Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI) was established in 2016 to enable UK Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds to pool resources and improve management of their assets for the benefit of employers and their scheme members. LPPI provides client funds with a whole scheme management approach, managing around £24 billion of pension assets (at 30 September 2023).

Since 2016, LPPI has been using an intranet from Sorce to improve how employees engage with the business, and it’s become the hub for organisation-wide information and news. To meet the ever-changing needs of the business and its employees, the organisation is constantly looking at ways to evolve its intranet, with recent developments including a tailored new starter home page and the introduction of event booking functionality.

Rolling-out a centralised hub

LPPI’s intranet from Sorce was implemented in 2016 after the pension service provider identified the need for a central resource for storing and sharing information and news. The provider wanted it to become the ‘go to’ location for cross-company policies and updates and a means for connecting with colleagues from across the business.

During the pandemic, when all LPPI employees worked from home, the intranet provided a vital hub for remote working resources. And since the move to hybrid working, employees have found the intranet useful for locating what they need 24/7 – from policy documents through to access to employee systems and IT support. The intranet is also an important access point for employee benefits including wellbeing support, mental health first aiders, private medical insurance details, gym discounts, electric vehicle scheme information, and more. In addition, regular updates from the CEO and company-wide news ensure employees are regularly kept informed.

With a desire to keep meeting the evolving needs of the business and its people, to underpin the company culture, and to further improve employee engagement, LPPI’s People and Culture team is constantly looking at how the intranet can be used to support these objectives.

Lisa Leveridge, People and Culture Operations Manager at LPPI, says, “It’s important to make the employee experience as smooth and intuitive as possible, and find new ways to engage our people with LPPI and its objectives. The intranet is a key tool for achieving this.”

Improving new starter engagement

One of the team’s recent developments has involved improving the onboarding process for new starters. To quickly engage new starters and to cater for their specific needs, it was realised that the intranet could be used to signpost new joiners to all the key information they require while nurturing a sense of belonging from day one. And so the team developed a tailored new starter home page as Leveridge explains: “For their first four weeks, all new starters are directed to a customised intranet home page that provides the key documents, policies and information they need to get up to speed. As an example, it highlights LPPI’s key points of contact, our approach to hybrid working, where to find policies, how to book holidays, where to locate benefits information and so on.”

After the four-week onboarding period, the bespoke home page automatically switches over to the standard home page.

Leveridge says, “By making the intranet experience for all new starters tailored to their needs, we’re finding that they’re becoming engaged with the business and our intranet far sooner. They also instinctively go to the intranet for whatever they need, which is helping to streamline their everyday experience.”

Engaging staff with LPPI events

LPPI’s employee events and workshops are also promoted through the intranet, with a quick and easy tool that’s now accessible from the home page helping to increase event bookings.

“Although hybrid working is now commonplace, we understand the importance of getting employees together for learning and connecting,” says Leveridge. “By encouraging employees to book events and workshops, and making the process quick and easy through our intranet, this is providing important learning and development opportunities while allowing our people to broaden their knowledge.”

Vacancies instantly publicised 

Another recent development is linking LPPI’s applicant tracking system (ATS) to the intranet so that job vacancies uploaded to the ATS are automatically posted to the intranet and viewable from the home page.

“It’s a simple but important change meaning that there’s no lag in advertising job vacancies internally. All employees now have an instant view of all company-wide job vacancies and can apply for roles as soon as they become available”, says Leveridge.

The future

LPPI is constantly looking at ways to keep the intranet fresh and engaging and has a number of developments in the pipeline.

Leveridge concludes, “Our intranet has become an essential tool for everyday working and for driving engagement with our business, and we’re always looking at ways to make it even better and take it to the next level.”