THRIFTY CAR RENTAL
Finding success with the Home Loan Affinity Club Program
The Situation
Thrifty Car Rental is one of the largest car rental companies in the world, with over 1,100 locations and 500 franchisees in over 60 countries. Hardworking, intelligent businessmen like Tom Celona, franchisee and President of Thrifty Car Rental Rhode Island, have helped transform Thrifty from an unknown small business in the 1950's into the nationally-recognized brand it is today. Mr. Celona began his Rhode Island operation in 1969. With over 100 employees spread across six divisions, recruiting and retaining a talented and motivated workforce is essential for Thrifty's success. As Mr. Celona states, "Being President of Thrifty Rhode Island allows me to deal with people and labor issues on a daily basis, and I understand the importance of having the best pool of talent possible working on my team. I know that in today's business environment, employees have a lot of options in front of them, and I never want any Thrifty employee to feel like the grass is greener some place else. It costs Thrifty a lot of money to replace and train a new employee so I want to make sure they have the best work experience possible."
In addition to dealing with retention issues, companies such as Thrifty also face certain pressures caused by the rising costs of core employee benefits. Due to this sharp increase in costs, companies are now looking for ways to enhance their benefits package without taking on any additional costs. "With the cost of our core benefits continuing to increase, we are always trying to find new ways to keep our employees loyal and satisfied by exploring affordable offerings such as voluntary benefits," Mr. Celona explains. "Voluntary benefits are a win-win for both Thrifty and our employees. We, as a company, incur no additional costs to offer voluntary benefits and our employees are able to choose from a wide array of supplemental benefits at a discount to what they would pay on their own... We've been looking for the right mix of voluntary products to satisfy our employee needs and I think we finally found it by joining Hone Loan's Affinity Club."
The Home Loan Solution
Home Loan's Affinity Club, the bank's voluntary benefits program, has enabled Thrifty to address both the employee retention and voluntary benefits issues facing the company. The Affinity Club is a voluntary, cost-effective benefit program that offers exclusive loan discounts and value-added benefits such as free appraisals, free applications, free credit analysis, hotel and travel discounts, and one-on-one attention from a dedicated Affinity Loan Advisor — all at no cost to the employer. 
The Affinity Club can be offered to employees via onsite cafeteria visits, quarterly mailings or even online through a member company's Intranet. In the case of Thrifty, Home Loan's Affinity Club display table was welcomed on the Thrifty premises. "The reason we brought Home Loan to our workplace was for convenience," Mr. Celona affirms. "Oftentimes, our employees are so busy in their personal and professional lives... they have little or no time to explore their options when seeking out a home loan/mortgage provider. Now, during their lunch break or some other break time, they can talk to a senior loan officer from Home Loan one-on-one. It's really convenience at its best!"
Home Loan also understands the busy schedules that businesspeople and HR professionals tackle every day. As a result, the Home Loan Affinity Club program has been designed as a turnkey benefit solution that does not require business owners and HR professionals to shoulder any of the implementation or maintenance work. Once a company or organization decides to join, we handle all of the day-to-day details regarding introduction, internal communications, maintenance, and follow up. Home Loan leaves it up to the individual HR professionals to decide how active or passive they want to be in the process. As Mr. Celona recalls, "It was a pleasure working with Home Loan. They handled all of the small, time-consuming details of the program that I don't have the time for, and they coordinated the onsite in a seamless, organized manner that put me at ease. I could tell I was working with a credible company... I was impressed with the display they setup in our cafeteria and the business attire their loan officers wore while greeting our employees. Very professional."
The Result
Due to the success of Home Loan's first on-site visit, Thrifty invited Home Loan back into its cafeteria two more times in the same year. Both Home Loan and Thrifty measure success based on the number of employees visiting the booth, the number of employees asking for credit and mortgage-related advice, and the number of applications taken per visit. As Tom Celona acknowledges, "The Affinity Club has been a success here at Thrifty. Every time Home Loan visits, it seems as if more and more employees are drawn to their booth to ask mortgage-related questions. I think it's really added value to our employees, especially given all of the exclusive discounts Home Loan is providing.
Another plus is that our employees feel as if they have their own personal loan advisor that they can talk to and ask questions in a convenient and casual environment... It's nice to see that Home Loan has a loan program for all types of employees — whether an employee has perfect credit or not-so-perfect credit. No employee feels left out."
Home Loan is proud of the positive feedback we have received from Thrifty and over 100 other companies that have joined Home Loan's Affinity Club. We believe in the value we provide our Affinity Club members, and we are confident that the result Thrifty has experienced can be replicated at your company or organization as well.
Sign up or learn more about the Affinity Club: contact Home Loan.
