Case study: Kent County Council staff can make their own reward statements

Kent County Council has provided interactive total reward statements since 2008, with staff being encouraged to take ownership of their personal statements.

A key way of creating engagement has been to place the statements, provided by Asperity Employee Benefits, within the council’s rewards portal, which gives staff access to discounts and promotions.

Colin Miller, reward manager at the council, says: “We have about 25,000 employees signed up to Kent Rewards and around £14 million worth of expenditure has gone through it. On the site there is a total reward viewer to go to. For us, it is about keeping it as simple as possible and trying to use communication channels that are already there.”

Through the site, council staff can effectively build their own TRS by inputting information around their pay, whether they are part-time or full-time, their holiday entitlement, and so on.

“It can show how their payslip is made up, what is taxable and non-taxable, where they are saving on tax, what salary they can sacrifice,” says Miller. “Then they can go off to other sites to find out more about, say, salary sacrifice and, if they want, make an application. It is much more flexible than a sheet of paper.”

But the challenge facing the council is how to ensure staff are aware of their benefits and wider package, says Miller. A further challenge is how to get them to understand its value.

“Things can be valuable to people even if they do not necessarily take them up, such as knowing what sort of sickness or medical benefit they might be entitled to,” Miller adds.

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