How Paul Smith connected and engaged a global team, helping employees save £15,000 through discounts in one year

Working alongside Reward Gateway, Paul Smith’s HR team developed The House – a global employee experience platform, which could also serve as the company’s intranet. The aim was to harness the power of technology to connect employees around the world. The House offered a comprehensive hub where employees could access everything they needed in one place, including benefits, reward, recognition, discounts, incentives and communication. As the majority of Paul Smith staff didn’t have a company email address, they were invited to self-register to access The House. New joiners received an invitation to register before their official start date, which soon became a required step in the onboarding process.

Making The House a central one-stop-shop for all employee needs has helped increase visibility of key company updates and communications via the Hello! Blog. It includes weekly ‘people news’ highlighting new hires, departures, role changes and long service recognitions. Employees are also invited to contribute to the blog freely, helping build bridges between teams in different countries and creating a greater sense of community.

Since the launch of the platform, Paul Smith’s HR team has led a successful campaign over the festive period each year - ‘The 12 Doors of Christmas’. The virtual advent calendar helps bring some fun to the organisation and encourages engagement during one of the busiest times of the year.

What they achieved

In just one year, more than 1,000 employees have signed up to The House with more than 95% becoming active users of the platform. The majority of employees access the platform more than five times every month, and Paul Smith’s CEO, is the platform’s 11th most logged-in user! In a 12-month rolling period, employees sent 4,200 eCards to recognise their coworkers’ achievements and spent more than £27,000 in Rewards. There has also been £16,000 spent on SmartTech™ through salary sacrifice, helping offer a safety net for employees to access new or replacement electricals and whitegoods. The House has enabled employees to save £15,000 through employee discounts in just one year and trade £75,000 worth of annual leave, which has also reduced the organisation’s National Insurance contributions by £3,000. As a result, Paul Smith’s employees are more engaged, better connected and informed.