Use of scratch cards to raise awareness of Ladbrokes' employee benefits has doubled engagement levels

The cards directed employees to log on to or register with the company's employee benefits platform, provided by Asperity Employee Benefits. Staff could then access the competition page and enter a unique prize number written under the scratch-off panel on the card.

Competition prizes included a Family Photo Shoot, Multimedia laptop and a year's subscription to the Gourmet Society. ??

The firm launched its voluntary benefits platform to its 15,000 employees in 2009. From the outset, the scheme has adopted a communications strategy that maximises employee savings, backed by solid reward and recognition branded communications, segmented to different workforce groups.

Seeking to build on this success, ??scratch cards were sent to home addresses along with a personalised letter to bring the benefits message home to employees and their families.

A second competition ran in parallel tying in Ladbrokes' district and regional managers, with the aim of motivating them to promote the scheme to their teams.

These managers were briefed and given a competition letter and toolkit to support their efforts. Points were awarded to managers for every team member who signed up to ClubLadbrokes within the competition period, and prizes given for the most points achieved in that time.

The strategy paid dividends. Scheme employee engagement increased, with 10% of the workforce signing up within the first five days of receiving the competition letter and scratch card.

Traffic to the ClubLadbrokes website increased by 600% on the competition launch day, and the monthly average for employee spend on the shopping discounts site has more than doubled. ??

Sara Davies, reward and HR services director at Ladbrokes, said: "We're thrilled at the outcome of this initiative. We are really proud of the brand and the benefits included in the package offer genuine, real-life savings on everyday things such as groceries, petrol, and even childcare. With a dispersed workforce across four business units - with retail outlets being the largest with over 2000 shops - and head-office locations, it can be a challenge for us to communicate effectively across a busy organisation.

"Communicating to our employees via their home addresses meant that we could reach those who were part-time or lacked internet access at work, all our staff and their families and the managers' competition ensured that internal, team-based communication was optimised."??