The customer
GESB is a WA Government statutory authority with over 80 years' experience managing and administering the super savings of current and former public sector employees. With currently around 240,000 members and over $30 billion in funds under management (as at 31 December 2019), GESB is the largest super fund in WA and one of the largest in Australia.
GESB is run by the WA public sector for the WA public sector, with a focus on putting their members first and advocating for them when it comes to their super and insurance. In aiming to do this, GESB has faced a few challenges along the way.
A structural change saw GESB outsource administration and other services but retain a small digital team. Despite its reduced size the team was under pressure to increase online engagement and deliver valuable products and services to members, while continuing to adhere to ongoing government recommendations and reforms.
The team needed to easily deliver personalised and segmented content on their website to create a seamless and engaging member experience. They also needed to make their websites more accessible, to meet the WA Government’s requirement of all government agencies adhering to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 to AA compliance level.
To do this they needed a flexible and user-friendly Content Management System (CMS) that the digital team could use to collaborate.
Following a comprehensive evaluation process, GESB chose the Squiz Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to deliver on their digital vision – i.e. to increase engagement with their members via digital channels.
Together with Squiz, GESB aimed to:
- Increase and encourage member engagement with the website and improve the availability and accessibility of information online
- Provide a high-quality search experience to allow members to easily find relevant information on the site
- Move paper forms into the digital space
- Set a new standard for accessible website design
- Allow GESB to offer additional services for their members online
The new gesb.wa.gov.au was launched showcasing a sleek, accessible website design -heralding the beginning of a long-term partnership for Squiz and GESB.
In addition to moving the website to Squiz’s DXP, the solution also offered GESB the flexibility to deliver new online functionality to enhance their members’ experience and improve member outcomes.
An example of this was the introduction of ‘Statement summaries’ that allowed members to access an interactive statement summary online, which showed them a ‘snapshot’ or ‘summary’ of their annual member statement, and also allowed them to download a copy of their full statement, should they choose to do so.
The website has received nationwide recognition for its accessible design:
- The most recent accessibility audit conducted by the Centre for Inclusive Design rated the audited pages and processes on the GESB website as 100% compliant with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines AA success criteria
- Jane Ots, GESB’s Digital Communications Specialist, was named as one of three finalists nationwide for the ‘Accessibility Person of the Year’ at the 2019 Australian Access Awards
GESB’s statement summaries solution was launched in 2019 and had an immediate and significant impact on the digital engagement of GESB’s members:
- GESB achieved a 62% open rate on statement summary notification emails, followed by a 52% open rate for reminder emails
- 30% of members logged in to view their statement summary (versus a mere 8% that read their statements in 2008), with many members logging in on multiple devices averaging 2.4 sessions per member
- Of those that logged in to view their summary, 41% did so via a mobile device
- Of those members who rated the new statement summary dashboard, 73% rated the experience very good to excellent (either an 8, 9 or 10 out of 10)