United Utilities revamps flex communication

United Utilities has revamped communication of its flexible benefits plan by staging a series of roadshows and redesigning the brochure to make the scheme more engaging.

Changes were made to its Your Choices flexible benefits brochure, which was then sent to all 9,000 UK employees' home addresses.

Reward manager Graeme Mooney said employees used to read only the first few pages of the brochure and go no further if they had not seen anything that interested them.

"We changed the style and layout and made it clearer that reading the full contents could save employees money, even if that was just through the various deals and discounts offered."

The utilities firm also held communications roadshows to ensure staff at its remote sites around the UK knew as much about their benefits as those based at its Warrington head office.

The roadshows were held in February and March in Edinburgh, Sunderland and south Wales to coincide with delivery of the brochures. Staff could attend group presentations or individual drop-in meetings run by the firm's reward team.

Source: Employee Benefits Magazine. 1 March 2009.