It’s important to look at fresh and inventive ways to engage employees with their workplace pensions and benefits, while actively supporting their overall wellbeing.
Since the start of Covid, webinars and video conferencing initially served to replace on-site engagements, but at EBC we recognised the need for something more dynamic and interactive to recreate the on-site experience virtually.
We have been looking at ways to make wellbeing services more accessible and relevant, addressing challenges faced by employers, post-pandemic. To meet this objective, the idea of a TV show emerged as a potential solution, which led to the development of EBC TV, a platform which features live chat-show style programmes on a range of money and wellbeing issues.
The content is largely delivered by the team at EBC but we have collaborated with an external production company on technical aspects and set-up, with the EBC TV ‘hub’ initially white-labelling from their platform.
The shows produced are independent and free from product selling, focusing on various topics from pensions to discount schemes.
Audience participation is encouraged, with community members posing real-time questions, or sharing their insights — though a catch-up function is also available, allowing employees to view at their convenience.
Guest speakers from wellbeing organisations complement our internal experts. The first live show, themed around ‘money and pensions,’ aired in May 2022, addressing the cost-of-living crisis and pension-related topics. The second live broadcast in August 2022 centred on the three pillars of wellbeing.
Learning from these initial broadcasts, we enhanced EBC TV at the start of 2023. These improvements included migrating it to our own platform with gated access, and a closer-to-home recording studio.
This platform enables us to offer other services, such as one-to-one consultations, plus additional content, such as wellbeing blogs, and free online resources, with gated access allowing better tracking of log-ins.
The data shows that since upgrading the service we’ve had over 5,000 views, and 22 per cent of these are from returning users. People are making use of the catch-up function, with over 100 people, for example watching catch-up broadcasts in the first five days following our May 9, 2023, shows.
And we can see what the most popular topics are: last year the most viewed programme, for example, was November’s live show: ‘Your Money Mindset: Get better at managing your money’
Overall around 20 employers have now signed up to EBC TV, meaning it is available to 35,000 employees. To date, the feedback, from both employers and employees has been excellent and there has been a 100 per cent renewal rate. The channel has also won awards for innovation.
Employers who are serious about wellbeing need to look at a range of engagement tools and platforms. TV can provide an effective way to get employees to ‘switch on’ to benefits and learn more about the various options available to them.
