Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER February 6, 2017 16 FEATURES DISCOUNT PROGRAM Delivering deals ADP Canada sees benefi ts of offering discount program to employees By Sarah Dobson A few years back, ADP Canada, provider of HR management software and services, was offering an in-house discount program to employees. But it wasn't ideal, according to Elizabeth Williams, director of brand and communications at ADP in Toronto. "We used to manage it our- selves, which you can imagine is pretty time-consuming and it's diffi cult to do. And most employ- ee discount programs don't really belong to anybody, so they move around from fi nance to procure- ment and marketing, and back again." As a result, the company de- cided to switch to a provider based in the United States. But this too presented challenges, as many of the discount off ers were only available south of the bor- der, and there were issues around compliance with Canada's French language requirements, says Williams. New program introduced So, ADP did a request for pro- posals — looking for a good cost, quality and service delivery — and decided to go with Venngo and its WorkPerks program, says Williams. " ey give a lot of local dis- count off ers, which was important to us. We have offi ces across the country, and you want to make sure people can access local stuff as well as national discounts, and then they can also handle all the bilingual aspects for us, so we didn't have to worry about that compliance." Since the program is all cloud- based, ADP didn't have to worry about installing or integrating anything, she says. "Really, it's as simple as rolling it out to associates to go and get, and then reporting comes into the program manager every month, so there's really nothing for us to do." e program is "super simple" to use, says Williams, as employ- ees just go online, set up an ac- count (which takes about 10 min- utes) and then they can browse through the categories and items available online. ey also receive notifi cations about specials and top off ers, with direct links to the discounts. "It's really easy not just to use but it's easy to communicate to our employees because I handle the internal communications, and I can tell you every time we bring on a new program, there's a lot of heavy lifting in terms of making sure people know about it and they use it," she says. "And with the automated emails that come from the ven- dor, it's really a no-brainer, we don't really have to do a lot of ac- tive promotion." Williams herself buys a lot of VIA rain tickets, which involves going to VIA's website and en- tering in a discount code at the checkout to receive the requested e-tickets. "Really, the purchase experi- ence is more to do with whoever you're buying it from rather than through the WorkPerks platform," she says. Any special off ers tend to be seasonal, says Williams, around Christmas or Mother's Day, for example, and there's a good mix of discounts, she says, from big ticket items such as fi tness mem- berships or insurance to smaller discounts such as 20 per cent off restaurant meals or 10 per cent off dry cleaning. "It's day-to-day as well as big ticket items, and that's really one of the intriguing things," says Wil- liams, adding the most popular items are in insurance and tele- com, followed by movie tickets and dinners out. New off ers are always popping up and users can stay on top of that through the e-newsletters, which are all compliant with anti- spam legislation, says Joe Parent, vice-president of sales and mar- keting at Venngo in Toronto. Employees can also use a mo- bile app to see new discount of- fers, he says. " at way, because it's so geo- graphically based, they can just pull up the app and wherever they happen to be, they'll see the off ers that are close to them physically." e program has 1,000 or more discounts available for employees and their families, including 300 discounts on health and wellness- related products, he says. "It not only helps promote the use of those kinds of things, it also makes physical well-being more attainable by making it less ex- pensive, and it can also take things like a company-provided health spending account and stretch those dollars further, because rather than paying full price for that massage therapy, you can use your Venngo WorkPerks and save 15 or 20 per cent on those services and make that health spending ac- count go further — so it helps em- ployees and employers." New vendors seem to be added monthly, says Williams. " ey work very hard to keep it relevant and fresh. I would think this is the kind of program that if you didn't do that, it would get stale pretty fast." Detailed reporting The reporting from Venngo shows what people spent and what they saved, along with what categories they are look- ing at — not just what they are buying, says Williams. e PDF reports include a variety of metrics, such as: how many ac- counts were created in a month; the total number of users; how many employees opted to receive the newsletter, and the open rate of newsletters; and site vis- its, page views and redemption clicks. "It's pretty robust reporting, which is good," she says. e reports show at a high level how an employer's discount pro- gram is performing, says Parent, "so how many employees have signed up and are using it; what kind of activity in terms of site vis- its; a summary of the most popu- lar types of perks, both by dollar volume and activity level; and top- level estimates of the savings for their group." Venngo also provides specifi c testimonials from employees on the diff erent ways they saved, he says. "(Employers) can see and hear fi rsthand from their employees how they're using and taking ad- vantage of that program. It's not strictly an ROI in terms of dollars; it's similar to so many other things within the total comp package. If you look at an EAP or other ben- efi ts programs, it's not necessar- ily about making sure that every employee takes advantage of the EAP, it's the fact that it's available to them and they see value in it when they want it," he says. "So, yes, there's some fi nancial measurement but, at the end of the day, that's not the only mea- surement — it's about providing the best possible overall experi- ence for their employees." Measuring ROI e return on investment is pretty clear in terms of usage rates, says Williams. "Just looking at usage and penetration, we're making the assumption folks are pretty happy with what they're get- ting, given that 85 per cent are actively participating — that's probably about as good as it gets in a mature company for a perks program like this," she says. "People are saving a lot of mon- ey, and we know that anytime you can reduce the fi nancial stress of people, that's a good thing for en- gagement and emotional health. So the ROI for us is in terms of 'Are they using it?' and then the assumed benefi t of that is that our engagement is good, our reten- tion is good. ose are the usual reasons you'd put in a program like this." Attracting, engaging Overall, discount programs are a really good way for employers to off er a perk that is immedi- ately valuable to employees, says Williams. "You don't have to spend a lot of time explaining the benefi ts of saving money. It's turnkey so there's not a lot of heavy lifting on our part. People save money right out of the gate and they see how they save money. (With) a lot of benefi ts programs… peo- ple understand intellectually the benefi ts but you don't always see it right away — it can take a while for the claim to be processed or for something to kick in. But here you can go online and see 'Oh look, I just saved money.'" In the last month, 1,800 em- ployees active with the program at ADP saved about $29,000, so that's pretty substantial, says Williams. "It's just an obvious way to of- fer a good perk, and these are the sorts of things that help us with retention, they help us attract good quality candidates and it's a really tangible benefi t of working for ADP." A discount program is a great addition to a total compensation plan or strategy "that includes cash as well as non-cash benefi ts, health care, employee wellness, physical, financial and mental well-being, and this is something that helps with all those things," says Parent. It makes sense for employers that "take a more holistic ap- proach to how they care for and compensate their employees," he says, and can be a diff erentiator in a competitive job market. With financial worries cited as a number one stress for many employees, there are the spinoff benefi ts of a discount program, such as reduced absenteeism and presenteeism, says Parent. Venngo's program is also being off ered as part of ADP's outsourc- ing services WorkForceNow for smaller and medium-sized em- ployers, says Williams. " is is something that a lot of them wouldn't normally think to put in, and the labour market is getting tight, so these little com- panies have to fi nd new and more creative ways to attract good tal- ent in the fi rst place, and to hang onto it, when you've got bigger companies who can maybe out- bid you. So this is a turnkey way… to put in a high-value and a high perceived value program for their prospective employees." "You don't have to spend a lot of time explaining the benefi ts of saving money. It's turnkey so there's not a lot of heavy lifting on our part." Employees can access workplace discount programs online or on a mobile app, while employers can get detailed reports on usage rates and savings.

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