Background

Waipa District Council looks after the central North Island region that includes Te Awamutu, Cambridge, Kihikihi, Pirongia, Ōhaupō and Leamington. The council employs more than 300 people who are engaged with supporting social resilience, culture and heritage, environmental sustainability and economic progress.

Challenge

Like all employers in New Zealand, the Waipa District Council has to compete for attention in a job market that is flooded with opportunities. They want to attract and retain the best people; in return they offer a friendly and supportive working environment where success is valued and appreciated.

For Adele Bird, Procurement Advisor at the council, finding new ways to reward employees is always balanced by the work involved. In 2020 she went looking for a programme that would replace an existing employee discount card, because administering the card programme was too time consuming.

“I wanted an employee benefits programme that would take less resource to support. We were also trying to move to more use of digital platforms.”

Solution

When Adele discovered the Boost programme for employee discounts and special offers, she liked what she saw.

“Most of our staff are provided with a mobile, so they can easily access the Boost programme. Once they’ve logged in to the platform, it’s easy for them to view savings opportunities and take advantage of the discounts.”

Decision makers at the council were happy with Adele’s recommendation. They could see that Boost is an affordable way to enhance employee happiness with discounts from popular retailers and service providers.

Results

Boost has been available to Waipa District Council employees for more than two years now and feedback has been positive.

“There’s less administration with the Boost programme and it’s easy to add and delete employees as necessary. Our people like how easy it is for them to access Boost discounts and offers through the mobile app.”

Data analysis of Boost usage by Waipa District Council employees shows that discounts from Millennium Hotels, CurtainStudio, Apex Car Rentals, and Torpedo7 are the most popular benefits.