LSL Property Services enhanced its reward and benefits package in May 2014 with the launch of its flexible benefits portal ChoiceMatters, which it branded in line with its other portals.
LSL, which owns estate agency brands Reeds Rains (pictured) and Your Move, made the move in response to feedback from its 5,222 staff through an internal survey and its employee opinion portal.
Ben Thomas, reward and benefits manager at LSL, says: “Although we already offered some benefits to employees, we wanted to offer a wider range and some that could be tailored to their individual needs and those of their family.”
As a result, LSL launched ChoiceMatters, which it branded to tie in with its existing HR systems, including its core HR system PeopleMatters, its learning, talent and development portal LearningMatters, and its online engagement survey portal Your OpinionMatters.
Thomas says: “We did this with the aim that employees would more easily identify with the site.”
ChoiceMatters, provided by Benefex, offers LSL employees access to seven flexible benefits: childcare vouchers, dental cover, a bikes-for-work scheme, a health cash plan, holiday trading, travel insurance and health assessments.
Folllowing its implementation, 340 different benefit selections were made through the portal in 2014 and 1,100 different selections have been made by LSL employees so far this year.
Thomas says: “It’s something our staff clearly appreciate. In the first year, 86% of our employees were satisfied with the communications they received on ChoiceMatters, which rose to 97% in our second year [2015].”
LSL also launched an employee discounts portal to coincide with ChoiceMatters, called ChoiceDiscounts.
Thomas adds: “We plan to continue to enhance our benefit offering over the next few years and are surveying our employees to find out what they would like to see in future years. We also plan to further improve the employee experience of the portal by connecting all our benefits systems to ChoiceMatters and enabling single sign-on throughout our benefits technology infrastructure.”