Sponsor Workshops

BLUEFIN
2015: A Benefits Odyssey

Bluefin will facilitate an interactive session mapping out the evolution of the economy, corporate ethos, legislation and proposition development over the next five years to look at how a benefits programme in 2015 might differ from one today.

The session will include the following:

• The impact of the 2012 pension reforms
• The development of corporate wrap
• The impact of economic recovery on talent retention
• Executive advice in the post Finance Act '09

Personal Group
How do you engage line managers when it comes to benefits?

Line managers and benefits communication

All too frequently companies overlook the crucial role that line managers could play in the benefits communication process. According to the Employee Benefits Research 2009, only 34% of organisations admit to using their line managers to communicate benefits to staff. Surely at a time when employers acknowledge the importance of helping their people understand the content and value of their benefits package, this figure needs to be much higher? And in the ongoing tough business climate - where organisations need to maximise every available penny of their benefits budget - the cost effective and, seemingly, easily accessible channel of reaching employees through their line managers, should not be overlooked lightly.

Session objective
To develop an employee benefits communication plan that will engage line managers to champion the benefits offered to their people. Based on a 4 very different line manager profiles, you'll be asked to identify the tools, tactics and technique that will ensure they appreciate why benefits are important to them as managers, as well as their team. The task will be to create and develop a communications plans that has real impact. Prizes are on offer to the most imaginative, well thought through proposal.

Thomsons Online Benefits
Proving the return on investment of your employee benefits

Line managers and benefits communication

In this session Thomsons Online Benefits will explore the options available to organisations to measure their return-on-investment in reward programmes, highlighting how this has advanced using modern day technologies such as Thomsons proprietary system "Darwin".

The area of return on investment is a complex one. True return on investment has to show a cause and an effect and that the input directly caused the output. Organisations typically use a combination of up to three approaches

Hard facts and hard savings - some things can be measured: administration and broking costs and savings can be captured and identified, as well as take-up and benefit programme costs.
Anecdotal behaviours - systems can now interrogate employee data and behaviours and look for anomalies enabling organisations to make changes to communications, or benefit plans, to target segments of the workforce.
'The holy grail' - statistical models linking engagement and business results which enable us to look at inputs and see which activities drove the outputs.

The session will look the three approaches and how organisations can structure the data available to them to improve their reward decision-making.

Towers Watson
Choice and flexibility!

In this highly interactive workshop, Towers Watson allow you to choose which of four hot topics are most relevant to you, to explore in detail. These include sharing new research on the post-recession employment relationship, through our unique Global Workforce Study; sharing our research into benefit trends in the Asia Pacific region; looking at how flexible benefits can be used to harmonise benefits and to deliver benefit change; and considering UK specific issues around changes in taxation particularly affecting high earners, and how flex can help with financial education.

Vebnet
Design and communication strategies that drive employee engagement

As employee engagement becomes ever more critical during economic recovery, Vebnet will explore how benefits design, delivery and communication is being used to more effectively grab employees' attention and get them engaged with the business. We'll be looking at emerging strategies in benefits design as well as how to communicate with diverse employee groups whilst ensuring that you can also respond to varying business requirements.

Wealth At Work
Is the financial well-being of your employees important?

The valuable contribution employees make during their working lives is likely to contribute to the long term prosperity of the companies for whom they work; what can employees expect to receive in return? Understand why companies are now securing the long term financial well being of their employees and what impact this will have on their financial future if ignored.

This workshop will reveal exclusive research results from the UK's largest of companies and will discuss the benefits to the employer and employee.