Wincanton Win Release

Largest British 3PL appoints Personal Group to implement new mobile solution to drive employee engagement and improve internal communications across the business 

Wincanton, the largest British third party logistics firm, has implemented Personal Group’s employee experience platporm, Hapi, for its 17,500 staff to help drive employee engagement across the business.

Wincanton provides supply chain consultancy and solutions to some of the world’s most admired brands. The company employs more than 17,500 people across over 200 sites and has a 3,600-strong fleet of vehicles. Central to its operations is the company’s workforce which ensures its distribution networks are effectively managed and delivered on time.

Wincanton previously had a comprehensive yet fragmented benefit offering, working with various partners. They wanted to streamline their system to offer all of their rewards and benefits in one place. Wincanton chose to partner with employee services provider Personal Group to create a uniquely branded platform named iSmile. The platform provides employees with a single point of access to all of the company’s existing benefits, internal communications, engagement programmes, health and wellbeing resources, employee surveys, and retail and leisure discounts.  

The new platform is also accessible via a Wincanton-branded mobile app, available to employees directly from the app and play stores. An app was essential to Wincanton, meaning that Wincanton’s employees, no matter where they are, can stay up to date with the latest business news and announcements as well as access top food, drink, travel and entertainment discounts to save money outside of work. The app’s push notifications also enable Wincanton’s comms team to instantly reach different segments of their workforce direct. They have the capability to send out an update to all staff or send out group notifications to specific teams, contracts or locations. This is vital for Wincanton’s mobile workforce.

The platform launched in late 2018 and, to quickly bring all employees up to speed, Personal Group’s Employee Engagement Executives are meeting employees face to face on an individual basis. This ensures that by the end of the roll-out, each and every employee will know where and how to make savings based on their lifestyle preferences, and how to take advantage of the full suite of Wincanton benefits and communications.

Wincanton is now able to track app and platform usage, seeing which benefits are being capitalised on, where they had previously not. This is helping the company to further tailor their reward offering. 

Laura Mason-Byers, Internal Communications Manager at Wincanton commented: ‘For us, iSmile is really about investing and engaging with colleagues. Colleagues working in silos, on the road, or unsociable hours can easily miss key company information, but with iSmile we are able to contact and engage the workforce in its entirety. Our colleagues are initially drawn to the app by the discounts, but the accessibility of the information stored on the platform, and the ease of use, has kept them returning.’

Steve Mason, Business Development Director at Personal Group added: “Hapi offers a single point of access to all benefits and employee services in one place. We are delighted to be partnering with Wincanton to help improve their employee experience and now embed this solution. Wincanton is working on some great engagement initiatives and Hapi is helping ensure they have the tools in place to communicate effectively with their staff, wherever they are based and help drive engagement with staff, wherever they are around the country.”

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