Educational organisation uses employee communications tools to drive benefits engagement, doubling Childcare Voucher uptake and increasing Cycle to Work applications by 500%

What they needed

A huge amount of change over a 12-month period at Harvard Technology brought about a feeling of uncertainty. It resulted in a sizeable drop in employee engagement and morale, as well as an increase in attrition. Feedback from employees revealed that they wanted an improved dialogue between employer and employee. This gave Harvard Technology the aim to reconnect with their employees by building trust and confidence.

Harvard Technology obtained further employee feedback and this highlighted the alarming prospect that employees weren’t aware of their existing benefits or, for those that were aware, didn’t know they were eligible to receive them. This was largely down to not having the correct communication methods in place and employees were missing out on the vital link of education to help them better understand their benefits.

How we helped

In the lead up to implementation and launch, Harvard Technology thought it was important to start as they meant to go on – giving due consideration to employee communication and engagement. To do this, they acknowledged the employee feedback they’d received with a two-week teaser campaign which focussed on the message of ‘Your feedback has been heard!’. Harvard Technology used posters to deliver the message to employees who work at Head Office, and emails were sent to those who are based elsewhere.

The first poster told employees to look out for a new employee benefits and communications platform and the second poster, one week before launch, gave employees a brief overview of the exciting new features of it. Through these, Harvard Technology succeeded in creating a ‘buzz’ of anticipation. A greater sense of unity was quickly founded as employees conversed with each other to speculate about what was coming. And that was Spotlight, Harvard Technology’s SmartHub® powered platform.

Working with Reward Gateway, Harvard Technology produced an information leaflet that was concise and impactful around what Spotlight offered, complete with an attached trolley coin keyring designed with Spotlight’s logo. Through short presentations on launch day, Spotlight was introduced to employees on each of their shift patterns, with everyone given a leaflet and chocolate bar. To bring all of this together, Harvard Technology continued to improve communication and hosted a monthly newsletter from their CEO on Spotlight.

What they achieved

Within two days of launch, 43% of employees had signed up, and now, 88% of Harvard Technology’s employees are using Spotlight. On top of this, Childcare Voucher uptake has doubled since launch and the number of employees taking part in Cycle to Work has increased by 500%.

Increased communication has also resulted in improved employee morale. Harvard Technology‘s people now feel a shared sense of purpose as a result of having business updates communicated to them on a regular basis through easily accessible means.