Meridian West partnered with HR tech firm Reward Gateway on an economic value study exploring ROI from HR initiatives. The project originated when Reward Gateway’s CMO identified a gap in ROI discussions at a major US HR conference, prompting research to quantify returns from HR technology investments.
The collaboration faced challenges gathering sensitive company financial data, requiring careful survey design to create universally applicable metrics across regions, industries, and organisational types. The resulting data enabled sophisticated segmentation between frontline and desk-based companies, with visualisations helping organisations benchmark their strategies.
The campaign generated impressive results, producing £2.25 million in pipeline value for Reward Gateway whilst establishing thought leadership in the HR tech sector. Key success factors included strong partnership collaboration, meticulous survey design, personalised data outputs, and sustained client engagement beyond initial publication.
The webinar demonstrates how strategic research partnerships can prove business value whilst elevating industry profile and maintaining ongoing client dialogue.
Meridian West partnered with HR tech firm Reward Gateway on an economic value study exploring ROI from HR initiatives. The project originated when Reward Gateway's CMO identified a gap in ROI discussions at a major US HR conference, prompting research to quantify returns from HR technology investments.
The collaboration faced challenges gathering sensitive company financial data, requiring careful survey design to create universally applicable metrics across regions, industries, and organisational types. The resulting data enabled sophisticated segmentation between frontline and desk-based companies, with visualisations helping organisations benchmark their strategies.
The campaign generated impressive results, producing £2.25 million in pipeline value for Reward Gateway whilst establishing thought leadership in the HR tech sector. Key success factors included strong partnership collaboration, meticulous survey design, personalised data outputs, and sustained client engagement beyond initial publication.
The webinar demonstrates how strategic research partnerships can prove business value whilst elevating industry profile and maintaining ongoing client dialogue.
Reward Gateway identified a fundamental gap in the HR industry: leaders lack credible data to prove that employee engagement initiatives drive business outcomes. The genesis came from their CMO attending a 20,000-person HR conference where no one was discussing meaningful ROI, only what employees need without evidence of business impact.
The project faced significant methodological challenges including getting companies to share sensitive financial data (net profit, growth rates), measuring employee engagement consistently across different industries and countries, and balancing accuracy with feasibility. The solution involved careful survey design with self-evaluated 0-10 ratings alongside harder metrics, plus a soft launch to test which measures actually worked.
he research went beyond generic findings by using segmentation analysis (frontline vs desk-based workers), cluster analysis to create client personas (Leaders, Drivers, Appeasers, and low performers), and embedded data fields allowing users to benchmark themselves against their specific industry and region. This transformed the report from a lecture into a personalized conversation.
The campaign generated concrete results: 2,000+ downloads, £2.25 million in pipeline value, 430+ companies contributing data, improved brand perception (particularly around "Reward Gateway can help us improve our business"), and became Reward Gateway's key differentiator in sales conversations when prospects ask "can you prove this will help me?"
nlike traditional one-off reports, this study continues as a dynamic tool with an open dashboard where new companies can participate, benchmark themselves, and access personalized insights. This longevity creates sustained value for business development, client success teams, and maintains Reward Gateway's thought leadership position whilst continuously expanding the dataset.