All Analysis articles – Page 110
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Analysis
Hybrid fleets help employers provide choice
Offering multiple car schemes can help employers to provide choice and meet the needs of different types of drivers, but how easy is it for organisations to operate such arrangements, asks Nick GoldingTrying to offer a single car arrangement that suits both business-need and perk drivers is nigh on impossible ...
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Analysis
Tax break around pensions advice divides opinion
The tax break on independent pensions advice worth up to £150 per employee a year may seem appealing, but does it go far enough, asks Stephanie SpicerStaff are increasingly looking to their employers to provide them with information about their pension scheme. However, communicating the way a pension works is ...
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Analysis
Otto Thoresen on his review into generic financial advice
Sarah Coles questions Otto Thoresen on his bid to bring financial education to the massesThere are two things that everyone knows about their finances. Firstly, they are far too complicated to understand, and, secondly, anyone who offers you help to get to grips with them is not to be trusted.It's ...
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Analysis
Making healthy returns?
Identifying the return on investment of healthcare benefits is a complex business, as Georgina Fuller goes in search of specific evidence linking wellbeing perks to sickness absence improvements†With finance teams increasingly calling for benefits professionals to prove the return on investment in all areas of reward, the pressure to do ...
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Analysis
Tropical health threats
The threat of serious diseases is a major consideration for staff travelling abroad on business, and employers should ensure that they are adequately covered against them, says Sam BarrettSending employees overseas is a good way to win, and conduct, international business but, if the right health precautions aren’t taken, staff ...
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Analysis
Pensions Regulator guidance lacks teeth
GUIDANCE on defined contribution (DC) contract-based pensions schemes issued by The Pensions Regulator may fail to improve the governance of DC plans by employers say experts.The regulator's report, Voluntary employer engagement in workplace contract-based pension schemes, provides guidance to employers that have chosen to become more closely involved in monitoring ...
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Analysis
How to keep final salary plans open
As many employers are closing final salary plans due to costs, Nick Golding looks at ways to retain them†With the majority of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes now either fully or partly closed to employees, the previously-generous benefit is fast becoming the stuff of legends.Just how much the benefit has ...
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Analysis
Employee perceptions of pensions restructures
If handled correctly, staff can view a pensions restructure with positivity, says Victoria FurnessWith frequent reports of employers' multi-million pound pension fund deficits and the gloomy retirement predicted to be facing most of us, it's unsurprising most employees will respond negatively to the words 'pension restructure'.Matthew Blakstad, reward and pensions ...
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Analysis
Tailor employee share scheme communications
Effective communication is the lifeblood of a successful all-employee share scheme. Even the most generous of plans can wither on the vine if messages about the scheme fail to stand out from the rest of the corporate communications targeted at the average employee.Experts suggest that simplicity and clarity are the ...
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Analysis
Choice between trust-based and contract-based DC
Ceri Jones sizes up the move from a trust-based to contract-based DC pensionWhen the first wave of final salary pension plans were closed in the early 1990s, many employers switched to trust-based money purchase schemes. As the pensions landscape has changed, sponsors of trust-based pensions may now find that they ...
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Analysis
Plan to push defined benefit pensions?
Final salary schemes have come to represent a gold standard in pensions terms, so Laverne Hadaway asks why more organisations do not promote their plans in job adverts and while recruiting staffAs more final salary pension plans close to new members, the remaining open schemes look increasingly as rare and ...
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Analysis
Spell out perks
In the fast-moving world of benefits, misconceptions have arisen around the definition of some perks, which require clarification, says David WoodsWhen people communicate, it is not just about the words that they use that helps others to understand their meaning. More than half (55%) of what an individual means to ...
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Analysis
Fuelling salary sacrifice?
As providers launch salary sacrifice around cars with a view to benefiting perk drivers, Nick Golding weighs up if these arrangements could take over from affinity schemes†Affinity, or all-employee car ownership, schemes offer employees the option of purchasing a vehicle at a discounted rate negotiated by their employer. The number ...
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Analysis
Martin Landells: Higher accounting charge to affect sharesave (SAYE) plans
Martin Landells, director in KPMG's Performance and Reward Group and heads the team in the North of England: Just as companies are starting to come to terms with the nuances of accounting for share plans, amendments to the IFRS 2 Share-based Payment were published last month. The changes will particularly ...
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Analysis
Making the most of multinational risk pooling
If you have many operations across a number of territories there's a chance that by grouping your insurance contracts on a multinational basis you can help cut costs and even produce dividend returns, says David RowleyExecutive summary To set up a multinational pool employers need a sizeable workforce across two ...
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Analysis
Ways to reduce final salary pension liabilities
Pensions deficits can hit organisations for six, so Matthew Craig looks at techniques for controlling final salary liabilities, including new-style insurance bulk buyoutsExecutive summary Under the current accounting and regulatory framework, pension deficits can hit financial statements and be a heavy burden for corporate sponsors. There are several ...
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Analysis
Calculating the return on investment on healthcare benefits
FDs love hard data, which can be scarce when arguing the return on investment of health perks, Sarah Coles goes hunting for substantial metricsExecutive summary Typically an employer can expect a £10 return for every £1 they spend on employee healthcare strategies. Hard figures on ROI for employee healthcare programmes ...
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Analysis
The importance of benefits and reward during mergers and acquisitions
With many a merger and acquisition floundering on the basis of benefits' liabilities, Clare Bettelley puts together an action plane to help avoid M&As being scupperedExecutive Summary Some 50% of M&A deals fail because of employee benefits and the differences in the reward arrangements between the two firms. Shares are ...
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Analysis
Plan the right route
With personal accounts and auto-enrolment due in 2012, employers may review their defined contribution pensions, says David WoodsRarely a week goes by without pensions hitting the headlines for one reason or another. When faced with defined benefit pension scheme deficits, many companies have opted to cut their losses and close ...
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Analysis
Managing to stay on top
Manager of manager operations appoint external managers to run a pension scheme's funds, which can reduce administration and the burden on trustees, but this may come at a cost, says Ceri JonesOnce a rarity, Manager of Managers (MOM) operations, which provide access to a range of investment managers' specialist expertise, ...