Who is leading the way with Employee Benefits?

Employee Benefits magazine announced the winners of the 2010 Employee Benefits Awards at a ceremony held in London, on the 25th June.  There were 100 finalists and only 21 winners, with four of these being Edenred's clients.  A further three clients were runners up to the award and two reached the finalist stage.

Winners were recognised for the best reward and benefits strategies among employers in the UK and include:

• Moneyway for communications strategy of the year

According to the judges they were "blown away" by this entry.  Moneyway understands the role employee benefits plays in motivating staff and the link between happy staff and happy customers and the direct impact this has on commercial success.

Most of the employees are on low salaries and so very few signed up to the voluntary benefits - the challenge, therefore, was making sure they understood and valued these benefits.  Moneyway looked at how their employees currently communicate and recognised the value of social media.  They began to use this communications channel, introducing an 'avatar' called FlexiBen who explained how he was using salary sacrifice to obtain voluntary benefits and how he had managed to make his pay go further.

The FlexiBen campaign cost just £200 to deliver and resulted in a significant rise in benefits take-up, such as 93% increase in childcare vouchers and 33% jump in buying additional holidays.  Such moves resulted in cost savings to the business equal to a 728% return on investment.

• Kwik Fit Financial Services for most effective benefits strategy

As a call-centre organisation with a high number of young, low-paid employees, this insurance intermediary looked to its benefits strategy to help overcome a number of wider business issues such as staff retention, absence levels and staff satisfaction.  The launch of its flexible benefits package coincided with the introduction of a number of facilities to the business including an on-site nursery.

Since the strategy was introduced, absence levels have reduced year on year from 6.8% in 2005 to 3.5% in 2009, and staff turnover has fallen from 40% in 2004 to 22% in 2009.  Recruitment costs have also dropped, with more direct applications as a result of word of mouth.  Overall, take-up rates for the annual flexible benefits election remain consistently high, reaching 97% in December 2009.

• Towry for most effective total reward strategy

In 2007, this financial services firm moved away from commission-based charging to fee-based billing, which meant Towry had to create a new reward strategy to help hold onto its top talent.

Towry took a total reward approach to help drive recruitment, retention, employee development and engagement by providing an attractive, competitive reward proposition.

• Moneyway FlexiBen for most effective use of a voluntary benefits plan

According to judges Moneyway was the outright winner because it got its voluntary benefits exactly right for its budget, employee profile and business objectives.

Voluntary benefits include: buying and selling holidays, health and wellbeing assessments, health cash plan, medical and dental insurance, childcare vouchers, bikes-to-work scheme, group personal pension, and give-as-you-earn.  Staff rewards are given via the website as vouchers.

Now 36% of staff use voluntary benefits.  The cost of running the scheme was £5,600 and, overall, Moneyway has saved £41,000 through using salary sacrifice - a return on investment of 728%.

Runners up include:

• Debenhams retail for most effective motivation or incentive strategy
• E.On for most effective benefits strategy for working parents and carers
• Amadeus Services for communications strategy of the year

Other finalists include:

• Amadeus Services for most effective benefits strategy
• Thales for most effective healthcare and wellbeing strategy