case study Lend Lease
Case Study
Lend Lease
Lend Lease is one of the world’s leading providers of fully integrated, endto-end property solutions. Operating in Australia, Asia, Europe, the Middle
East and the US, the company has more than 2,000 employees across the
UK – most of them eligible for benefits. Its existing scheme, Preference,
had already been up and running for five years when Lend Lease asked
Vebnet for help.
case study Lend Lease
“From previous experience we had estimated a considerable effort to move our
system interfaces to the new service. The skills, knowledge, level of commitment
and engagement from the Vebnet technical team enabled us to complete the
project with far less effort and disruption than expected.”
Mark Timbs
ICT Applications Manager UK, CEMEA & LAC | Lend Lease Corporation
The challenge
By late 2009, the Preference benefits scheme had become an
established part of the fabric for Lend Lease in the UK. That said,
the company felt there was room for improvement when it came
to employee engagement.
In particular, Lend Lease was looking to increase the number of
employees that logged on to review or change their benefits each
year. It also wanted to optimise the performance of the Preference
helpdesk and make the scheme’s website more inviting and
user‑friendly.
As Lend Lease’s five-year contract with another benefits provider
was up for renewal in January 2010, the company decided to take
the opportunity to appoint and switch to a new provider. At this
point, it had just under four months to do so.
The shortlisted companies needed a solid reputation and a
reliable, cost-effective technological solution, but there was
another important factor to consider. Lend Lease had only just
recruited a new reward team. So, the new provider would also
have to demonstrate the confidence, knowledge and experience
to take the lead – and support its client through a smooth, fast
implementation process.
Lend Lease EMEA’s new Head of Reward Shaina Kotecha says:
“Vebnet was clearly our first choice. It was apparent to our IT team
that the proposed solution would be easy to implement and
integrate with our existing interfaces. Vebnet’s technology also
ticked all the right boxes for us in terms of the way it worked and
its look and feel.
“We were also immediately impressed by Vebnet’s project
management capabilities and commitment to ‘hand-hold’ us
through the implementation process. All of us were on a learning
curve, making the challenge twice as hard. The Vebnet project
management team did a brilliant job.”
The solution
With Vebnet helping to steer the implementation process, Lend
Lease was able to meet its tight deadline – and ready to switch
over to its new benefits provider on 1 February 2010.
In the main, there have been no changes to Preference’s benefits
offer: a combination of core benefits – private health insurance,
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“We also wanted to move away from using images of
people. Office employees wouldn’t necessarily relate to
the same images as builders working on construction sites,
so it was important to create a distinctive yet universally
appealing brand that relied on graphic design rather than
stock photography.”
Shaina Kotecha
Head of Reward, Lend Lease EMEA Region
car allowance, pension scheme – and voluntary benefits such as
travel insurance, critical illness cover and dental health insurance.
However, Vebnet’s benefits portal has given Lend Lease the
flexibility to make much-needed adjustments.
For example, under the previous provider, enrolment in the
Government’s cycle-to-work scheme could only take place once a
year. So, if a new joiner to the company just missed that enrolment
date, he or she would have to wait another twelve months to take
part in the scheme. Vebnet’s portal now makes it possible for new
joiners to enrol every quarter.
Lend Lease has also been able, for the first time, to offer Preference
to employees on fixed-term contracts: a provision that its previous
benefits software wasn’t offering.
Shaina Kotecha says: “We are also thinking about expanding
Preference to include employees across the EMEA region. This was
a further key reason for choosing Vebnet’s solution, which offers
multi-language and global functionality.”
Another part of Vebnet’s solution for Lend Lease was to run a
more efficient and responsive helpdesk, and take enquiries off the
hands of the reward team.
But perhaps the most important change has been to the
programme’s look and feel. Shaina Kotecha says: “In itself, a
change of provider isn’t of particular interest to employees. The
important message for us was that the portal itself had improved,
being more attractive and easier to use. So, the scheme’s look and
feel had to look different – and Vebnet helped us come up with a
friendly, vibrant, contemporary design: bright colours on a black
background.
case study Lend Lease
“We were immediately impressed by Vebnet’s project management
capabilities and commitment to ‘hand-hold’ us through the
implementation process…
The Vebnet project management team did a brilliant job.”
Shaina Kotecha
Head of Reward, Lend Lease EMEA Region
“We also wanted to move away from using images of people.
Although Lend Lease is quite a male-oriented company, the
workforce is very diverse in terms of age, skills and educational
backgrounds. Office employees wouldn’t necessarily relate to the
same images as builders working on construction sites, so it was
important to create a distinctive yet universally appealing brand
that relied on graphic design rather than stock photography.”
The communication campaign
Clearly, the switch-over to Vebnet’s solution on 1 February 2010
was an important landmark for the Lend Lease Reward Team. But
communication of the new-look Preference scheme focused on a
date with more relevance to employees: the opening of the 2010
enrolment/renewal period on 1 March.
Rolled out from February 2010, communication materials
consistently used the new visual identity and colour scheme
to make them instantly recognisable as Preference-related
information. These materials included:
A detailed brochure about Preference, which clearly sets out
the advantages of employee benefits and savings that can be
made.
Countdown-to-enrolment posters, displayed around office
buildings. Stages of the countdown were printed on each side
of every poster, so that the posters could simply be reversed
at the appropriate time. This double-sided design helped save
paper and support Lend Lease’s commitment to sustainability.
Roadshows have also taken place around the country, giving
benefits providers the chance to ‘sell’ and explain their particular
offering to employees.
Shaina Kotecha says: “There has been lots of good feedback from
employees about the roadshows. Overall, the communication
campaign has really helped people realise that Preference is
different now: better, faster and smarter.”
The future
Vebnet’s ongoing services for Lend Lease is set to make life easier
for the reward team. With employees now being encouraged to call
Vebnet’s new Preference helpdesk, there is also less administration for
the reward team to do, as Vebnet have taken over the reconciliation
and validation of benefits provider invoices for Lend Lease.
Perhaps most importantly of all, it is hoped that Preference will
now be more highly valued by Lend Lease employees. Shaina
Kotecha says: “With Vebnet’s help, we have created a new portal and
communication tools that clearly spell out how employees can make
great savings on tax and National Insurance. We anticipate not only
raising the profile of Preference, but also awareness of how it can
improve employees’ finances.
“Thanks to Vebnet’s expertise, technology and project management
skills, we have been able to meet a very tight deadline – and quickly
re-launch a more user-friendly scheme that, we hope, will meet our
employees’ needs more closely, now and in the future.”
Announcements and articles on Lend Lease’s intranet site,
The Hive.
Employee magazine articles.
E-cards, sent out on 1 March to remind employees to log on to
the new Preference portal.
Personalised letters – including new user names and
passwords – sent to employees’ home addresses, where they
would have more time and be more likely to read and note
down all necessary information.
Branded credit card fold-outs.
Preference lollipops.
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case study Lend Lease
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