How SUEZ recycling and recovery UK saved their employees £55,000 through discounts

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What they needed:

With a predominantly offline workforce spread out among 330 household recycling centres, depots and laboratories, SUEZ faced a challenge communicating and providing access to its employee benefits.

An existing employee benefits platform was only accessible via an intranet and with many of its employees having no work email address, the Reward and Benefits team wanted to introduce a solution that was easy for everyone to access, offered all of their benefits in one place and which provided the opportunity to broaden the initiatives on offer. The overall goal behind this change was to improve employee engagement, wellbeing, and their employee value proposition.

How we helped:

Working with Reward Gateway, SUEZ put in place a new employee benefits platform called You@SUEZ in just eight weeks. With SUEZ branding, the platform brings employee benefits together in one place. It can be accessed through a single login and gives employees access to a broader, more comprehensive set of benefits.

The new Employee Discounts programme allows SUEZ workers to save money on household spending from supermarket shopping to eating out and holidays. Alongside SUEZ’s own wellbeing webinars, Reward Gateway’s ‘Wellness for All’ content in its Wellbeing Centre provides employees with support for their physical, mental and financial wellbeing.

The launch of Total Reward Statements allows every employee to see the full value of working for SUEZ by showing the less visible but significant package of reward and benefits they get such as their pension. The upgraded Reward & Recognition scheme has made it easier for colleagues to send eCards, whether that’s thanking someone for great work or simply wishing someone a happy birthday. The new platform now provides all of the data and analytics the team at SUEZ needs to measure engagement with employee benefits overall and take-up of individual employee benefits.

What they achieved:

By making employee benefits more visible and increasing take-up, the new You@SUEZ platform has transformed the employee value proposition for SUEZ. One of the most positive areas of impact has been the way it supports employee financial wellbeing and resilience. With savings of £55,000 made in one year by employees, the Discounts programme has helped pay packets go further with the savings per head, equivalent to an average of 3% of an employee’s pay according to the HR team. Automatic enrolment to a savings scheme for each new employee has helped half of SUEZ’s workforce build up a pot of money for a rainy day, while giving real-time access to up to 30% of earned wages allows people to spend their money when they need it, rather than waiting until payday.

SUEZ has also been able to offer a more comprehensive set of employee benefits in other areas such as health and wellbeing where employees can now access a digital GP, dental benefits through Toothfairy and eyecare vouchers. The new Wellbeing Centre has received 3,000 visits in a year. With support from HR colleagues and ambassadors, the team have promoted the platform through postal mailings, company magazine features and frequent online comms campaigns, as well as by word-of-mouth, to current employees and new joiners. This has helped SUEZ boost sign-up from 46% to 54% in six months, with a target of 80% now in sight.

The strength of the platform insights and analytics which show engagement with the Wellbeing Centre, use of recognition, savings and discounts have allowed SUEZ to measure impact and easily understand return on investment. As a result of the positive impact You@SUEZ has had on the business, the leadership team has agreed to extend its partnership with Reward Gateway for another five years.