All Article articles – Page 744

  • Article

    Duncan Brown: Reward and the road to recovery

    2013-01-07T08:20:00Z

    With ministers such as business secretary Vince Cable openly discussing the possibility of a ‘triple-dip’ recession, the search is now on for measures to stimulate recovery, in the economy and in employee engagement.Employee share ownership and less legislative red tape are two of them.Despite little evident support, Osborne confirmed legislation ...

  • Article

    Confessions of a benefits manager: Old habits die hard

    2013-01-07T08:05:00Z

    We have just taken over yet another company. For an organisation that isn’t doing very well, we seem remarkably good at vacuuming up other companies that aren’t doing very well, so that we can add their undesirable product offering to our own. Each time we do this, there is a ...

  • Article

    Interview with Carol Young, pensions manager at Heineken UK

    2013-01-07T07:30:00Z

    She started her career as a management consultant at the now-defunct accountancy firm before moving into its investment practice. She says: “I loved the consulting side, but I decided I wanted to specialise and, in particular, to use my maths background a bit more.”In 2000, Young joined Mercer’s investment consulting ...

  • Article

    James Kirkland moves to Axa

    2013-01-07T07:25:00Z

    He moves from Telefonica, where most recently he was head of pensions, benefits and recognition for Telefonica Europe.He was previously senior pensions consultant at Xafinity Consulting.

  • Article

    David Whitfield lands at BAA

    2013-01-07T07:20:00Z

    He was previously head of compensation and benefits, UK, Ireland and Nordics at DHL Supply Chain.Whitfield joined the logistics firm five years ago as reward analyst, and has also held the role of recognition manager at Royal Mail.

  • Article

    Network Rail recruits Paula Hayes

    2013-01-07T07:15:00Z

    Since 2002, she has held various roles at Home Retail Group, including director of employment policy and reward, head of group policy and reward, and group compensation and benefits manager.Hayes has also held roles at Reality Group and Bradford and Bingley.

  • Article

    Essex County Council appoints John Farrell

    2013-01-07T07:10:00Z

    In nearly 30 years in reward and benefits, his roles have included: reward manager, benefits and incentives at Whitbread, reward and performance management manager at Lebara Mobile, compensation and benefits manager at SThree and senior compensation specialist at Network Rail.

  • Article

    Consultant’s nous helps to bridge HR commercial gap

    2013-01-07T07:00:00Z

    Ward was an executive consultant at KPMG and subsequently ran her own consultancy business, as well as taking on a range of HR-based roles, before joining BMI Healthcare in 2006.This stood her in good stead for dealing with the complexities of recent pay freezes. She says: “Three years ago, and ...

  • Article

    Employers shift launch dates for auto-enrolment

    2013-01-07T06:55:00Z

    The Co-operative Group’s auto-enrolment staging date was 1 November 2012, but it built in the legal three-month postponement period so the first pension contributions come out of employees’ pay in February 2013.Paul Macro, head of defined contribution (DC) at Mercer, said this was a common approach for many retailers because ...

  • Article

    Employee Benefits Awards final deadline is this week

    2013-01-07T06:50:00Z

    All the information you need to enter, plus the category details and entry forms, can be found on the Employee Benefits Awards’ website.This year’s awards feature several new categories, designed to recognise employers that are leading the way on key benefits issues.Have you taken steps to offer a default investment ...

  • Article

    Confusion over charges for pension advice

    2013-01-07T06:50:00Z

    It came just weeks before the retail distribution review (RDR), which scraps commission on many financial products, came into effect on 31 December.On 26 November, pensions minister Steve Webb wrote to Otto Thoresen, chair of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), saying his department was to carry out a policy ...

  • Article

    Pension allowance changes revive interest in DB plans

    2013-01-07T06:40:00Z

    George Osborne announced on 5 December that the annual pension allowance on which people receive tax relief will be cut from £50,000 to £40,000 and the lifetime allowance will fall from £1.5 million to £1.25 million from 6 April 2014.Jackie Holmes, senior consultant at Towers Watson, said: “Previously, the allowance’s ...

  • Article

    Tax incentives for shareholder scheme announced

    2013-01-07T06:38:00Z

    Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Autumn Statement that the exemption will come into effect from April 2013.He also said the government would consider options to reduce income tax and national insurance liabilities when employee shareholders receive the shares.Chris Blundell, tax partner at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, said: “I think the ...

  • Article

    Kevin Gaskell keynote speaker at Employee Benefits Connect

    2013-01-07T06:35:00Z

    Gaskell has led three iconic car brands: Porsche, Lamborghini and BMW. After the turnaround at Porsche and five years of record growth at BMW, he was one of Business Age magazine’s ‘Top 40 leaders under 40’.He is now chairman of a number of growing companies, one of which, Achilles, won ...

  • Article

    Office of Tax Simplification to review benefits

    2013-01-07T06:35:00Z

    Chancellor George Osborne said in his Autumn Statement that the review would include “an initial scoping exercise to identify which areas are most complex for taxpayers”.Also, OTS recommendations on approved employee share schemes were confirmed in draft legislation published on 11 December.These include changes to the enterprise management incentive (EMI) ...

  • Article

    Technology in focus at Employee Benefits Connect 2013

    2013-01-07T06:34:00Z

    Three years ago there were no iPads and many people could not see their purpose, while five years ago apps were virtually unheard of. So what other innovations are on the horizon that could change the world of work for millions of people?In an exciting closing keynote session at Employee ...

  • Article

    Employers' new year push on staff fitness

    2013-01-07T06:30:00Z

    American Express has begun its annual ‘New Year, New You’ campaign under its Healthy Living programme. Breckon Jones, director of health and benefits, EMEA, said: “Exercise is a central pillar in our wellbeing programme, although we like to use the phrase ‘move more’ so that it is inclusive of incidental ...

  • Article

    Conference on auto-enrolment at Employee Benefits Connect

    2013-01-07T06:30:00Z

    A wide range of leading industry experts will take delegates from the preparation stage to final implementation and beyond, over the course of one day.These sessions will offer a good guide for organisations at an early stage in the process, as well as a belt-and-braces checklist for those that are ...

  • Article

    Auto-enrolment tops agenda at Employee Benefits Pensions Summit

    2013-01-07T06:10:00Z

    This vital issue will be examined by Wendy Taylor, head of central HR services at Morrisons; James Lloyd, director of the Strategic Society Centre; Doug Taylor, financial services chief advocate at Which?; and Yvonne Braun (pictured), assistant director, head of savings and retirement at the Association of British Insurers.On the ...

  • Article

    Friendly networking at Employee Benefits Connect 2013

    2013-01-07T06:05:00Z

    Unlike larger, potentially overwhelming exhibitions, this one exudes a friendly atmosphere of knowledge-sharing and ideas exchange.Find out more and see which companies will be exhibiting at Employee Benefits Connect 2013.