The UK's leading sports betting and gaming company, Ladbrokes plc, doubled its employee engagement using a familiar communications method that has never been tried before in employee benefits.
Based on Asperity's award-winning shopping discounts platform Reward Gateway, ClubLadbrokes was launched as Ladbrokes' benefits brand in 2008 to 15,000 employees. From the outset, the scheme has adopted a communications strategy which maximises employee savings, backed by solid reward and recognition branded communications, segmented to different workforce groups.
The achievements of the ClubLadbrokes brand were recognised at the Employee Benefits Awards in 2009, where it attained Highly Commended in two categories, and was short-listed for several more awards.
Seeking to build on this success, Ladbrokes' Rewards team worked closely with Asperity to develop a two-tier engagement-boosting competition available to all employees. 'Scratch cards' were sent to home addresses along with a personalised letter to bring the benefits message home to employees and their families. The cards directed employees to login or register with ClubLadbrokes, access the competition page and enter a unique prize number written under the scratch-off panel on the card. Competition prizes included a Family Photo Shoot, Multimedia laptop and a years subscription to the Gourmet Society.
A second competition ran in parallel tying in Ladbrokes' district and regional managers, with the aim of motivating them to promote the scheme to their teams. These managers were briefed and given a competition letter and tool kit to support their efforts. Points were awarded to managers for every team member who signed up to ClubLadbrokes within the competition period, and prizes given for the most points achieved in that time.
This dual competition strategy paid significant dividends. Scheme employee engagement rocketed, with 10% of the workforce signing up within the first 5 days of receiving the competition letter and scratch card. Traffic to the ClubLadbrokes website increased by 600% on the competition launch day, and the monthly average for employee spend on the shopping discounts site has more than doubled.
Sara Davies, Reward and HR Services Director at Ladbrokes plc, said: "We're thrilled at the outcome of this initiative. We are really proud of the ClubLadbrokes brand and the benefits included in the package offer genuine, real-life savings on everyday things such as groceries, petrol, and even childcare. With a dispersed workforce across 4 business units - with retail outlets being the largest with over 2000 shops - and head office locations it can be a challenge for us to communicate effectively across a busy organisation. Communicating to our employees via their home addresses meant that we could reach those who were part-time or lacked internet access at work, all our staff and their families and the managers' competition ensured that internal, team-based communication was optimised."
George Farrow, Client Service Delivery Director at Asperity, added: "It's a fantastic result for a stylish communications exercise. Ladbrokes is well-known in the reward and benefits industry for its commitment to ingenuity, and we are delighted as their benefits provider to help facilitate such an outstanding success."
