Travis Perkins harness the power of technology and community to actively engage 2,000 more employees

What they needed

Travis Perkins is an ambitious business, using acquisitions to increase their scale and activity, whilst at the same time simplifying internal processes and activity. To combat these periods of change and continue moving forward with Travis Perkins' wider strategic goals, the company adopted Google+ communities for a more collaborative approach to work and data sharing.

The popularity of this initial community led to an opportune moment for the Reward Team to revitalise benefit communications for their “MyPerks” engagement hub to be inline with the wider technology strategy.

Before this, staff surveys were carried out at regular intervals by the Travis Perkins team and identified that colleagues were only partially aware of what their benefit package actually had to offer. They had a good system in place, using leaflet drops and face-to-face interaction, except the effect was limited in a busy environment, and these resource-intensive campaigns meant it could take weeks before the message reached everyone.

The team saw one main goal which could be achieved here – marry the intensity of face-to-face communication with the responsiveness and immediacy which technology brings. And within this, they identified the following objectives:

• Increase employee engagement and spend through benefits.

• Improve perception of benefits with greater transparency and access.

• Attract business units which currently do not engage with employee benefits.

How we helped

The first step for the team was to create a trial Google+ community for Travis Perkins “MyPerks” benefits brand. It took everyone by surprise and snowballed into a large community very quickly. Employees were using it to give advice and feedback, especially during the launch of Travis Perkins “Green Car” benefit – talking each other through the process and proudly posting pictures of their brand new cars. Which, of course, led to even more applications being made.

The community was also important in distributing constructive feedback so employees could chime in open and honestly and improve the employee experience. The feedback loop, which ordinarily would have been lost in traditional channels, resulted in an uptake in benefits across the hub.

Travis Perkins’ community was a success and the Reward Team found questions being asked in the group were being answered by those in it quicker than the team could address them, giving them back time to progress with work beyond day-to-day admin.

What they achieved

The MyPerks Google+ Community is now a major communication channel of 1,500 passionate advocates who spread benefits awareness beyond the group and help to bridge the gap between less tech-savvy colleagues. This helped Travis Perkins to achieve the following results in line with their objectives:

• 75% of employees giving positive answers to surveys for increased awareness and satisfaction with their benefits offering.

• 2,000 more employees are actively engaged with the MyPerks hub and have spent an extra £600,000 compared to last year.

• All business units which were previously not engaged with Groups Benefits are now onboard.

The Travis Perkins team also use the community to trial proposals for new benefits, allow approved suppliers to engage with members directly, and identify issues before they become major – a way to quickly implement change and improve the MyPerks brand, and increase employee satisfaction.