The Approach

Discovery took a holistic approach to springboard their benefits offering forward with strong foundations for the future. This began with putting in place an agile platform which would meet their evolving business needs. They built an in-house bespoke Benefits Portal that provides access to real-time data and gives easy access through Single Sign-on. Visual step-by-step trackers make each stage of the enrolment process visible and the online benefit statement helps employees understand the value of their package. Moving away from their incumbent provider, gave an opportunity to design new internal processes that simplify enrolment and help employees understand their options.

The platform was promoted with a communications strategy which targeted all employees with tailored messages and utilised the existing Benefit branding, ‘Ben the dog’ – Discovery employee’s benefits buddy. Ben added a crucial element of fun that reflected the culture and brand consistency, reducing any ‘change’ anxiety. Communications used multiple channels and platforms across the business to make sure the message reached employees.

Supplementing the communications strategy, Discovery’s Team reduced manual tasks by developing 25 automated email scenarios to communicate on key topics such as new joiner information and developed jargon-free one-pagers. 

The Results

Benefit take-up has increased steadily since launch and over a third of employees have chosen to take better advantage of the enhanced pension contributions available to them. A staff survey reported that 88% of employees now have a clear understanding of their benefits and 82% are happy with what’s on offer, which feeds into an overall engagement of 90%.

Discovery’s Team has also benefited from the success of the new system as administration has become much easier (monthly payroll processing time has reduced from 5 days to 1) enabling the whole team to focus on added value activity and engagement.