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Cancer Research UK has recently re-packaged and extended its employee benefits programme to support its recruitment and retention strategy and ensure staff are fully aware of what's on offer.
Q: What prompted Cancer Research UK to review its benefits strategy?
A: We recognised we needed to have a more coherent reward philosophy and strategy to help us meet our recruitment and retention challenges. In the past, there has been a bit of a misconception about what our benefits package actually is. People tended to just see it as pay and pensions, whereas in reality of course it is much broader than that.
Q: How did you go about developing the new strategy?
A: We communicated with people across the organisation to find out what their perceptions were and what they would value. I then worked closely with the Executive Board to put the strategy together around six core principles - things like recognition of excellence, fairness, competitiveness and flexibility - so it was very much bottom up.
Q: What were the key challenges you were trying to address?
A: We employ around 4000 people across the UK in our head office, research centres and in retail outlets. It's quite a complex organisation, which presents a number of recruitment challenges. We might be recruiting for roles in science, for example, where there may be only four or five people in the world who can do that job and there is fierce competition for talent. At the other end of the spectrum, we also sometimes struggle to recruit retail staff for our shops where turnover, in common with the rest of the retail sector, can be quite high.
We are also very anxious to shift the stereotypes that candidates and recruitment agencies often have about working in the charity sector - namely that it is easy, not very professional, and something that you do when you've burnt out and want a rest! We are in fact very 'corporate' as an organisation, and we need to communicate that to people.
Q: So exactly how have you changed the benefits programme?
A: We are very much taking a step-by-step approach. First of all, we rebranded the programme under the theme 'It All Adds Up', to help get the message about the total reward package across. Then to start off, we launched a brochure, in the format of a flip over paint chart, that lists all our benefits under key headings, like mobility, work-life balance or career development for example. This has gone down well and has made it easy for people to access the information. We've also been developing an inter-active reward web hub, which is due to go live in September.
Q: How will that work?
A: The idea is that people will go on-line and the system will prompt them with questions about their lifestyle. So for example I might tick that I like to do stuff with the family, I want to save for the future and I like gadgets. The system will then highlight information about relevant benefits we offer , such as pensions, Childcare Vouchers or our incentives programme. There will also be a paper-based version of the information for those who don't have access to the Internet at work, so we will make sure no-one is missed out.
Q: What are the most popular benefits?
A: There is quite a lot of call for childcare related benefits. We already offer Accor Services Childcare Vouchers as it's an excellent way to support working parents, the availability of electronic vouchers makes everything very easy, and of course it also makes sense from a tax point of view. The Family Life Solutions helpline was also an attractive part of the package. It's a great way to provide additional advice and support to employees with wider caring responsibilities. We are also just about to launch a scheme giving parents access to a network of children's nurseries which can be paid for by salary sacrifice.
Q: How will you evaluate the changes?
A: It's early days yet, but we will use our regular employee opinion survey to get feedback, and we are also planning to organise some focus groups next year. We're not expecting a revolution - it's an incremental process - but hopefully by the end of the year people will have a better idea of what their benefits are.
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Registered office: Accor Services, 50 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2RS The following trade under Accor Services & are registered in England
Childcare Vouchers: 2420196 Luncheon Vouchers: 540144 Cleanway: 1336372 VAT number: 649503520
©2007 Accor Services. The entire content of this newsletter publication is protected by copyright. Full details are available from Accor Services. All rights reserved. No part of this newsletter publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without the prior permission, in writing, of the copyright owner. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the publisher cannot accept any liability for inaccuracies.
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