Welcome Break | Success Story | Reward Gateway UK

The challenge

Welcome Break is a high-growth motorway service operator with 34 different locations, representing hundreds of brands and a largely offline workforce. The business recently became a fully franchised business, where the team members work for the parent organisation Welcome Break, but represent and wear the uniforms of a variety of brands such as KFC, Subway, Starbucks, Ramada, etc, creating candidate competition between Welcome Break and High Street larger brands.

Following the EU referendum and Brexit, many new starters were leaving Welcome Break to return to their home country, which greatly reduced the applicant pool and the possibility of new starters staying with the company for long-term careers. Welcome Break had to find a way to retain employees, while creating a range of benefits to attract the 18+ demographic, while reducing spend on recruitment agencies and a goal of reducing labour turnover by 10%.

Complicating this was also an issue of inaccessible public transport to the various locations, which were located in remote areas, and a need to stretch their employees’ disposable income without the expense of a big pay rise.

The approach

To create trust and to communicate what staff could expect from Welcome Break as an employer, the team made a handbook containing important information and promises to employees.

Alongside this, the organisation made an effort to reinvent its Attraction and Retention plan. Welcome Break conducted focus groups called “Fishbowl” meetings and surveyed 300 employees to see what attracted them to the organisation, and what would make them stay, focussing on benefits and the employee experience. In response, Welcome Break created pillars of engagement to achieve its objectives:

Social - To encourage Teams to have strong relationships at work and home
Financial - To help effectively manage their finances
Health - To improve Teams’ health physically and mentally
Community - Encourage them to have a sense of engagement to Welcome Break and its charity
Career - To show how they can achieve careers in a specialist or Leadership Role
Safety - To feel respected and safe at work

There was also a lack of understanding and awareness of current offerings that needed to be addressed.

Working with Reward Gateway, Welcome Break rebranded its engagement hub, My Welcome Break, to simplify the logo and content to show that the site was about capturing hearts and minds of their people through helping them make their pay go further and providing extra benefits to make life easier.

These included:

Adding a Cycle to Work scheme to assist the transport issues
Adding Neyber to the platform to offer financial advice and loans
New benefits on discounted car leasing
An Employee Assistance programme
Moving to a proactive medical supplier to encourage wellness
More focus on health and fitness groups, with posts on mental health and exercise through the Wellbeing Centre
Bringing more attention to the existing employee discounts programme where users could make their pay go further with access to in-store and online savings at hundreds of retailers

Welcome Break also developed a First Level Leadership development programme, to prepare for a leadership career with the organisation, bringing in more opportunity for entry-level workers to move up to a specialist or management position.

The results

Since introducing the Attraction and Retention plan, spending on the discounts platform has increased by 36%, resulting in employees saving money and making their pay go further. The Cycle to Work scheme has helped reduce the complexity of limited public transport, with 81 employees taking part to buy a bike for £30, and hundreds of employees taking financial advice and applying for loans through the financial wellbeing benefit. The wellness hub is present in team meetings, with many managers using the meditation and exercise videos with their teams.

And as for the turnover results? Because of the programmes Welcome Break put in place, it has benefitted from an 17% reduction in turnover, and a £135k decrease in spending on recruitment agencies since 2017.

In the latest survey, Welcome Break reported a huge turnaround in awareness and satisfaction in employee benefits.

Regional Reward Manager Rachel Williams says, "Before we implemented My Welcome Break, 75% of people said they didn't know about their benefits. In the latest results, 85% said they liked or liked a lot My Welcome Break and the benefits that are offered."

Large retailer enhances EVP to dramatically reduce recruiting spend by £135k and decrease turnover by 17%

Summary

The challenge

The approach

The results

17%

85%

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