FLEXIBLE BENEFITS
i-level launches online benefits scheme
i-level, a digital communications agency, has revamped its employee reward offering. Launched in partnership with Thomsons Online Benefits, the new scheme design and brand, i-benefit, encompasses the “young, innovative and digital nature of the company”.
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i-level is the UK’s largest independent, integrated digital communications agency. The company said: “It is an essential part of holding on to competitive advantage for the HR team to attract and retain the best staff. Turnover can be as high as 30% in this industry, and it was felt that i-level staff undervalued their existing remuneration.”
The agency set out to create the best and most innovative benefits scheme for its workforce. More specifically, its aims were to:
create excitement and awareness around the true value of the benefits on offer
communicate this in a meaningful and relevant way
increase staff referrals and attract candidates motivated by better remuneration.
Employee research
Employee surveys and focus groups highlighted the desire to remove paper bureaucracy from the benefits process, and to move administration to an online system. Staff also wanted face-to-face meetings to explain benefits. The research also showed that i-level staff were interested in trading one benefit for another and thought that a better benefits package would improve their loyalty and engagement. It also highlighted to scheme designers which benefits would be most popular.
What’s on the menu
As well as traditional benefits such as holiday, dental and health cover, the new scheme offers a range of more innovative benefits. These include additional half-days off on birthdays, wild card training vouchers for non-work related courses (some staff are now learning things like monster truck driving), broadband and mobile phones and discounted dining.
Communications programme
The communications reflected the “modern forward-looking personality” of the company. Thomsons created the “i” character and eyes brand, and this appeared on all communications. The campaign began by removing all coffee mugs in the office and replacing them with “i” character mugs on launch day as a teaser. Further communications were sent out to employees’ mobile phones, were animated on the internet and distributed to prospective employees on USB sticks. These messages continue to raise the profile of the benefit offering.
i-level’s HR Director James Miller is delighted with how the scheme was communicated: “It felt really innovative, it felt quite now and it was good using digital media because at the end of the day that’s what we’re about as a company. People have found it really good fun and I’m really, really pleased with the concept we have come up with.”
New People Plan devised
The i-benefits brand has acted as “an inspiration and catalyst” for the creation of i-level’s first People Plan by the HR team in line with its business strategy and values. The company now actively promotes a health and wellbeing programme for staff called i-health. i-engage has been launched as an internal communication and recognition programme and i-support is the new name for the company’s CSR plans.
Take-up rates
The company reckons the scheme has been a success on every level:
As many as 99% of staff agree that their benefits package has been improved.
Three-quarters of the workforce have tailored their benefits themselves through the online portal.
Pension take up has nearly doubled.
77% of staff agree that the launch of i-benefits has had a positive impact on their motivation and engagement.
i-level hopes to fill half of staff vacancies through referrals, and improved staff retention is also having a financial impact. Reduced administration and savings through salary sacrifice “add to the financial success”.
The company says: “Introducing the scheme with partners Thomsons Online Benefits is expected to recover costs of the project for i-level, plus a further 430% ROI (net investment) in year one alone.”
A final word
“The introduction of our ‘i-benefit’ flexible benefits programme was a key milestone in our overall company roadmap and has been incredibly well received. A great result.” - Stephen Rust, CEO of i-level.
Want to know more?
Thomsons Online Benefits says: “Since our inception, our vision has been to transform employees' appreciation and understanding of their reward package and to remove the administration and communication headaches organisations suffer as a result of running them.” For more details visit www.thomsons.com.