Challenges
Talent attraction and retention are two of Lanes Group’s biggest challenges. This is seen first hand by Cathy Dyos, Talent Acquisition Specialist, who says, “The main challenge when it comes to our staff is the attraction and retention of the people that we're bringing on board. There's a war out there for talent, especially in the field.”
It’s a challenge backed up by Andy Brierly, Technical Director, “We recognised about two years ago. We had lots of problems around retention. People just weren't staying.”
Cathy went on to continue, “The impact that these challenges have on the organisation is the fact that we weren't able to necessarily provide the customer service that we need to our customers and to Thames Water. The workload they have, especially in the winter is excessive. So it means that we're forever having to sort of scramble around to get people to be able to do the work and the jobs that are necessary.”
On top of this, Lanes Group found a direct correlation between the employee experience and the health and safety of staff and customers. Andy noted, “We did some really interesting analysis where we start to link health and safety incidents, customer service and wellbeing, and we actually found that happier people have fewer incidents and deliver better customer service. Recognition is everything.”
Solution
Looking for a solution to solve these challenges, Lanes Group chose Perkbox. Kris Taylor, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Manager, explains, “The reason why we selected Perkbox is that it's simple to use. It's fast, it's bold, it's bright, it's loud, it's very easy to navigate through.”
Kris added to why Lanes Group chose Perkbox, “What we recognise with the benefits of Perkbox is it's a simple platform that enables us to easily navigate through it to ensure that we recognise good behaviours, positive safety behaviours, and then reward our people.”
Amelia Milan, HR Advisor, found the mental wellbeing tools on Perkbox a compelling proposition, “Compared to other employee benefits providers, Perkbox had a particular focus on mental health, which was important for us at Lanes Group as we like to look after the emotional and physical wellbeing of all our people.”
Results
Working with Perkbox, Lanes Group has been able to solve their challenges and have seen some big results.
“We've actually reduced attrition by a staggering 57% which is phenomenal,” says Andy, adding “Perkbox has made a real difference to our organisation and has helped us improve our happiness statistic by 98.3%.”
Perkbox also helped Lanes Group improve the wellbeing of their employees and reduce absenteeism, “Our sickness days per are now no more than 1.8% right across the board. The industry average is 2.9% so again, we're streets ahead of any other organisation out there,” said Andy, acknowledging how Perkbox had helped. “We've had a really exciting time where we started our wellness strategy, looking at people's nutrition and healthy lifestyle and Perkbox fed in really nicely to that.
Andy went on to say, “I'd recommend Perkbox because it's a genuine overall package in my view. From the research we did to our experience that we've had and from the happiness of our people to the quality of how we've been account managed, there is nothing other than Perkbox.”