FirstGroup plc, the leading transport operator in the UK, in partnership with Asperity, launched “First Xclusives”, a brand new discounted products and cashback programme to its 38,000 UK colleagues.
‘First Xclusives’ was launched alongside First’s hugely popular in-house voluntary benefits scheme which provides colleagues, their family & friends the opportunity to travel on the companies’ bus and rail network at huge discounts.
A successful launch strategy resulted in 2,048 registrations and over £48,000 of employee spend in just 2 days. Considering the disparate employee base, raising awareness of a new benefit across the entire workforce was no easy task! A multi-faceted promotional plan was put together in order to reach out to the furthest limbs of the workforce, consisting of posters, flyers, an email from the CEO and mailshots. Usability was of utmost importance and First ensured that single sign-on from their own My Rewards portal, and seamless branding, would enable colleagues to easily access the vast array of offers.
John Chilman, Director of Reward & Pensions said: ‘We wanted to build on our Award Winning benefits package and offer colleagues a fantastic opportunity to make their money go further in these challenging economic times, whilst filling a gap in our offering and meeting the diverse needs and wants of our colleagues. This sits alongside and supports our broader financial awareness programme, which is run in partnership with the Money Advice Service. Colleagues can sit at home with their family and use this benefit together, showing that working for First has its rewards.’
Registrations have now exceeded 5,000, and the spend on the site is fast approaching £500,000, just two and half months on since launch! With no signs of slowing down, Lisa Proctor, Group Reward Manager at FirstGroup is thrilled with this initial uptake: ‘It’s a real challenge to communicate with such a large colleague base’ she says, ’Asperity were so supportive and worked with our Reward communication strategy to ensure our colleagues heard about this great new benefit. And the fact they offer a bigger choice of retailers with higher discount rates was a huge factor in our decision to work with them. With a workforce of 38,000 people, it’s essential to be able to offer something for everyone.’
