Communicating the benefits of Childcare Vouchers
A new suite of creative materials has been designed by Accor Services Childcare Vouchers to help clients launch and promote their childcare voucher schemes.
Research conducted among clients and parents in 2007 highlighted the need for new communications material that would help employees understand the true value of childcare vouchers.
The new creatives pick up on this feedback, and focus on the financial benefits of childcare vouchers, prompting employees to think about what they would do with the extra £100 per month (or £1,195 p.a.) in their pay packets.
The emphasis is that it is the parents’ choice whether they use the savings to treat the kids, take a holiday or put it towards their childcare.
The materials emphasise that it is simple to join the scheme and easy to use the vouchers. They also aim to overturn some of the common misconceptions about childcare vouchers, highlighting that they are available to both male and female employees and that they can be used to pay for the care of children up to the age of 16.
Initial response to the new creatives has been excellent, with many new and existing clients utilising the new range of online and offline support in the first few weeks.
“We offer a wide range of online, offline and face to face support to help clients communicate the benefits of childcare vouchers effectively. It’s really important that we listen to our clients so that we can deliver a communications programme that best fits the needs of their employees and the organisation as whole. Our communications team is on hand to plan the process from launch right through to enrolment and beyond in order to help make the scheme a success”, says Marketing Services Manager, Fay Bliss.
Fife Council recently took advantage of Accor Services new employee communications, utilising a number of offline channels. “We really wanted to get a strong message across to employees that highlighted the cost savings they could make by choosing childcare vouchers, and which creatively demonstrated how they might spend their savings,” explains Ruth Brown, HR Adviser at Fife Council.
“Accor Services worked with us to develop a range of communications focusing on the 'Maybe you'd put it towards a holiday' theme. The latest of these coincided with our 2008 employee benefits campaign and included the distribution of novelty "Wish You Were Here" postcards inside our annual benefits leaflet. The postcards looked great and directed parents to our own intranet site and the very informative Accor Services website where parents can join the scheme by completing a simple online enrolment form. We expect this campaign to boost our take-up rate by reiterating the cost savings for our employees," says Ruth Brown
 
Example of the postcard desk drop
One initiative that has recently proved successful is the use of an on-line survey to assess the level of interest in childcare vouchers within a business. Employees answer a few simple questions and can then click through to request further information which can then be fed back to the organisation. Employees can also register their attendance at presentations held at their company and conducted by a childcare voucher expert.
The Accor Services’ communications team recently supported the launch of childcare vouchers at insurance firm, Allianz, which used on-line communications to publicise a presentation and to gauge interest from their nationwide employee base.
“We had recently switched providers and wanted to make sure that we made the most of this opportunity to re-engage with our employees and communicate the benefits of choosing childcare Vouchers. Accor Services’ communications team demonstrated an intelligent approach to the marketing of the scheme and devised a short online survey to assess the level of interest from parents. A link to the survey was included in eye catching HTML emails, specifically created by Accor Services for our different target audiences. This resulted in more than 120 employees nationwide registering to find out more – and over 30 people attending an event we hosted at our Guildford office,” explains Sarah Clark, Benefits Co-ordinator at Allianz.
An example of the HTML email based on the holiday theme
To find out how Accor Services can communicate the benefits of childcare vouchers, speak to your Accor Services Account Manager for more details.
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