Birmingham Council staff save £187,000 via discounts plan

EXCLUSIVE: Birmingham City Council employees have made savings of £187,000 through the organisation’s online employee discounts scheme.

The programme, which was introduced in November 2011, is used by 8,300 of the council’s 48,000 employees.

Since its launch, employees have spent £3 million on purchases through the scheme.

Raffaela Goodby, head of organisational development, engagement and wellbeing at Birmingham City Council, said: “In the public sector we can’t give pay rises at the moment, so we [had] to look at other innovative ways to create a perceived increase in pay at no cost to the taxpayer.”

The scheme, which is provided by Asperity Employee Benefits and can be accessed through the My Birmingham Rewards portal, offers discounts at a range of national and local retailers.

The programme is linked to the organisation’s engagement strategy and aims to create value for council employees.

Raffaela Goodby will be speaking about HR’s role in employee motivation and engagement at Employee Benefits Live on 26 September at Olympia, London.