Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) is tailoring the methods it uses to communicate benefits to meet staff needs by putting total reward statements online and introducing text messaging to promote flex.
The bank has asked employees how they would prefer to receive information and updates on its flex scheme for the 2007 enrolment period which ends in mid-September. Staff have been offered a choice of receiving a handbook, emails or text messages. Employees who select email can be notified through their work or home email address.
The banking group has also enabled staff to access reward statements through its online rewards portal. Employees were invited to go online to view them through their existing paper-based total reward statement.
Talking about the flexible benefits scheme, Jim Cowan, senior consultant remuneration and benefits at RBS, said: “I believe quite passionately that we should be giving employees the opportunity to hear about the programme in a way that suits their lifestyle.”
Around 1,000 employees said they would prefer to receive electronic communications in relation to the flex scheme and were directed to the group’s online rewards portal to make their selections for the renewal period via either email or text messages.
A further 200 new recruits to the banking group who had not received any communication about benefits were also sent either text messages or emails about the scheme.
The bank intends to compare the take up of benefits of those employees that received electronic notification against those who stayed with the paper format.
“Everything we do, we enter with a spirit that says, ‘at the back-end of this we are going to measure and see whether it was effective’,” added Cowan.
Approximately 103,000 employees across the UK and Republic of Ireland are eligible for flex.†