Dave Roberts on how benefits are evolving at Virgin Media O2
Flexible working, and better learning and development opportunities are typically highly valued among younger employees, according to Dave Roberts, head of benefits and recognition at Virgin Media O2.
Speaking at REBA’s recent webinar, Pay in a high inflation economy, run in conjunction with Personal Group/Innecto, Roberts told us how the company was evolving its benefits offering due to changing needs and priorities.
Virgin Media and O2 merged to become a joint venture in 2021. This presented an opportunity to redesign the company’s flexible benefits platform and allowed the expansion of the range of benefits.
“We introduced healthcare to some of our front-line workers, about 2,000 of them who had never had that full-cover service,” Roberts said, “and we’ve introduced a range of family friendly policies. That includes things like carer’s leave and additional paternity leave over and above the norm.”
Be a caring culture
Roberts said that when it comes to carer’s leave, it made sense to give people the time off they need. “That makes them more likely to stay with your organisation. In a lot of cases, employees are forced to take sick leave because other forms of leave are unpaid,” he said.
“In a cost-of-living crisis, they can’t afford to do that and it breaks down trust. You might as well support them and accept that there is a cost to that, but it’s probably not a cost that didn’t exist in your organisation already.”
Next-generation benefits
Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reward, Roberts said he is seeing a trend in the desirability of certain benefits, particularly among the increasing number of graduates and apprentices starting their careers at Virgin Media O2.
“We’re definitely seeing a shift away from interest in the traditional kinds of benefits, such as life insurance and income protection,” he said. “That’s not to say that they’re not important, because they are very, very important, but perhaps, at that time of life, less of an issue.”
Flexible working, and better learning and development opportunities are typically highly valued. Pensions have also been popular, with the general sense being that there’s a cultural shift under way, meaning that workers are looking at how they can develop themselves within an organisation, rather than thinking about short-term rewards. “They’ve got a longer perspective,” said Roberts, “so there’s definitely something around that.”
An holistic approach
One take-home that Roberts offered was to try not to look at benefits in a compartmentalised way. “It’s easy to do that,” he said, “I’ve done it myself in the past; it’s a natural inclination as a benefits professional to kind of own your own stuff. But the reality is there’s so much more to stay at an organisation for, and all of that needs to be brought together.
“The people who work for you don’t see the difference between benefits, policies and work culture. They just see what they experience on a day-to-day basis and all of that has to work in a harmonious way. I give them what they want.”
