All Analysis articles – Page 117
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Analysis
Salary sacrifice can boost pension payments
Salary sacrifice provides an ideal opportunity for staff to boost pensions payments and employers to make savingsWhen it comes to pension costs, one of the most difficult issues organisations face is assessing what the level of take-up will be and what budget to allocate to a scheme.There are several scenarios ...
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Analysis
Better opt to cogitate on your pension scheme now
Auto-enrolment and compulsory employer contributions are due to be introduced in 2012, but it doesn't hurt to think aheadEmployers without a company-supported pension scheme have been happily drifting along for years. From 2012 that will all change when the government's new National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) comes into effect. This ...
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Analysis
Understanding staff psyche to evaluate benefits
Jenny Keefe assesses how behavioural science can be used to select and evaluate the effectiveness of benefits packagesWhat do Marks & Spencer underwear and pensions funds have in common? They have both been criticised for bewildering people with too much choice. Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose has, in ...
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Analysis
Bamboozled by choice of pension fund options?
A vast array of fund choices often results in members settling for default funds, so is there a happy medium?There is a general consensus that there is no value in offering more than ten different fund choices. Organisations that ignore this tend to find members are simply driven into the ...
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Analysis
Employee engagement: How to avoid the pitfalls of performance payments
The logic of rewarding top-performing employees is clear, but unless staff are convinced the process is fair, there are likely to be problems for all parties. Jenny Keefe reports.While that old adage, money can't buy you friends might be true, the debate over whether cold hard cash will make employees ...
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Analysis
Employee paid cash plans still appeal to staff
Promoting the merits of a healthcare cash plan to staff can be uncomfortable if they are footing the bill, but many employees will still regard the offering as a substantial perk, says Sam BarrettPromoting an employee-paid healthcare cash plan can feel uncomfortable, especially as it can deliver benefits to employers ...
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Analysis
Employee engagement: Shares align staff interests with those of employers
Share schemes reduce staff turnover and increase competitiveness by aligning the interests of staff with those of their employers, and they attract tax breaks, notes Sally HamiltonEmployers cannot get much more democratic than offering staff a stake in the company through a share scheme. In return, staff are likely to ...
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Analysis
Staff aching for wellness schemes
This article is brought to you by our sponsor HealthSure.Health-related sickness absence is one of the biggest concerns for British businesses today. It has been estimated that absence due to sickness costs around £12bn each year, with the average level of health-related absence at eight days per year per employee, ...
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Analysis
Long term illness for employees abroad
Employers should check corporate practices and healthcare policies to ensure that staff working overseas are covered in the event of a serious illness, and that they are not left exposed, says Kate DonovanWhile staff based in the UK can sometimes be somewhat spoilt for long-term healthcare provision, bosses must be ...
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Analysis
Employee engagement: Make employees care more about their pension scheme
Pension schemes may be important to attract talented recruits, but they may be much less useful for retaining the right staff unless companies implement them carefully. Ceri Jones explains some winning strategiesPersuading employees to become engaged with a pension scheme is no easy feat, partly because the word "pension" has ...
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Analysis
Online risk management tools are vital for fleet
Online risk management tools can be a good way of gathering data to identify problem areas, and keeping vital checks up to date, says Rachel GordonThere is no doubt driving at work is a killer. It is estimated by the Department for Transport that up to a third of all ...
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Analysis
New legal requirements on fleet
New legal requirements on mobile phones, smoking, driving hours and corporate manslaughter mean fleet managers have their work cut out, says Vicki TaylorOver the past few years, a seemingly relentless stream of changing legislation and regulations has posed a challenge for fleet managers to keep tabs on.One of the biggest ...
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Analysis
Reverse declining take-up of fleet perks
This article is brought to you by our sponsor Alphabet.Do organisations need to worry about employee engagement when it comes to car benefits? The answer is yes.Employee engagement plays a much more significant role than is usually recognised in determining fleet operating costs, productivity and safety performance. As a leading ...
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Analysis
Employee engagement: Financial education must cover staff's diverse needs
Financial education can help all staff, from junior employees to top managers, but the key to a successful programme is understanding people’s diverse needs, says Victoria FurnessPersonal finance isn't a topic that causes most people to jump with enthusiasm, but a growing band of employers are using financial education in ...
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Analysis
Picking fleet well is a cost-saver
Some cars depreciate much faster than others, so getting the choice right at purchase could save employers a fortune, says Curtis HutchinsonThere is little on an organisation’s books that will depreciate more than poorly-selected company cars. While all new cars depreciate immediately, some lose their values much faster and at ...
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Analysis
Employee engagement: Company cars can engage staff if well managed
The company car is part of many benefit packages, but unless a wide choice is offered and policies are well communicated, Mike Roberts says not all staff will be fully engagedThe provision of a company vehicle plays its part in attracting quality employees, but handing over a set of car ...
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Analysis
Assess employee behaviour before issuing company car
Employee behaviour can significantly increase fleet risk, so employers are learning that policies can help them target resources effectively to curb it, says Sarah ColesSome people are accidents waiting to happen. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, 3,695 people end up in hospital every year because ...
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Analysis
Communication may be the key but what exactly is it?
This article is brought to you by JPMorgan INVESTBenefit packages have come a long way in a relatively short space of time. They are now more complex than ever before. Gone are the days when an employee joined an organisation and was automatically enrolled in the final salary pension scheme.Now ...
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Analysis
Employers should explore various stakeholder options
The introduction of low-cost stakeholder pensions in 2001 put downward pressure on annual management charges for contract-based pension schemes.Despite an increase in the maximum allowable charge for stakeholder plans set up after April 2005 from 1% to 1.5%, competition among pension providers has kept charges on many group stakeholder plans, ...
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Analysis
The latest salary sacrifice perks
Salary sacrifice arrangements are growing in popularity and employers are looking to add new tax-efficient perks to those that are already widely offered to staff, says Nick GoldingEmployers have plenty of choice when it comes to tax-efficient benefits that can be offered through salary sacrifice arrangements. But some are looking ...