Agencies and consultancies body Bailie Group employs around 400 people, and has an older demographic, although it also hopes to appeal to younger workers, including apprentices.
Lynne Poole has been its head of people for two and a half years. When she joined, the organisation offered benefits including pensions, life insurance, a childcare scheme and a bikes-for-work offering, but these were not well promoted.
In 2020, she set about overhauling the benefits offering, but was determined to find out what employees wanted before making any decisions. “We didn’t want those people who shouted the loudest to get something that was important for them but not for others,” she says.
The survey results highlighted a demand for more health and wellbeing benefits. Access to a dentist also proved to be in high demand.
“People also wanted flexibility and choice, particularly around annual leave,” says Poole.
Following the results, Bailie Group sought a partner to develop a new benefits offering, and ended up choosing its existing insurance broker, Mercer Marsh. Its platform now has three elements. The first is Valued, which offers employees access to benefits including the bikes-for-work scheme, gym membership and a dental plan, as well as a total reward statement.
This is accompanied by Rise, a reward and recognition platform where employers can recognise each other’s help, and Perk, which offers access to discounted shopping and vouchers, which was also highlighted by the research.
The package went live in July 2022 and Poole hopes this will help with recruitment and retention in the current climate. “It’ll certainly help with recruitment, because we’ve got it all together in one place, so it will be easy to articulate when we’re talking to candidates,” she says. “The total reward statements also mean people can see exactly what they’re earning and compare that to other businesses, should they be thinking of leaving.”
Bailie Group runs regular pulse surveys and will use these to track the impact the changes have had on wellbeing in particular, and also to gain feedback on benefits to ensure they remain relevant.