.

Cultural – eg launching CSR focus

Highlight offers aligned to key programmes Strategic – eg offer HDTV discounts to align with HD product

Highlight offers aligned to corporate strategy Core – to drive regular employee use

Wide range of lifestyle offers to create regular use

There are 3 layers to a well designed employee discounts scheme:

To read the full article, go to www.asperity.co.uk/employers

Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

Communicate, Schmoonicate – It Sounds Easy . . . If an employer invests in benefits, it makes sense to communicate these well to employees. For VB, high levels of employee recognition are achievable: “when it comes to staff benefits, research shows that the better they are communicated, the more staff appreciate them”.1 A main reason these elements are not better valued is lack of communication.

First things first

Employers realise that a portfolio of discounts is a highly desirable, low-cost, minimum-effort benefit for employees. And that’s good: but if the communications strategy fails, the positive connection with the employer is not maximised.

Broadly, communications activity falls into 4 groupings: • comms for new joiners • launch or relaunch • regular reminders to ensure continued use and credibility • special communications for a new discount or to align the scheme with internal activity

Our own research shows levels of employer goodwill are raised even in staff who do not personally use the scheme. Levels of goodwill are raised in individuals even when a scheme is not used by them personally – the mere fact of it being available and promoted means that employees view the employer positively. But the scheme is much more valuable if employees do use it frequently. Employees won’t use a scheme they don’t know about. The offers need to integrate with an employee’s purchasing habits. A scheme generating multiple uses has real value. Employees will use a scheme less if communication is poor or lack of belief in the scheme pervades the organisation. It’s easy to understand why discounts of yesteryears got little comms effort from employers and providers – with few credible discounts they did not enhance the firm’s image. Employers drifted into leaving employees to do the legwork themselves to find out about employee discounts.

1.PIFC Survey for People Management August 2005

Don’t communicate a poor discounts portfolio. Employers need a good scheme before embarking on comms. If the scheme is in need of a refresh, get that done first. Find a discounts specialist with a wide range of over 1000 offers and communications expertise and they will do the work. Communications Channels

For a full analysis of which channels to use and when, refer to our full white paper online (see below). Online schemes collect great feedback from employees. A ‘tell us what you want’ facility means a provider is alerted to employees’ suggestions. It also provides for problem reporting and engenders two-way communication. Information vehicles – print v online An online portal is constantly refreshed, can’t get lost and doesn’t need reprinting. The Annual Discounts Brochure may get interest when it arrives if it is well-designed which may not always be the case; think of the photocopy of a photocopy which characterises some ‘brochures’. Even an attractive brochure is likely to get lost under the TV magazine! How many employees will be able to find it 2 weeks after that expensive print run? That’s not to say that there is no place for printed communication and a number of factors, not least cost, will inform the printed v virtual debate.

To read the full article, go to www.asperity.co.uk/employers

Why are employers not making capital out of a useful HR resource? Reasons why organisations don’t communicate their discounts include: 1. lack of confidence in their scheme: it won’t be relevant and up-to-date and has a narrow range of offers; 2. they haven’t considered comms, not realising the value it adds; 3. lack of resource to run a cohesive programme; 4. they don’t know how; 5. they think it will communicate itself or that employees will find it anyway; 6. the workforce is dispersed by shift patterns or geography; 7. the offers are complicated or embedded in different media; 8. budget. Specialists in employee discounts enable the employer to overcome these problems.

What should provider help look like? Some key criteria: • branded, easy-to-use online benefits • dedicated helpdesk • employees see the accumulated discounts • ready-to-go print media These are required for successful delivery but employers need a provider with extras up its discounts’ sleeve, proven methodology and the capability to refresh and innovate e.g. • set up and run ‘opt-in’ email newsletters • loyalty bonus or cashback as well as a discount • integrate with an employer’s existing benefits provision • easy withdrawal of ‘earnings’ by leavers so as not to devalue the proposition • the in-house capability to respond to bespoke requirements. So go for it In the field of employee discounts, much work will be done for employers by dovetailing with the right provider - it makes sense to harness this expertise and blow the discounts trumpet.

Benefits Connection from Asperity

A single ‘workforce demographic’? Not in my organisation! By Gavin Mackie, Director of Employee Communications at Asperity

Is limiting choice to your employees strategic or patronising? You can mind the quality and feel the width. There is a lot of misinformation about scheme design and in particular about tailoring to an organisation’s demographic. Despite some providers’ enthusiasm, “demographic tailoring” is fundamentally flawed. Few, if any, organisations actually have a single workforce demographic. A typical business has many functions, all with dozens of groups of staff and demographics. Even employees in niche businesses are unlikely to have commonality in their benefits requirements - 6 web designers, 6 sets of preferences. Organisations with 1,000 employees or more will have a huge range of people with purchasing preferences right across the spectrum. Demographics tailoring is an imperfect way of isolating people based on superficial criteria. It may describe groups but is a poor predictor of personal behaviour and shopping preferences. To provide discounts and benefits which staff use and value you have to give choice and let employees decide what they need. Well-communicated, superbly designed, easy-to-use choice is the key. And by getting robust management information on scheme use, employers can understand the value of their VB proposition.

Do you really have a single demographic? • The scale of diversity means it is impossible to tailor a scheme to a demographic - you have no single group of employees. • If you tailor to homogenous group you will fail to optimise the value of your benefits package. People are individuals, not groups. • Let your employees decide themselves as individuals on the discounts and benefits they want to use. Key factors will include: • Geography and job type • Age & life-stage • Income level • Aspirations • Hobbies, interests and spending preferences

Why would you remove discounts on days out just because your provider thinks you don’t have enough working families? - Glenn Elliott, Asperity

Where tailoring does come into play Informed targeting – informed that is by an individual employee – is the way forward. It releases an organisation from making generalised assumptions about its workforce while allowing it to highlight particular VB products from its portfolio based on an employee’s personal preferences. Importantly, while it highlights offers most likely to interest the individual, all the other benefits and discounts remain available to everyone. So come on, tell us how it’s done Asperity’s RewardFocus software cleverly uses the management information system to tailor an individual’s scheme homepage and personalised email newsletter to what they need. The results are dramatic, the strategy is simple - and don’t worry about privacy concerns, we’re not talking about delving into someone’s private life here. Put simply, if an employee uses the scheme to buy car insurance, a mobile phone, broadband or road rescue then we know they’re unlikely to need renewal within a year. So we don’t promote these offers to them until their renewal date - which we know from their date of first purchase. Similarly, if an employee makes repeated purchases of toys or children’s clothes but never buys a car accessory through the scheme, there’s a clear message as to the offers they would like communicated to them most. What is essential is to allow all staff to access all offers - we don’t want to exclude anyone from anything. So all offers must be available to everyone, reagrdless of what they have used in the past, we just highlight to individuals the offers they are most likley to need, and tone down the promotion of offers for products they’ve already bought.

Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

Why are so many of us looking a gift phone in the mouth? By Russell Horton, MD of Flexphone

There may not be a single demographic, but it is a good bet most employees in most organisations want a mobile phone.

Flexphone Mobile Salary Saver Mobile Salary Saver lets employees save up to 41% on Vodafone High Street prices by paying for their personal mobile from their gross pay. Additionally, the employer saves up to 12.8% in employer’s NI. Employees get: • pay monthly and pay as you talk price plans • latest handsets and accessories • online and telephone ordering • to keep their existing number

There are tax breaks on certain goods and services to boost take-home pay. They save the employee money and also, in many cases, make savings in NI for the employer. We should make more use of them. With a Mobile Salary Saver scheme, an employer provides a phone for the employee and pays the bills, but then claws back the cost of the phone and the line rental or prepay top-ups from the employee’s gross earnings, before deductions. The employee saves on tax and NI and the employer saves on NI, or re-invests in providing benefits. Employees on the lower end of the wage spectrum are just as likely as high-earners to have mobiles and for them the real extra in take-home pay is particularly beneficial. The scheme came about as a result of tax imposed on company-provided mobile phones by then chancellor Norman Lamont in 1991. Tax imposed on benefitsin-kind meant when Gordon Brown removed the tax on mobiles in 1999 a new benefit was born. Between 1999 and an amendment to the legislation in 2006, family members could also have a phone under the scheme, but it is currently limited to 1 per employee. Had the mobile tax never been introduced in the first place, a mobile supplied for private use would simply have remained a taxable benefit in kind. Market leaders, Flexphone, are a subsidiary of Vodafone and have been working in this area of VB for four years.

Example Price Plan: Vodafone Anytime 2001

Typical 18-month Vodafone store cost

Typical Basic Rate Tax Payer

Typical Higher Rate Tax Payer

£540.00

N/A

£30.00

Through Mobile Salary Saver

Cost: £30 per month Includes: Handset 200 Anytime minutes 1000 Text messages Monthly Salary Sacrifice Tax Savings Per Month

N/A

£9.90

£12.30

Monthly Net Cost

£30.00

£20.10

£17.70

Contract Cost

£540.00

£361.80

£318.60

£0.00

£178.20

£221.40

33%

41%

Total Contract Savings

Terms & Conditions apply. Information contained in this publication is correct at time of going to print. 1

Based on an average annual employee spend of £400 per order, for every 1,000 participants in the scheme, employers can expect to save over £51,000 per annum.

Flexphone are Kent County Council’s partner for mobile phone salary sacrifice and a case study of how the scheme works at KCC is on page 13. www.flexphone.co.uk

Benefits Connection from Asperity

TotalReward – reach the summit By Tobin Coles, Head of Flexible Benefits at Jelf Corporate Consultancy

Total Reward. reach the summit: Imagine how powerful, hypothetically, a total reward statement can be. I mean, let’s be honest; a statement telling me an aggregate of my total package, details on my pension, bonus, purchases etc…a good idea? I should coco. The journey to total reward needs to be planned carefully. There are operational, technical and cultural points to consider. Getting this wrong isn’t just a bit of pain, it’s a real opportunity missed. Disenfranchising staff by developing a poorly received, ho-hum project borders on absurd when simple steps will make sure you get it right. And the rewards for getting it right and reaching the summit are so good. To explain - a total reward statement (TRS) is fantastic for those that get benefits over and above their salary. For those that don’t, a TRS is a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen saying “you don’t get much at all”. Not very motivational. This is easily overcome. Before the climb, ensure that everybody gets some kind of additional benefits that are meaningful and inspirational. This does not need to be a costly exercise (unusual but true). Asperity’s Reward Gateway is ideal…something for everyone. Affordable, meaningful discounts and rewards on things that employees buy everyday, like groceries. The discount and Cashback that employees obtain are ‘employee benefits’. The savings are then recorded on the TRS.

Many businesses that approach us asking for help have an embryonic ‘e-culture’. Not all employees have access to PC’s at work or at home. Starting with an inspired, on-line Voluntary Benefits proposition like ‘Reward Gateway’ encourages online activity and helps to instill the desired ‘e-culture’ within businesses.

As you head upwards you will hit inclement weather and for the first time you will realize how good, bad or indifferent your planning and equipment is. It’s too late now to find out that your benefits are not fit for purpose or do not stand up to scrutiny. If this is the case, you should not have attempted the climb!

So you’re almost ready for the big off. The team is up for the climb but you have one vital task before you begin the ascent. Setting up base camp, ensuring the technology is in place, has been explained and demonstrated to staff is essential. Base camp is key in the sense that everyone is there; frontline to big cheeses and any support staff you need for the big push. From here, everything can be monitored and managed to ensure that the climb is a success.

The journey up is just that, a journey. It takes as long as it takes. Homework needs to be done first. Equipment needs to be fit for purpose. Start at base-camp and give everyone something to grip onto. Have a robust plan and make sure everyone knows where they’re going.

This brings us on to consider the experts that you need to guide you. Your employed experts are the key. Your guides and Sherpas are the difference between you getting to the summit or freezing your monkeys off half way up the slope. You wouldn’t tackle Everest in the hands of a guide who has done this once before… on Ben Nevis in July. A track record is everything in this game.

Is TRS actually the summit? Well for some, yes. For others it’s a great view but the real summit is further on. The ultimate summit is an abstract world where benefit packages are designed by individuals to suit themselves engaging flexible benefit programmes. If you think the view is good when you’re halfway up, it is awe inspiring on the roof of the world.

When you begin the ascent remember you can’t take everything with you. Travel light, the TRS should be tactile not intangible. Telling staff about tube loans is meaningful plus it has a quantifiable value; telling staff you have a Christmas party may not be (not that we’ve been to your Christmas parties). Including spurious benefits looks like an attempt to make things appear better than they are.

Free, fully functional demo for all readers of Reward Gateway at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

www.jelfgroup.com Tel 0845 602 1858

its f e n Be

He alt hc a

Co mm erc ial Fi nance

Protecting and maximising investments, ensuring maximum tax efficiency and managing inheritance tax

Balancing what is best for you and for your business

Sourcing the right type and level of cover

Insurance

Influencing the underlying risks, and the insurers’ perception of those risks

Managing staff absence and the associated costs

ts lien Private C

Recruiting and retaining skilled staff

Your Business and its risks

Em plo y

Interpreting changes in industry or government regulations Structuring your business finances and sourcing the right type of borrowing Developing a healthy and Designing the right benefits productive workforce package for employees Identifying and managing risks

This wheel gives an overview of Jelf’s services. At 10 to 10 you’ll find designing the right benefits package for employees. Jelf believe it’s important and Reward Gateway provide it. To contact Jelf, visit www.jelfgroup.com or call 0845 602 1858.

Benefits Connection from Asperity

Implementation in Focus – integrated VB at Kent County Council.

www.kent.gov.uk

Interview with Jane Vivier, Reward Advisor at Kent County Council Kent County Council, the second largest local authority in the UK, was rated in the highest category in the 2007 audit commission report. The organisation employs some 47,000 people spread across more than 850 locations creating some unique delivery and communications challenges for all aspects of employee services, including benefits. KCC’s HR strategy recognises that the first class services they deliver rely on the calibre of the people they can attract and retain. The implementation of a modernised pay and reward package and the implementation of a number of benefits have made a great contribution to this. KCC decided on voluntary benefits with salary sacrifice rather than flexible benefits for several reasons, including maximum choice, freshness of offers and re-investment of NI to make the overall benefits programme cost neutral. Restricting the sign-up to benefits to annually under a flex system compromises the revenue available for re-investment throughout the year and means a lower level of service to staff. In February 2007, all staff benefits were brought together for the first time under a single benefits brand - ‘KentRewards’. This single platform includes healthcare, local and national retailer shopping discounts, cycle2work, Mobile Salary Saver and childcare vouchers. The package is comprehensive and superior to those offered to other public and private sector workers in Kent and neighbouring counties, creating a strong contribution to Kent’s ability to become the local “employer of choice”. Deciding on suppliers Experience showed that KCC and its employees had an appetite for benefits including salary sacrifice. Jane Vivier, Reward Advisor at KCC, felt it important to ask uncomfortable questions when evaluating suppliers and products. Describing her methodology, she said: “We were upfront about the lack of budget, explained the demographic issues and the diversity of employees. We admitted that communication had been an issue. We managed expectations by explaining from the outset that 80% of our population was cash poor!

“I wrote a firm but fair specification for tenders. I knew what employees considered to be a reasonable amount of time to fix a fault from experience with HCI and this was reflected in our tender, as was our lack of marketing budget. “I also had to make sure that the level of risk was acceptable. Perhaps most importantly I made sure we worked with companies who didn’t just pay lip service but actually understood what we wanted, our employees needed and the issues we might face along the way.” Jane learnt from previous schemes that people respond to literature best when it is delivered to the home and not the desk, which employers may find surprising. Delivering to home addressees may seem costly but it means that employees can make decisions with their family and friends. If people have to take information home and then bring it up with others involved it loses the impact of something falling onto the doormat and being read immediately. Sending employer-branded information to your employees’ home is vital in highlighting the employer / employee bond of benefits. She also acknowledges the importance of feedback from employees and exploring as many of their suggestions as possible. Jane found, for example, that schemes with a ‘window’ for application (such as salary sacrifice benefits) have a surge in demand in the closing week and now arranges to have the ordering window open for an extra, unadvertised, week. It can be republicised ‘due to exceptional demand’; employees appreciate the idea that rules have been bent for them! Organisational buy in was key, talking to everyone from trading standards to payroll. If people know what is going on, changes are more readily received and easier to act upon. Produce an FAQ, distribute it widely, update it regularly and never miss the opportunity to thank people for their input. A company presence at every single roadshow is vital for credibility. Jane attended all of the KentRewards roadshows, realising that launching something to staff which involves taking personal details or salary deductions will require answers and explanations from the employer not a 3rd party. Suppliers have a pivotal role in roadshows and other comms but there is no substitute for ‘walking the benefits talk’.

Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

As employee benefits shift from traditional towards innovative, employees need to know and be reminded that it is their employer who offers it, backs it and ultimately it is their employment that gives them access to it. Launch Jane picked the launch time for maximum impact and says that if something crops up which threatens to ruin the impact, consider a delay. KentRewards was ready to go in November 2006 but, for maximum impact, was launched in the new year. A 2007 relaunch with a new supplier could be ready for August but is going to launch in September when schools have settled back at work, cricket is over and employees want something new as memories of the summer holidays fade. Jane always had a plan B, confident it wouldn’t be needed but it brought peace of mind. She recommends some ‘free’ time before launch; “if you are going to be personally involved in the launch it is useful to have some time to step back and take stock.” Finally Go back to some employees who have taken up benefits and ask them to be case studies in subsequent campaigns. If employees see that a campaign is real and has worked for people just like them they will be more inclined to take part themselves.

Case Study

Going Mobile with KentRewards Kent County Council wanted a product which the majority of staff would appreciate, that added value and would not create a huge administrative burden. At the time, they were looking for a ‘replacement’ for the HCI scheme, and had approval for a salary sacrifice scheme that could be used to showcase benefits to school staff who account for two-thirds of KCC staff. They chose to launch Mobile Salary Saver as an element in their scheme. KCC worked with Flexphone on the framework for a comprehensive employee communication programme and a diverse marketing campaign to raise awareness of the benefit and keep employees interested. This included roadshows, email, intranet news alerts, communication packs, posters, flyers and brochures. Employees were able to place their order on the Flexphone shopping website or via telephone to the Customer Service team. KCC made it very clear that they wanted to capture all areas of their population, not just those in the corporate offices. Promotional activity included reaching the groups of staff who might normally miss out on emailed messages. Jane Vivier commented “Kent County Council prides itself on its benefits package. Mobile Salary Saver was launched in September 2006 and has been very well received. It has been well marketed and the administration is very simple which has allowed us to roll the benefit out successfully in a very short space of time and to a very large group of employees. “At one depot we knew that a ‘traditional’ Roadshow wouldn’t work as the drivers worked shifts and often only spent a few minutes each day at base, so we set up a static display with the weblink and helpline numbers so that they could look into the offer in their own time. “We also knew from experience and statistics that we needed the correct personnel for the Roadshows. Flexphone provided trained personnel who rather than selling asked questions and made suggestions as to what might work. “It’s important to listen to what your employees are telling you. When you introduce salary sacrifice benefits many employees will be confused by signing hire agreements, not hire purchase, and will question paying for something which it doesn’t look as if they own. This is where your personal input is most needed; reassurance in these circumstances really must come from the employer.”

Picture is of County Hall, Maidstone Kent

Benefits Connection from Asperity

Childcare and cycling – why aren’t schemes much simpler? By Charles Murphy, Finance Director at Asperity

Are salary sacrifice schemes made complicated to keep a lid on uptake? We take a look at whether HMRC could really make schemes easier to implement The Conspiracy theory

Employers

Emphasise the positive

Are salary sacrifice schemes kept deliberately complex because they would cost too much in lost tax revenue if take-up was encouraged? The integrity of the tax-break is not protected because the schemes are employer-led. Which employer tracks use of bikes purchased under Cycle to Work? And why should parents have to use a registered childcare provider usually a nursery? Enabling parents to use the tax break for relativeprovided care would be fairer. There is also a lack of information on how Working Families Tax Credit and childcare vouchers fit together.

There are broadly two key problems for employers:

Employees that do take up Cycle to Work appreciate it. If employers bit the bullet, got a good provider to come on-site, demo some bikes and be evangelical about the benefits, we’d start to see better participation.

Without straying too far into the political arguments, it’s clear that if there was a will to simplify these schemes and genuinely make them widely accessible, there would be a way. In the meantime, we are where we are. Cycle to Work – too complex, too risky? It’s a shame that more employees aren’t taking advantage of Cycle to Work; recent research puts the figure at under 1%. Low engagement has roots in both sides of the equation. Employees Assuming your employer has registered for CTW, there are still practical and financial issues which are deterring participants. Is cycling to work an option at all? A lack of changing facilities might mean those with longer journeys prefer to keep cycling as a recreational activity.

1. savings for the organisation and employee are not enough to be worth the hassle; and 2. risk: employers pay upfront for the cycle and own it, typically for a 12 month credit period. If the employee defaults, the employer is stuck with an unwanted bike. Childcare Vouchers – probably worth doing HMRC say 47% of employers offering childcare vouchers identify a positive effect on productivity, with 30% identifying a positive effect on absenteeism.

And for childcare vouchers, raising awareness of the ability for both parents to take advantage of the scheme, saving up to £2,392, and highlighting that it applies for children up to 16 who attend after school clubs or holiday schemes, as well as under 5’s, would be good.

Employees can receive childcare vouchers up to £243 per month exempt from Tax and NI. The vouchers are used at approved childcare providers, giving an annual saving to the parent of up to £1,196. The employer is exempt from NI on the value, saving of up to £373 per employee. The employers’ exposure to risk is low and a scheme is not difficult to run, particularly with the right provider. Julian Humpidge, Corporate Sales Manager for Leapfrog Childcare vouchers commented “it is vital that the scheme is as simple as possible to set up and administer for the employer, and that the employee can use the scheme to fit in with individual requirements”.

Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

Putting in a new kitchen or having a baby-use discounted gift vouchers By Chris Whitcombe, Product Development Director at Asperity

Gift voucher discounts can save employees hundreds of £s Thousands of discounts are available for online shoppers through employee discount scheme providers but there is still a strong market and high value to be obtained from provision of discounted high street shopping vouchers or gift vouchers. Whereas discounts available online or on the phone provide for lots of shopping needs and home delivery, some employees like to buy in-store for larger purchases, some have an aversion to buying online and some of us just love the shops! Discounted gift vouchers are a credible answer to this and good discounts scheme providers will have them available in the mix for your staff. Going direct to retailers for such discounts almost always relies on a high volume initial purchase by the employer, and raises issues of secure logistics and administration to get them to employees. A good discounts scheme provider uses their bigger economies of scale and larger purchasing power to be able to provide vouchers direct to individual employees securely and reliably without requiring an employer’s minimum committment on spend or usage.

is easily offset by the discount on large purchases e.g. 10% off a kitchen costing £2500 will save your employee over £240. And the vouchers are not instead of the Boxing Day sale offer or the Summer Madness promotion, they are in addition. New flooring from Allied Carpets will feel 5% fluffier underfoot if bought with discounted vouchers. And at Optical Express, employees can save 6% on the designer glasses by ordering the vouchers in advance. So perhaps it is worth highlighting to staff that discount vouchers have a very special place in the benefits portfolio. Thinking expensive? Think gift vouchers.

Discounted High Street Vouchers Asperity has negotiated some great deals on high street vouchers – these are perfect to give as presents for high street purchases or just to save on general weekly shopping. Below is a selection of the discounted vouchers available on Asperity’s Reward Gateway scheme:

Discounted gift vouchers always need to be sent by insured delivery to an employee’s address. This means they have a postage charge ranging from £2.50 to £5.95 depending on the amount purchased and therefore the postage insurance required. Discounts on vouchers typically range from 4 to 10%, with retailers such as John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, B&Q and other high street names being the most popular. Typically employees use them when shopping for a single large purchase, such as a sofa, new kitchen or bathroom or by buying vouchers for a store that they use regularly, such as Sainsbury’s or Asda vouchers for their weekly groceries. Love to Shop vouchers are particularly valued by lower paid workers as they can be used in over 75 high street stores including Mothercare, Iceland, Woolworths and Wilkinsons. Larger purchases, like a kitchen, easily amount to a spend running into thousands and even regular grocery shopping for a family soon racks up a spend of hundreds. The insured postage charge

Benefits Connection from Asperity

What do employees think? Implementing a scheme like Reward Gateway for a company is rewarding in itself. Staff across the board love the range and size of discounts and the time it saves in suggesting where to shop. Amanda Whyte, BBC

Matt Russell ARK Leisure Management

Amanda enjoys a particularly busy lifestyle as a HR manager for over 80 staff. At home she has her two children and her partner to demand her attention. “So having a one-stop shopping facility to save me both time and money is a real godsend,” she tells us. “Although I’m not truly technically oriented, I like to do everything I can online – shopping, banking, that sort of thing.

“I’m a real travel fan and I thought I was already an expert in shopping around for the best deals. I was initially dubious about whether I would actually save money with Reward Gateway but I was really pleased when I found I could even get 5% off at places like Expedia and lastminute.com - and that’s off their sale prices as well.”

“I love Club Cashback (the name for Reward Gateway at the BBC). In fact, I’m truly hooked. I’ve got fantastic shopping choice available any time I want it and I’ve bought CDs, lots of household items, presents at birthdays and Christmas, flowers even, and I also got my phone there. I’ve just booked my next holiday through Club Cashback, with a week’s parking at Luton airport that’s only costing me £35.”

Kathy Lawrence BP

Amanda found Club Cashback intuitive and simple to use right from the outset. Even so, getting fully into the site’s capabilities was a process of discovery. “The more you use it the more you find it can do,” she explains, “then very quickly you become a total online shopper – you know exactly what you want and can go straight to it.”

Chris Padoin British Airways plc

Amanda uses the site for more than simply shopping. It’s her first port of call for product information and she rates it highly. Overall Amanda reckons she has “saved easily £500“ since the BBC scheme launched last June. Pete Millward Wincor-Nixdorf “If I’m going to buy a present the first place I look is Reward Gateway - apart from the discounts it also gives me loads of great ideas. It’s like an online shpopping mall where you know you’re always going to get the best deals. “I often do my shopping in the evenings and at odd hours and it’s great to see my Cashback mount up - I’ve got over £300 so far and I won’t be withdrawing it until Christmas when it will go towards the ever expensive Christmas Shopping”.

“Love it, love it, love it - benefits are normally so complicated with pensions and flex windows and all sorts of things to consider. But this is so easy - it’s just discounted shopping - what could be better.”

“Shopping really isn’t my thing so I make a lot of my purchases online. It was a slow build for me to use Altitude Reward Gateway but now I’m in the habit I use it all the time. I go away quite a lot and use it for hotels and car hire. I also like to use it for quirky presents for my nieces and nephews. “As I’m often travelling abroad it’s great that I can use the service from a hotel room or airport and have my shopping waiting for me when I get home. It’s also quite exciting how you can track how much you’ve saved and see the Cashback build up in your account before you withdraw it.”

Over 200,000 UK employees now have access to tailored versions of Reward Gateway provided by their employer. To find out how easily and quickly we can provide Reward Gateway for your staff call our benefits consultants on 020 7655 4364 or visit www.asperity.co.uk/employers. You can also register for free VIP access to Reward Gateway for yourself at; http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk

All information correct at the time of writing and subject to change without notice. Asperity Employee Benefits Ltd, Unit 3, 11-29 Fashion Street, London. E1 6PX. Tel 020 7655 4364 www.asperity.co.uk email benefits@asperity.co.uk

016

trademarks and logos are the respected property of their owners. Free, fully functional demo of Reward Gateway for all readers at http://vip.rewardgateway.co.uk