Bird & Bird – Engaging online benefits

Bird & Bird is an international law firm with over 1,300 lawyers in 29 offices across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and North America. Bird & Bird engaged with Aon to launch a new refreshed, updated platform for their UK population with a new modern brand, which encompasses all the benefits they offer, including their onsite benefits for both their employees and Partners.

The Objective

The objective was to present a fresh way of looking at benefits and create a clear platform where employees understood what is available to them. The new process would be more streamlined; this would improve their old Total Reward Statements which were too wordy and hard to follow. The new online version would show employees real value; presenting an umbrella approach to benefits.

Aon and Bird & Bird identified their key goals to:

• Collaborate all benefits – using this platform to bring ‘extras’ into the benefits core and health and wellbeing benefits proposition.
• Introduce Partners – Partners would be introduced to the system with a clear understanding of what is available to them.
• Benefits advocacy – excite employees to talk about their benefits to increase uptake and create real value of the benefits.
• Modern tech experience – use digital media, video, apps, email and improved benefits administration functionality.

Planning

Aon worked with Bird & Bird to carry out a strategic brand and engagement workshop. From this workshop we uncovered the following gaps and trends in Bird & Bird’s previous engagement approach:

• Benefit information and guides needed to be updated with improved tone of voice.
• An uncertainty of how to segment engagement for Partners had seen a trend of them not receiving enough communications.
• Onsite or ‘non-transactional’ benefits such as, the free coffee bar, guitar or piano lessons were not seen as part of the full benefits offering, this meant employees were missing out on some of the more lifestyle related benefits.

Aon’s solutions

Using our data gathered from the engagement workshop Aon put together a strategic communications strategy to help overcome the gaps and grow on what was already positive engagement levels with some key areas identified.

The communications solutions included:

• Benefits engagement - we recommended moving away from being purely informative and to introduce a more informal and engaging tone. We did this by helping Bird & Bird build a new internal benefits brand with grouping, vibrancy and recognition.
• Multi-channel communication delivery - this mixed media included tailored emails and flyers that delivered messages to different segments. This provided Partners, who were accessing the site for the first time, all the information they needed to adopt a ‘self-service’ attitude and gave employees more ownership to make informed decisions.
• Tech experience – increasing employees’ tech experience by providing access to the Aon App; an innovative way for Bird & Bird to manage and select benefits and meet the demands of a changing demographic that do more on their mobile phones.
• Collaboration - a portal where everything was available in the same place was decided as the best way to reach the audience effectively and engage employees with all Bird & Bird has to offer.

The final branding is still linked to Bird & Bird corporate brand but had a standalone presence. All content was mindful of Partners and employees in order to make it applicable for all; from this pick&mix@twobirds - their new online benefits portal was created.

Bird & Bird also hosted an internal benefits fair during the launch that had a great turn out; this helped to educate and excite employees about their new benefits platform and what was available to them. Competitions were organised to incentivise employees to visit provider stalls and learn more about the benefits on offer.

Visual overview

Bespoke benefits website

Harmonising all benefits in one place with Bird & Bird’s unique brand and tone of voice

The Aon App

Benefits and savings at employee’s fingertips, anytime, anywhere

Campaign lead communications

Driving excitement pre-launch and during to ensure maximum awareness and engagement of the new brand

Benefit Guide & Multichannel communications

A digital bespoke guide to benefits, wellbeing and total offering at Bird & Bird

The outcome

• The number of active employees increased by 20% from 561 in 2017 to 682 in 2018 prior to the launch.
• 478 (70%) employees out of 682 engaged with the online portal; and successfully submitted their benefit choices.
• Increasing brand awareness enabled Bird & Bird to roll out the platform to Partners successfully, with 30% of Partners logging and submitting benefit choices via the new portal and 66% of employees submitting their benefit choices. By creating a more engaging platform the majority of their population logged in and made choices.
• The new platform achieved harmonisation with the ability to view all benefits in one place that was easy to access, talk about, view information and understand; making it more engaging for employees and Partners.
• After launching the app there were a total of 971 page views in the app, with each employee spending an average of 5 minutes per use, and the app is now an on-going tool available to employees.
• From enrolment there have been savings for both the employees and employer. Employees saved further on lifestyle benefits such as Cycle to Work and Childcare Vouchers salary exchange. Bird & Bird saved through National Insurance savings from some benefits selected too.

How can we help?

For more information on our products or services, please get in touch by emailing us at [email protected] or calling us on 0344 573 0033.

Aon UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 00210725. Registered Office: The Aon Centre, The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AN.