Videos can capture audience attention in a very short space of time while conveying a large amount of information quickly and memorably.

Videos are a popular and powerful tool for promoting new concepts because they are entertaining, and good at conveying messages quickly. They can deliver content in an exciting and memorable way. They can capture your attention in a short space of time and make a large quantity of information stick in your mind. In short, videos are engaging by their very nature because of their visual and interactive format.

This kind of impact can be highly beneficial for all sorts of different workforces. If your staff are time-poor then a fun and easily digestible video may be the easiest way of educating them. If you’ve got a young generation workforce with a characteristically short attention span then you may well rely on media-rich visuals to attract their eye. A short video will engage users much better than expecting them to read and digest the same amount of text.

The growing prevalence of devices that videos can be viewed on means that promotion by video is becoming a more popular medium. If your employees have access to educational videos not only online at their desks, but on their smartphones and tablets as well then it’s a no-brainer to enable it as a communication method. As an employer, you may well be able to identify other opportunities for airing video in the workplace too. Screens in communal or reception areas present fantastic possibilities for broadcasting information on benefits, as do short slots in monthly or weekly team meetings.

Videos can simplify concepts that otherwise might seem complex, like Cashback or childcare vouchers.

It’s important to have an employee benefits provider that understands the advantages of using video as a communication tool, particularly when it comes to simplifying concepts that could otherwise seem complex if expressed in the wrong way, like Cashback or childcare vouchers. Short and informative videos hosted on your employee benefits portal itself is a really useful way of introducing, or guiding employees through, the programme. Don’t forget that learning by video is now a well-recognised
training format.

It’s not only at launch that video can be an effective communication tool either. Further down the line, there are different types of video that could really help to boost engagement with your programme.

For example, a testimonial video consisting of soundbites from your peers about how useful certain employee benefits are could really resonate with the rest of your workforce and encourage them to start using it too. Because your employees will recognise the faces on-screen as members of their company, they’re much more likely to be influenced by the opinions that their fellow employees voice. With a simple short video you can advance engagement with your programme by raising the profile of those that are already on-side.

Similarly, it’s important to convey aspects that your workforce can identify with in all video promotion. A good provider will recognise the importance of tailoring their standard video guides to include your company branding elements and logo.

Making the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies list isn’t just about getting a prestigious award; there are distinct advantages to being a ‘best company’ that could make a real difference to the success of your business.

Employee engagement is the underpin to the cause and effect of business success. If you can get your employees engaged, then the bonuses of better staff retention, reduced recruitment costs and greater financial performance generally follow. And the key to getting your staff engaged is absolutely within your reach.

Improved workplace engagement

Employee engagement is always at the forefront of employers’ minds for good reason. Defined by Best Companies as “an employee’s drive to use all their ingenuity and resources for the benefit of the company”, engagement is clearly integral to improving innovation and productivity. Understanding your workforce is key to achieving this success. Introducing employee benefits that are directly relevant to your staff is a fantastic way to boost engagement with your company, so make sure your benefits programme reflects your employee demographic.

Find out what your employees would like to see in place and tailor your programme to match their interests. Not only will they be engaged by the fact that you’re listening to them, but the resulting benefits that you introduce could have further positive impact as well. For example, something really simple like free breakfast cereal and fruit for your employees could make a real difference to their wellbeing.

A good employee discounts programme is a very versatile employee benefit to have because saving money is something that everyone can relate to.

No matter how much your employees earn, discounts have become a part of modern-day culture that understands savvy bargain-hunting as a wise lifestyle choice.

Everyone needs to shop, whether it’s the everyday supermarket shopping or high- level premium brands for treating ourselves. Enabling your workforce to maximise their disposable income has never been so relevant, and if you have a provider who knows how to get your staff to use it, the savings are tangible.

The making of a ‘best company’

The Best Companies winners are chosen based on their employees’ answers to a carefully constructed questionnaire, modelled around eight key factors that weave engagement through them as a running theme. In order to optimise positive feeling from your employees with your company, leaders and team, introducing a comprehensive employee benefits platform is one of the smartest things you can do. Long gone are the days when an employee’s salary was the only thing they got in return for a hard day’s work.

Nurture your employees – the secret is that they are your greatest asset and by recognising that and acting on it, your company can reap real financial reward.

Understanding your workforce is key to achieving success. Introducing employee benefits that are directly relevant to your staff is a fantastic way to boost engagement.

The Best Companies List established its reputation through an authoritative and highly rigorous methodology. These 8 key factors identify workplace performance and best practice when assessed in survey format by employees. 

The mobile channel has vaulted itself into position to become the dominant way in which consumers search, share and shop, which is yet further testimony to the savvy shopper culture that has come of age.

More than 4 billion people (over half the planet) have mobile phones – an increasing number of which are internet-enabled smart phones that work as powerfully as computers do. A recent Ofcom report claims that 27% of adults are now smartphone users, and that shopping via a mobile phone has become as common as shopping from a computer at work, with many people shopping using multiple devices.

In a survey conducted earlier this year by customer experience analytics firm Foresee, 49% of people indicated that they had accessed a retailer’s website using a mobile phone (compared to 32% in 2010 and 23% in 2009). An additional 28% indicate that they plan to use their mobile phone to access a retailer’s website, mobile website, or mobile app in the future.

Most interesting are the different ways that consumers are using the mobile app to help them with their shopping. Owners of tablets and smartphones are increasingly using their devices to check product information and compare prices while inside shops. Price comparison is emerging as a major mobile shopping activity, and the fact that you can browse for rival prices while in a competitor’s store has massive implications for the continued rise in popularity of the shopping app.

Also gathering momentum is the trend for consumers to use their smartphones to search for discounts and deals on in-store prices while out shopping. With bargain-hunting becoming more prevalent in UK shopping culture, it makes sense that consumers should use all available means to get the best deal in the marketplace.

If you offer discounts to your workforce as an employee benefit, it’s a logical step to expect that you should also be able to offer them the means to do this on the move.

In short, more than three-quarters of all online shoppers are either already using or plan to use their phones for retail purposes.

Given the widespread and growing usage of mobile websites, having an app to maximise your employees’ usage of their employee discounts programme could add a crucial element to their engagement with the scheme. Aspects of shopping such as searching for store locations, researching product information and price comparison would be immediately easier with an app, not to mention the implications of being able to order vouchers and cards on the move, so they can do this as soon as they think of it, rather than having to be next to a computer. Ordering SMS vouchers would be obtainable at the click of a finger, upon which users would receive the SMS voucher direct to the same phone in their hand in an instant.

Particularly for offline sectors of your workforce who don’t get the chance to shop from their computers at work, an app could revolutionise their shopping experience.

Having a provider that not only has price comparison enabled on its product search, but even factors in the discount for your employees’ convenience is a brilliant way to engage your workforce with their programme.

A whole world of price and product information, on-demand shopping and topping up gift cards quickly and conveniently, is now available at your fingertips and in your pocket. The mobile- empowered consumer is one that is being harnessed by retailers in their droves – the demand is there for an instant shopping experience on the move, and by gum are retailers responding to the demand.

A shopping discounts scheme needs to keep up with the trend. A mobile app that allows your employees to do all of the above means they are plugged in to your benefits programme around the clock, wherever they are. It makes life easier for them, enabling them to take advantage of discounts at an unprecedented level of convenience.

For you, the barriers to engagement couldn’t be lower.

If you’d like to chat with us about Asperity’s brand new mobile discounts app, call us now on 020 7229 0349 or email benefits@asperity.co.uk.

The end of the financial year is often the time when your existing projects are winding down and contracts come up for renewal, so it’s the perfect time to stop and have a think about whether your current employee benefits are really having the impact you want them to with your employees. Can you add or change anything that would make their benefits package more useful and relevant to them? Does your portfolio include ‘something for everyone’? And crucially: are your employees actually engaging with their benefits?

So what makes for a successful project plan when you’re trying to fit it into your action- packed schedule? When you’re introducing new employee benefits for your staff, the last thing you want is a lengthy, complex implementation and launch process. If the implementation goes on for long enough, there’s bound to be something else that takes your attention away from it – and so launch gets pushed back again, and the process is drawn out even further.

“Clients often worry that the implementation process for a new benefits programme will take a lot of time and require a hefty amount of work just to get it up and running,” says Joanna Martin, Client Services Manager for Asperity360. “We launch around 20 new schemes every month so have considerable experience in making the implementation process as quick, smooth and painless as possible.”

An implementation project plan that covers all bases from the start is key; introducing a new employee benefit isn’t just about depositing the product on your lap and leaving it to you to figure it out. A dedicated account manager who will take care of the project from all angles, including communicating the launch effectively to your staff and making it as quick and easy for them to start benefitting from it as possible, will get the programme off to a great start and make your life a heck of a lot easier.

“Implementation was completely easy and straightforward,” says Melissa Sincock, who put the Hobbs Rewards programme in place with Asperity in 2011. “From transferring childcare vouchers to the launch communications plan – right from the beginning, all of the important things had already been thought of. It’s had a really low impact on our time, which was exactly what we needed!”

The truth is, there’s never going to be a “right time” to embark on the implementation of a new project, but by picking the right provider you can certainly make life easier for yourself.

But in today’s information-enabled age those managing employee benefits also need to think carefully about the risks to their programmes. As fraud and hacking becomes more sophisticated, it is important to recognise the responsibilities placed on you as an HR professional to look after your employees’ data. You are in a position of trust, after all. It’s probably at the front of your mind when thinking about payroll but what about during the implementation of a voluntary benefits programme?

“Your choice of benefits provider is key to ensure that you do not put your employees’ personal data at risk”

When you set up a benefits programme for your employees, you are entrusting any third party you use with your employee data, which can include payroll or employee ID numbers as part of the running of it. Those employees may then store address, telephone and other key data on their flexible benefit site.

In fact, we should be as wary of the security credentials of benefits providers as we would be with a payroll software provider. After all, in an employee discounts programme your provider will be handling millions of pounds’ worth of your collective employees’ money, holding address details in their systems and processing credit card payments. If you are offering childcare vouchers, they will also hold details of your children and their childcare providers. You do not want the wrong people accessing this data.

The intention of this article is not to scare employers off voluntary benefits. They offer a great proposition that drives engagement across the breadth and range of your employees. Employee discounts can appeal to everyone in a way that other benefits – medical cover, death in service or gym discounts – might not. And they are a great way to help your employees make money go further in straightened times, especially when you include salary sacrifice programmes like childcare vouchers and cycle to work.

But there’s a lot of personal information there about your employees. Your choice of benefits provider is key to ensure that you do not put that at risk. So, how do you make sure your choice of benefits provider is taking your employees’ security seriously?

Well, first and foremost you need to check their credentials. There are some key questions: are they ISO 27001 accredited? The ISO 27001 information security management system (ISMS) brings information security under specific management control. A provider such as Asperity, which has been ISO 27001 accredited continuously since 2009, will have to implement a coherent and comprehensive suite of information security controls that ensure that your data is always handled appropriately and securely.

This can encompass everything from a clear desk policy so that physical data about your employees is not left lying around, to the use of specific terminals that ensure Helpdesk staff can access the appropriate data to help your employees but that are ‘locked-down’ so no one can download or transfer that data elsewhere.

By managing the development of its Reward Gateway site in-house, Asperity can ensure that it responds quickly to keep the platform ahead of the curve in offering anti-fraud measures. And an in-house recruitment team ensures that all staff have been vetted to high standards and can be trusted to protect your data.

You also need to know that your data is backed up and secure offsite. This means ensuring that your provider’s data centre, and any other key third parties used to fulfill your service, is also secure. Asperity’s external hosting company is ISO 27001 accredited meaning any data that Asperity backs up offsite is as secure as the information held in its own offices.

Any company handling cardholder information for major debit, credit and other cards must also hold Payment Card Industry (PCI) certification. Asperity’s PCI accreditation proves that it has built controls around card holder data to minimise the risk of it being stolen for fraudulent use.
You should also look at the company’s background. How long have they been trading? Are they financially secure? Asperity is proud to hold a four out of five star Dun & Bradstreet rating. It’s also FSA authorised and regulated to ensure that its InsureCompareTM feature in Reward Gateway is appropriately managed.

And if your site offers Cashback, does the provider ensure that money is ring-fenced and protected for your employees? These funds should be held independently and not used to fund day-to-day business. Be sure that your employees can withdraw their cash at any time, and in any amount that they want. Asperity’s in-house Cashback team can provide a level of support unmatched elsewhere in the industry, checking and managing Cashback withdrawals to give your users the quickest and most secure response.

Hijacking of users accounts is another concern. It could give a fraudster access to address details, and potential to profit particularly if a user has built up a reserve of Cashback in their account. Asperity’s product is limited to a closed user group (your employees) and our technology enforces user access controls.

We are constantly looking to safeguard registration and access mechanisms. It can be a delicate balance: making it easy as possible for you to use Reward Gateway, and as hard as possible for a fraudster to access it. At the end of the day, our success is in making a site that benefits nearly 1.8m users on a daily basis. And that success is preserved in keeping those users safe as they shop.

By Alison Crosland