In February 2008, we extended our My Choice flexible benefits scheme from the 500 existing participants to 12,500 employees

In preparation for this, we carried out a survey of existing participants, running alongside a series of employee focus groups. These were held at 10 of our locations, involving a cross section of employees from all parts of the business. These interactive sessions explained the nature of flexible benefits and focused on what benefits should be included in the scheme and how it should be administered.

The groups were generally positive about introducing a flexible benefits scheme more widely across our business, and a summary of comments was fed back into the planning process and resulted in a number of changes to the scheme design. We provided participants with an update on our progress during November 2007 and asked them to act as our local 'champions' during the scheme's wider roll-out. This has worked well and, as a result, more than 20% of eligible employees made choices in the flexible benefits scheme.