Aviva uses employee benefits to maximise impact of rebrand

My Aviva Reward is an all-employee reward engagement programme at the heart of one of the largest financial services rebrands in the last 10 years. To implement the programme at the UK’s largest insurance group, Aviva, its UK Reward team worked with Caburn Hope to develop the new reward brand.

Project overview

Project: all-employee reward engagement programme covering benefits, pay, pensions and recognition, including reward branding, website portal, personalised total reward statements, and communications programme.

Challenge: bringing Aviva’s ‘individual recognition’ message to life by creating buy-in to its reward offering from 28,000 employees from frontline to board level.

Strategy

Aviva developed a strategic communications plan with employee communications consultancy Caburn Hope to engage employees throughout the business.

Helen Jackson, reward director – Aviva, explains: “Reward was identified early on as one of six brand proof points for the ‘One Aviva’ strategy. We placed employee engagement at the heart of our plan, turning this into an excellent opportunity to engage individual employees in a meaningful way. The reward and internal communications teams worked together to execute the strategy for a fully joined-up approach.”

An engaging new reward brand was created to clearly show reward as a standalone entity within Aviva. This brand was rolled out across a universally accessible web portal, www.myavivareward.co.uk, and total reward statements. The company also introduced a flexible benefits scheme, enabling employees to shape their own reward.

Chris Hopkins, managing director at Caburn Hope, explains: “Employee engagement here is key. The website fully supports Aviva’s re-brand, delivering strong messages about organisational culture whilst supporting the employee every step of the way.”

A gateway for employees to all the information needed to make an informed decision about their benefits package, the website helps employees fully understand and appreciate the value of their reward. Users are drawn in through dynamic imagery and engaging tone of voice, and are fully supported through web and intranet-based content. Employees can read about their Flex options and access their personalised total reward statement for a completely clear picture of their benefits.

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Communications

The company launched its new reward offering to employees using a range of communications tactics to continually push the message, pre, mid and post-launch as part of a far-reaching vision moving the company towards ‘One Aviva’. Ongoing activity includes: profiling in ‘One Aviva’ brand events across the country, manager briefing packs, CEO monthly message and Team Talk, Brand Showcases, branded emails, intranet banner ads, intranet articles, online HR FAQs, payslip messages and individual PIN letters to employees.

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Results

• More than a third of employees logged in to view their personal reward statements within a month of the website launch

• The site averages 4,000 visits per month, approximately 45% of which are repeat visits demonstrating engagement

• My Aviva Reward has enjoyed extremely positive feedback:

o senior executives report being “blown away” by the website

o employees recognise it as “a major step forward”

o Your Forum, Aviva’s employee representative body, champions the scheme.

• My Aviva Reward is now forecast to be the company’s most successful, all employee reward communication strategy targeted to UK employees.

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Best practice: Key learning points

• Don’t just communicate the transactional side of reward – see it as an opportunity to engage and excite employees, boosting performance. Employee response to reward communications is an excellent ‘proof point’ to test engagement levels.

• Place the project in the context of a far-reaching vision as part of the organisation’s overall strategy.

• Employees should be the central focus of reward strategy – this helps maintain focus. Build a strategy around them and ensure they feel supported every step of the way.

• Set up as many channels for valuable feedback as possible early on so those who had input can champion the project later. Include employee representative bodies as well as HR people and high level stakeholders.

• Make the most of your communications team’s expertise. A joined-up approach ensures maximum impact.

• Keep pushing the message – put a varied communications plan in place to cover the project pre-launch to build excitement, and mid and post-launch to maintain communications momentum.