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BALANCING BENEFITS AT
REWARD GATEWAY
R E W A R D B L U E P R I N T S 111
Published:
June 2016
Engagement technology company, Reward
Gateway is reviewing the mix and balance of
rewards for its 300-strong workforce.
It was guided by a set of new benefit principles
and information collected during a health check-
up of current benefits.
Significant changes have been made to existing
benefits and “amazing” new benefits have been
introduced – wellbeing choice, parental leave,
“choose your package” and life assurance.
2. www.e-reward.co.uk 1
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4. BALANCING BENEFITS AT REWARD GATEWAY
REPORT 111
www.e-reward.co.uk 3
Employee engagement technology company, Reward Gateway
has expanded rapidly over the past ten years. Founded in the
UK in 2006, the company now employs over 300 people
across Europe, the United States, and Australia. Its business
model has changed from providing employee discounts to
offering a wide range of employee engagement technology in
a variety of countries. Expansion has been so fast that in a
single year Reward Gateway doubled its headcount from 160
to over 300, growing to support over 1,100 clients globally.
Debra Corey joined the company as Group Reward Director in
late 2015, and one of her first key projects was to conduct a
review of its global rewards for the 300-strong workforce.
According to Corey, she was tasked with “making sure that we
had the right mix and balance of rewards to meet the
engagement needs of our growing global workforce.”
BOX1: ORGANISATION PROFILE
Name: Reward Gateway.
Employees: 335 globally.
Main locations: London, Boston, Melbourne, Birmingham,
Skopje, Plovdiv and Sydney.
Business activities: Employee benefits, reward and
recognition solutions, delivered through a single employer-
branded hub called SmartHub. More than 1,100 clients
now use its engagement software, including Groupon, IBM,
McDonalds, Samsung and Yahoo!
Financials: In 2010, a 75% stake in the business was sold
to Inflexion Private Equity, with the founder, Glenn Elliott
maintaining a 25% stake; the deal valued the business at
£25 million. Reward Gateway has grown strongly since
and had global revenues of £187 million in 2015. In July
2015, the company was bought from Inflexion by Boston-
based Great Hill Partners, valuing it at £140 million.
Web site: www.rewardgateway.com
BOX 2:WHO E-REWARD
INTERVIEWED
Debra Corey is Group Reward Director at Reward Gateway.
She is an experienced reward professional who has held
senior roles at global organisations such as PageGroup,
Merlin Entertainments, Honeywell and Gap. Corey has led
and been “a part of teams that have developed and
delivered best-in-class reward programmes which have
been externally recognised as well as internally impactful.”
In her “spare time” she teaches reward professional
courses, writes articles, and speaks at various conferences.
She recently published her first book, Effective HR
Communication, which was released in March 2016.
BENEFITS REVIEW
On joining Reward Gateway, Corey was aware that its current,
informal reward strategy and programmes already aligned
“pretty closely” with the company culture, values and business
needs. But she recognised that it still required a serious
revamp:“We’re an organisation that pushes the technology
barriers so we need to do the same with our own reward
strategy and reward programmes.”
She decided to start the rewards review with benefits.As Corey
recalls:“We felt this was an area where the company could
make the biggest immediate difference and begin to shape the
rest of the total rewards picture.”
The first step in the review was to develop a set of benefit
principles which would be used to guide and focus the review
of the various global benefit programmes. Corey says:“They
were developed by answering a few key questions:What are
the objectives of our benefits, e.g. why do we have them?
What do our benefits say to our employees about what they
mean to us? What do our benefits say to the external world
about our company and our relationship with our employees?”
These were the five principles Reward Gateway created:
1. Fairness: Corey describes this as a two-sided principle.“It’s
partly about treating people equally but also about being
able to explain why the organisation treats people
differently in certain situations, for example, due to
differences based on legal requirements, competitor practice
or products available.”
2. Balance: Ensuring that the benefits offered balance the
needs of a demographically diverse workforce.
3. Choice: Giving employees the choice to decide what is right
for them. Corey says:“I present this principle as a box of
chocolates; we as the employer are filling the box with
balanced chocolates (benefits) and presenting the box for
employees to choose which chocolates are right for them.”
4.Wow: Corey says:“Reward Gateway talks a great deal about
‘wow moments’ with clients, so we wanted to have a
principle to reflect our desire to give this wow to employees
through their benefits.”
5. Simplicity: In essence, this principle is about designing
benefits that are easy to understand, easy to manage and
administer, and ultimately easy to use.
Corey explains:“The great thing – and also the challenge –
about the review process was that from the outset in early
2016, I knew I would have to explain and share whatever we
were proposing in public, and on a stage, which really focused
my thoughts when it came to pulling the whole thing
together.” Here, she is referring to the fact that the new
benefits package would be announced at a live global business
update meeting at the end of April 2016.
BALANCING BENEFITS AT REWARD GATEWAY
5. BALANCING BENEFITS AT REWARD GATEWAY
REPORT 111
www.e-reward.co.uk 4
FOCUS GROUPS
At the same time as the principles were being developed, focus
groups were conducted with employees in different locations
around the world.A number of these focus groups were carried
out face-to-face, with others taking place through Google
Hangouts to get a similar level of interaction. Participants in
the groups were asked to sort index cards with the names of
existing benefits into value piles.
Corey recalls:“People were then asked to explain why they
valued some benefits more than others; this often came down
to the fact that some benefits were perceived as too
complicated to be attractive.”
The second part of the session was to brainstorm on new
benefit ideas, presenting them back to the group to discuss.
The focus groups were presented as “cakes and chat” and kept
fairly informal, hence the use of index cards rather than more
structured survey techniques. It was felt that this approach
was more in line with the culture of Reward Gateway. Corey
and her team concluded it would be much more effective if
held in this way.
HEALTH CHECK-UP
A “health check-up” was then conducted, which assessed the
health of each of the current benefits, both global and local.
This involved determining how it stood against each of the
new benefit principles, and based on feedback from the focus
group sessions.
In addition to reviewing existing benefits, the Reward Gateway
team also looked at what was missing from their current mix
of benefits – again based on the principles and employee
feedback.The outcome was giving each benefit a health
“score”, using these to determine next steps for each.
NEW BENEFITS INTRODUCED
Being guided by the new benefit principles and using
information collected during the health check-up, the Reward
Gateway team made significant changes to existing benefits
as well as introducing what Corey calls “amazing” new ones.
Here are the four new “amazing” benefits:
Wellbeing choice
A new benefit was introduced called “wellbeing choice” which
is intended to support the wellbeing of Reward Gateway
employees around the world.
Lucy Tallick, Head of Smart Health at Reward Gateway, says:
“We place huge importance on creating happy, healthy
employees as we believe if you look after your people, your
people will look after your business.We also want to help our
employees live better and feel better by supporting them to
make small lifestyle changes that make a real difference to
their lives.”
Employees are able to use an allowance of £500 to pay for a
wide variety of wellbeing activities from the three “wellbeing
pillars” – physical, mental and financial.
Tallick adds:“We recognise that everyone’s personal wellbeing
is just that, it’s personal and unique to them. So rather than
put one or one hundred wellbeing initiatives in place we have
decided to let our employees choose what’s important to
them.”
To receive the wellbeing allowance, employees have three
responsibilities:
■ they contribute 20% to the cost of the activity
■ they set a goal for each activity
■ they report back on their progress against their goal.
B0X 3: EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP AT REWARD GATEWAY
Employee ownership is an important part of the Reward Gateway culture, aligning with many of its values (see box on p.6).
Corey explains:“Employee ownership ties in with many of our values in the sense that we expect people to be responsible
and own the relationship with our clients, doing their very best to support them; there is a natural segway from here into
them having ownership of the company.”
She adds:“I use four C’s to explain the value of employee ownership: connection (creating a common goal), commitment
(through employee engagement), competitive (helps recruit and retain staff) and culture (aligning with culture and values).”
Reward Gateway’s employee ownership scheme in the UK is not “tax-approved”, but rather a promise of financial gain when
the company next seeks an external investor.Allocation under the scheme is based on length of service and employee
performance.There have been two payouts since its launch, the latest taking place in July 2015 when Reward Gateway was
bought by Great Hill Partners.A shared payment of £6.5 million was made to employees below board level, and employees
currently hold around 5% of the equity.
Corey believes that the employee ownership scheme helps increase employees’ financial awareness and understanding of
the business in which they work:“They need to understand the financials, both what they are and their role in achieving
them. It’s important that this information is meaningful and actionable, so we recently started sharing quarterly financials
via a taped TV interview with our CEO and founder, Glenn Elliott. Glenn explains the quarterly financials and answers
questions to bring the numbers to life.”
6. BALANCING BENEFITS AT REWARD GATEWAY
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Corey explains:“We purposefully went with an 80/20 cost split
as we wanted employees to make a financial commitment to
the wellbeing activity.We’ve asked for goals and progress also,
as we want to be able to track and measure the success of the
new benefit, and at the same time celebrate the successes of
our employees.”
Parental leave
Parental leave is a benefit which was significantly changed to
align with the new benefit principles. Under the previous
scheme, employees were provided with separate maternity
and paternity provisions. But, as Corey puts it,“who are we to
decide who should be the primary caregiver and take the
leave”.
It was changed so that all employees, regardless of gender, are
entitled to the same policy and leave entitlements.
Besides making it a gender-neutral policy, the other change
was to significantly increase the amount of parental leave.
Under the previous benefit, employees were able to take 12
weeks at full pay and 12 weeks at 60% pay. It was changed to
be unlimited, fully paid time off during the child’s first year of
birth or adoption.
Corey reckons that this shows the company’s commitment to
supporting all employees at this important time of their lives.
Tracy Mellor, Reward Gateway’s Managing Director and Group
People Director, says:“Reward Gateway is all about making the
world a happier place to work. Our work lives and home lives
are inextricably linked and we need to look after our people so
that they can be the best version of themselves that they can
possibly be all the time – and that includes being in the right
place for their families too.”
Choose your package
The next benefit changed was the paid time-off benefit. Corey
explains:“The ‘choose your package’ benefit is a twist on
holiday trading. But it changes the focus from trading holidays
to looking at the combination, or package, of salary and time
off together. It lets employees decide what is right for them,
salary and time off.”
In addition to changing the benefit to offer choice, Reward
Gateway has increased paid time off entitlement for
employees around the world by five days.This again shows the
company’s commitment to looking after its employees, says
Corey.
Life assurance
Corey accepts that this is “not very exciting” in benefits terms,
but adds that it is the “right thing to offer as a company and
based on our new principles”. It provides protection for the
“wider Reward Gateway family” in all countries, and will be
rolled out later in 2016.
Country-level arrangements
In addition to introducing four global benefits, the Reward
Gateway team made a few changes to country-level local
benefits.This included offering new benefits, including food
vouchers in Bulgaria and discount dining cards in a variety of
other countries.These “rounded out” the benefits in each
country so that they were fair from both a global and local
perspective.
As Corey points out:“It’s often difficult and challenging to
balance global and local needs, but using our new benefit
principles we were able to achieve this and explain it to our
employees in an open, honest and transparent way.”
IMPLEMENTATION WORK STREAMS
As you can imagine, there was a lot of work to do to put in
place these new benefits, so Corey created two work streams
to ensure the work was carried out effectively and in line with
the “aggressive timelines”.
■ HR team: This team is responsible for the mechanics and
operational side of the new benefits – for example, setting
up the supporting technology and producing the rules and
policies for each benefit.The principle guiding its work is
simplicity – ensuring that each benefit can be clearly
understood by employees around the world, and, just as
important, easily used through technology and processes.
■ Communications team: This team is responsible for
developing and rolling out the communication of the new
benefits, as well as undertaking a full revamp of existing
communication vehicles. Corey expects this creative team
will develop some “amazing communications to go along
with the amazing new benefits”.
Stated objectives of the communications campaign include
being clear and targeted, shareable (“instagrammable fun”
as the team put it), measurable, comprehensive, unique and
best in class. Its campaign will use a variety of vehicles to
achieve these objectives.The communications vehicle
pulling it all together is Reward Gateway’s online
communications portal, boom!, which uses the SmartHub
technology.
LESSONS LEARNT
Corey has the following do’s and don’ts for organisations
planning to review and revamp benefits based on her
learnings:
Do:
■ Make sure you agree principles and strategy up front
otherwise you are likely to pay the price at the end of (or
during) the process.
■ Ensure your principles are “water tight” in both the short
and long term.
■ Talk to people at all levels in the organisation to gain both
feedback and engagement.They often come up with
“amazing ideas which you may have never thought of”.
■ Be true to your company’s values and culture, even if this
means you do things differently to other organisations.
■ Picture yourself having to deliver your strategy and changes
“on stage”, even if this is in your head.“Having to present
your ideas will ensure you think things through thoroughly.”
7. BALANCING BENEFITS AT REWARD GATEWAY
REPORT 111
www.e-reward.co.uk 6
Don’t:
■ Be afraid of making difficult decisions as long as they are
based on your agreed principles. Corey says:“They may
seem challenging and a bit scary, but as long as you know it
is the right thing to do, then do it.”
■ Underestimate the amount of time it will take to obtain
approval from your leadership team, taking into account all
of the multiple rounds of proposals that will need to be
presented.
■ Forget your management team throughout the process.
Not only does it bring a variety of perspectives, but also it’s
often the “voice of reason, pointing out from a line
perspective what will and will not work”.
REWARD GATEWAY VALUES
An employee-led project in 2013 defined a set of eight Reward Gateway values:
■ Love your job: Reward Gateway people are passionate, committed and inspire colleagues and clients every day.They
love what they do.Their career and their work life are incredibly important to them and they take it seriously.
■ Be human: Reward Gateway people understand that every colleague, client, partner and supplier is another human
being with their own hopes, fears, likes and dislikes.They understand that everyone has a career and personal life to
juggle.They empathise and understand what each person needs to be happy and successful.They connect on a deeply
human level, building resilient, balanced, long-term relationships.
■ Work hard: Reward Gateway people work hard because they love what they do and get a real buzz from delivering to
high standards.They live on the edge of their comfort zone, working with a strong sense of urgency and purpose.They
are busy and under pressure, but they’re rarely stressed because they are in control and they have chosen a fast-paced
ride.They thrive on challenge.
■ Own it: Reward Gateway people stand up and take ownership of things.When a volunteer is needed they all step
forward.They have levels of responsibility far in excess of others.They operate in a company with few rules and
minimal processes, this requires constant use and refinement of their own good judgement.
■ Push the boundaries: Reward Gateway people want tomorrow to be better than today.They want to build a better
future through everything they do.They question everything, challenge norms, raise bars and restlessly innovate.They
see opportunities years ahead of others.They understand that survival means that the only constant is change.
Reward Gateway people set the agenda.They lead our industry.
■ Delight your customers: Reward Gateway people don’t want happy they want delighted. Everything they do is to
make customers love them and love us.They want customers to recommend us without hesitation and to take us
from company to company in complete confidence. Reward Gateway makes the remarkable seem straightforward.
They allow customers to expect exceptional and get it.
■ Think global: Reward Gateway people understand that they are part of something bigger, that our strength comes
from being united.They understand that our success demands more than individual excellence in personal roles. It
requires working together across departmental, geographical and cultural boundaries to achieve something greater
than what they can achieve alone.
■ Speak up: Reward Gateway people are sharp, insightful and speak their minds.They discuss, debate, share views, listen
and develop their position.They are confident but never bullish.Their passion for the best outcome means that they
don’t always agree but they respect diversity, differences and decisions made after debate.They give feedback freely
and take feedback gracefully.
Source: The Reward Gateway Culture Book, 2014 Edition.
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