E.ON boosts voluntary benefits engagement with communications campaign

VOLUNTARY BENEFITS

E.ON boosts voluntary benefits engagement with communications campaign

Energy company E.ON UK has launched a company-wide communications campaign with Benefex to re-engage its 12,000-strong workforce with the “MyChoice Everyday” online voluntary benefits scheme.

The campaign, which ran from July to October this year, resulted in a 360% increase in employees logging into the scheme when compared to average monthly logins. It also achieved an average increase in employee spend of over £50,000 per month throughout the duration of the campaign, with total scheme spend to date topping £6 million.

Feedback from employees and log-in statistics had shown that the scheme, which was initially launched in 2010, was “not meeting its full potential”. In response, E.ON decided to run a targeted communication campaign to re-engage employees with their voluntary benefits, help them to better understand how it could be used and to drive take up, to coincide with new functionality being implemented on the scheme web site.

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About the campaign

Designed and delivered by Benefex, the campaign:

• consisted of a series of emails to all employees, posters, tent cards and a short video hosted online, demonstrating how to use the site
• took a simple “back-to-basics” approach to educate employees about the scheme itself, rather than simply promoting seasonal offers, around the strapline “Need. Search. Save.”
• was concise and aimed to change employees shopping behaviour by encouraging them to “My Choice Everyday it” before they google it.

E.ON also ran a competition whereby all employees who logged into the site were entered into a prize draw to win an “experience day” every week throughout September.

During the campaign, the E.ON “My Choice” helpdesk team, run by Benefex, received 70 emails from employees with suggestions of retailers that they would like to see added to the site, providing further evidence of employee’s increased engagement with the scheme.

A final word

“No matter how fantastic a benefit is, employees won’t use it if they don’t understand it. This campaign was a great example of how a huge increase in awareness and engagement can be achieved on a modest budget, using a well thought out approach and simple but effective communication tools. It also shows how a push in communications can give a new lease of life to an existing scheme, without breaking the bank on something new.” - Simon Andrew, Head of Communications, Benefex.

“We’re thrilled with the take-up and are working with Benefex to carry awareness through to Christmas shopping and our main flex and pensions auto-enrolment periods early next year. Feedback from colleagues has been really positive. We estimate they have saved around £400,000 through My Choice Everyday now, making a meaningful difference to their spending.” - Ant Donaldson, E.ON’s Senior Specialist – Employee Benefits.

Want to know more?

Benefex is an “award-winning reward and benefits solutions provider”. Its services include reward consultancy and scheme design, flexible benefits, total reward statements, benefit broking, pensions and pension auto-enrolment and financial education. For more information visit www.benefex.co.uk.