How the client gave 550 employees practical support through the cost of living crisis – and found it changed far more than anyone expected
- 550 staff in a range of roles
- My Group provided – discounts, virtual GP, counselling, gym
- Challenge: Cost of living pressures and limited pay flexibility
- Outcomes: Engagement, financial wellbeing, attendance
The organisation
The client is a growing trust based in Staffordshire, currently supporting around 550 employees across seven schools. They have expanded significantly in the last 18 months, bringing three mainstream schools into the family and setting its sights on continued growth.
The majority of staff are classroom based – a mix of teachers and teaching assistants whose working days leave little room for flexibility. Their Chief Finance and Operating Officer oversees the majority of non-educational operations at the Trust, including their people strategy, reward and wellbeing offers.
“We have ambitions to grow even further,” The CFO explains. “But growth brings its own challenges, particularly around how you support people consistently across multiple sites and working in different buildings with very different day-to-day pressures.”
The challenge
Education is a sector where pay follows nationally negotiated terms, pay grades and pay scales are mandated. There is only so far, any trust can go on salary alone, regardless of how much it wants to do more.
Additionally, the cost of living had been adding pressure to staff. The Trust was beginning to see this pressure show up in absence levels and in the feedback and day to day atmosphere.
“We were thinking about what innovative solutions we could look at,” says the CFO. “We couldn’t change the pay scales, bu we could think about what else we could do – what extra support we could provide to help people with the pressures they were facing.”
“We felt we were quite limited in terms of the support we could offer colleagues. The cost of living pressures were real and we’d heard it from employees. We needed to find something more.”
Chief Finance and Operating Officer
They needed to consider the practicality of their systems. With staff spread across different locations and largely tied to classroom timetables, the Trust needed something people could access on the go. It needed to be accessible on a mobile for those on the go, and a single platform that worked for everyone, regardless of school or role.
Why My Group
The Trust looked at a number of options before signing with My Group. What distinguished My Group, in The CFO’s view was the variety of what was available in a single platform.
“We liked that it wasn’t just a reward package. There was the Virtual GP access, the nutrition support and the virtual gym – all of that came together in one place. We felt it would deliver clear and identifiable savings that employees could see straight away. There was percentage saving at stores they actually recognised and shopped with. The benefit was visible in front of them.”
The management information piece was also significant. The data and detail My Group provides during their quarterly meetings gave the Trust something it simply had not had before: a clear picture of what its people needed and engaged with.
My Group was committed to making the rollout as smooth as possible, which involved bringing in Benefits Consultants to insure employees were familiar and confident using the platform.
“The investment of time in deploying Benefits Consultants made a real difference,” said the CFO. “When we started the project in September, a number of our schools received daily visits from those consultants. They saw as many people as they could on site, explaining what the benefits were. That helped drive engagement across the Trust from the very start.”
“It combined all of those things in one place. And we really liked the clarity of the management information. It’s granular, it gives us valuable data, and it helps us understand who we can support.”
The Chief Finance and Operating Officer
The Rollout and implementation
My Group worked with the client to build a clear roadmap, a structured plan from initial conversations to a working and successful implementation across all seven schools.
One of the most effective parts of the approach was creating ‘platform champions’. Within each school, an identified member of staff was tasked as an internal advocate. Someone who could provide their colleagues with information about My Group, support with activation, and keep engagement momentum going in their building.
The champions, alongside the benefit consultants My Group sent to site, ensured the success of the platform’s launch, and that the knowledge of how to use the system was in place from day one.
“The feedback was that it was simple to activate,” The CFO says. “Just the press of a button, a quick process, and really clear. It wasn’t convoluted or complicated.” For a workforce that is classroom based, that simplicity was a key advantage.
The impact
What started as a response to the cost of living crisis has become habitual in employees’ lives. High Street savings are for many staff how they approach their weekly spending, and a default way of making their money go further.
Wellbeing usage has also increased across the platform. The Virtual GP, mental health support gym access has all seen growing engagement. For many employees, the benefit has extended beyond themselves, with support extending to their family.
“The 24/7 GP access has been a real benefit. Employees have struggled to get GP appointments and it’s helped enormously – being able to access appointments virtually, get prescriptions sorted. It’s been a real game changer.”
Chief Finance and Operating Officer
The quarterly meetings revealed the outcome the team was hoping for. £20,000 was spent through the platform in the previous quarter alone, and a more than 50% increase in active users’ quarter on quarter. As the Trust continues to grow, along with ambitions to bring further schools into the family, the infrastructure now in place through My Group gives the client a clear plan of action, without needing to change its approach with every new school that comes on board.
“It’s helped us deliver real and tangible benefit to employees, to support them through the cost of living crisis and give them access to something that combines a whole range of support in one platform. The data it gives us has been invaluable. We know what our people are looking for and we can target that benefit accordingly.”
Chief Finance and Operating Officer
“What our client shows is what happens when a trust genuinely commits to finding a better way to support its people. The CFO and the team came to us with a clear problem and the openness to find a solution. The fact that 50% more people are using the platform quarter on quarter, and that the family coverage piece has become one of the things people talk about most, tells us that the impact goes well beyond discounts and vouchers. It’s about giving people’s working lives a little more breathing room. That’s what we’re here to do.”
Jamie Keeling, Group Sales Director, My Group
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Last Updated: 29th October 2026
Jamie is passionate about helping people get more from their employee benefits, making a positive difference to their lives while delivering meaningful results for My Group’s clients.
Published: 26th Oct 2026