Glenn Willshire
A closer look at Sofology’s Employee Value Proposition to strategically connect 1,200+ employees
Engaging a dispersed workforce was a familiar challenge for Sofology, one of the UK’s leading sofa retailers with over 1,200 colleagues across 47 stores and a primary HQ. As the business experienced tremendous growth since its founding, the team needed to find a reliable platform to manage and promote colleague benefits, discounts and other company-wide initiatives.
Sofology first reached out to Reward Gateway in 2013 to create an easily accessible all-in-one colleague benefits platform. With its workforce spread across multiple sites and departments, it had been difficult to connect and secure buy-in from different demographics with different levels of digital competency.
Since many colleagues didn’t use computers as part of their day-to-day roles, the platform needed to be simple enough for all colleagues to use on their mobile and home devices.
Sofology needed a partner that could tailor an EVP offering to maximise engagement and meet the specific needs of the progressive organisation.
To achieve this, the company created a customised platform with a bespoke selection of discounts and benefits, including:
- High-street vouchers
- Employee discounts to a wide range of retailers
- Cashback options
- Insurance savings
- Cycle to Work to support physical and mental wellbeing
- SmartTech™ to give employees greater flexibility when purchasing technology and appliances
- A Wellbeing Centre
Nicola Leyden, Junior People Business Partner at Sofology says:
The best thing about the platform is that there are offers on there for both the everyday things in life as well as larger purchases. My personal particular highlight is the £250 I saved on my kitchen from B&Q! The app is great too and super quick to use when you’re waiting in a queue. It’s a great feeling to know your employer genuinely cares about making your life easier where possible.
More than 70% of Sofology’s workforce is now active on the platform, which is particularly impressive given that most employees are offline workers and are choosing to use the platform in their spare time. Colleagues have spent more than £450k through the platform, and on top of that £144k has been spent through SmartTech™ alone. Overall, employees have saved a total of £30.9k by using the Reward Gateway platform.
Nicola says,
We know colleague expectations are evolving and more opportunities to engage colleagues beyond pay will crop up in future. We want to stay at the front of the pack and I know Reward Gateway will help us do that. Every time we’ve wanted to add or change something on the platform, the support team have been incredibly helpful and always find a way to sort it for us. The service is just as good as the product itself!
The platform continues to evolve with the addition of company-wide communications and peer-to-peer recognition to the platform, which help to streamline engagement initiatives and encourage connections across the business.
Connecting and engaging a dispersed or diverse workforce is a challenge for many organisations, but with the right technology it can be a goal well within reach. If you’re interested in learning more, get in touch with us and a member of our team will show you how our solutions can support your engagement goals.
