Employee Benefits Live 2021: Civil engineering firm Sir Robert McAlpine has transformed its benefits offering to ensure it is reflective of its strong family values.
Senior HR business partner Rachel Leyland revealed how the firm uses Reward Gateway’s platform to bring its benefits together in one place and ensure employees are properly recognised for their work.
Prior to the platform’s introduction, the organisation’s benefits were largely “invisible”, especially at the recruitment stage.
Most employees only found out about the benefits on offer through their line managers, who were often unaware of what was available.
“We’re a family-run business with really strong family values, but that didn’t translate into our offering at the recruitment stage,” Leyland told delegates on the first day of Employee Benefits Live 2021 at London’s ExCeL.
“We had good benefits in place, but people didn’t know what they were or how to access them. We had an inconsistent onboarding process, so it was pot luck whether [they] found out about what we offered.”
The HR team worked with Reward Gateway to launch “SRM Reward Hub”, which brings together benefits, discounts and recognition tools.
It can be accessed through the firm’s SharePoint, but uses visuals on construction sites and on social media to reach employees who are not desk-based.
Sir Robert McAlpine promotes its family values through the benefits it offers. For example, employees can send recognition e-cards to colleagues for behaviours that are aligned to values including family, excellence and enterprise, while managers can send recognition cards with a monetary award that can be redeemed against retail vouchers, discounts and charitable donations on the platform.
More than 3,100 recognitions have been sent in the last 12 months.
The organisation also introduced a new range of benefits when the SRM Reward Hub was launched. These include SmartTech, a loan scheme that allows employees to spread the cost of buying electronics over 12 months; the ability to buy and sell holiday; and a bikes-for-work scheme.
Leyland said that employee engagement has risen to 7.4 out of 10 and churn has reduced to 2% since SRM Reward Hub was launched.
She said its benefits offering is now “prominent, clear, comprehensive and consistent”.