The Urenco success story: Transforming reward from legacy to leading to power 2X growth

The challenge

In 2022, Urenco – a global leader in nuclear enrichment – embarked on a journey to radically transform its employee benefits strategy. What began as a limited offering of pension and private medical insurance (a model that felt like it belonged in the 1990s) evolved into a comprehensive, purpose-led benefits programme, hosted on Benifex’s benefits platform.

This new strategy was a direct response to Urenco’s significant business evolution: following geopolitical shifts and the resulting energy diversification across the West, the company expanded rapidly, growing from 1,600 to over 2,700 employees globally within two years. During this time, the company’s valuation surged from £3 billion to £11 billion, necessitating a renewed focus on employee experience, retention, and attraction in a highly specialised talent market.

The challenge: How to make Urenco a destination employer for nuclear specialists and engineers – while ensuring the benefits offering was as forward-thinking and impactful as the company’s mission.

Urenco’s new reward strategy was designed with clear objectives:

1. Attract and retain top-tier talent amid unprecedented company growth and market competition.
2. Enhance employee understanding and perceived value of benefits, addressing a ‘value void’ where employees didn’t know or value what the organization provided.
3. Build a scalable, global benefits framework to support rapid expansion across key international markets.
4. Modernize their EVP by introducing a range of flexible benefits to meet diverse employee needs and expectations.
5. Embed ESG values and wellbeing into everyday employee experiences – including benefits.

The solution

Digitally transforming benefits to deliver a remarkable employee experience

Before 2022, Urenco offered two main benefits: private health insurance and pensions. They wanted to modernize their offering and provide their UK employees with greater flexibility and choice. But to be able to administer these benefits and make it easy for employees to understand what was available – and take action – they needed to put a benefits platform in place for the first time. They selected Benifex’s benefits platform, which they branded ‘Reward U’, and launched in 2023.

With the launch of the new platform, Urenco also introduced a full suite of new core and flexible benefits that support its values, mission and purpose – including:

• Green benefits such as ultra-low emission vehicle leasing, cycle-to-work, charitable giving, carbon offsetting and season ticket loans.
• Financial wellbeing support such as salary finance, loans, savings accounts, will writing, and a technology benefit that provides discounted rates on tech. Urenco also provides fully funded financial coaching and contribute 16% to pension.
• Wellbeing benefits such as gym benefit, a healthcare cash plan, health assessment, dental insurance, and cancer cover.
• Protection benefits such as critical illness, group income protection, life insurance, partner life insurance, and travel insurance.

Urenco’s UK employees now have 20 benefits to choose from, and the launch was supported by a strong communications strategy – including articles on the home feed.

Reframing the value conversation with Total Reward Statements

A standout feature of Urenco’s approach is its commitment to education and transparency. As part of the platform launch, Urenco introduced Total Reward Statements (TRS) to better communicate the value of everything they do to support employees.

The TRS:

• Clearly breaks down all reward components – base pay, bonuses, 16% employer pension contributions, healthcare, life cover, and more.
• Empowers employees to visualize the full value of their package – supporting talent attraction and retention.
• Acts as a foundational tool for addressing forthcoming EU Pay Transparency legislation.

Globalizing the Reward function

Urenco’s reward function – led globally from London but supported by local HR teams across six international sites – has introduced matrixed management to break down silos. They’ve been able to build a globally consistent reward strategy while allowing for regional flexibility.

Following the success of ‘Reward U’ in the UK, Urenco is planning to rollout the benefits platform globally – starting with the US (following their implementation of a new global HRIS system).

Results

Exceptional benefits engagement:

• In 2024, 93% of employees logged into the platform and 52% (730 employees) submitted a flexible benefit. This is an exceptional submission rate, especially considering Urenco’s strong core offering.
• The platform has driven strong anytime engagement, with employees logging in at least once per week – showing that they now see it as an everyday resource to access information and support.
• Most popular benefits include:
  • Dental insurance, selected by 21% of employees
  • Travel insurance, selected by 9% of employees
  • Car salary sacrifice, selected by 7% of employees – that’s 185 petrol/diesel vehicles off the road, equivalent to 314.5 tonnes of CO2 per year
  • Critical illness insurance, selected by 5% of employees
  • Gym membership, selected by 4% of employees

Importantly, employees can now choose the benefits that matter most to them and their individual circumstances. They are better protected from risk, their wellbeing is better supported, and they have more eco-friendly options.

Business impact: Benefits are moving the needle on organizational success metrics

• Employee engagement scores for benefits have surged from 5.4 in 2022 to 8.8 in 2024, which is significantly above the industry average.
• Benefits are now regularly cited in interviews and onboarding conversations as a reason to join Urenco; Urenco’s strong benefits proposition is now a core part of its EVP.
• Urenco currently saves £400k per year in Employer NI – this figure would be even higher but they share the Employer NI saving in relation to pensions with employees.