All Article articles – Page 825

  • Article

    Friends Life to launch online auto-enrolment product

    2012-01-20T11:22:01Z

    Friends Life is to launch an online product that will help employers meet their duties under auto-enrolment, which comes into effect from October 2012.The online portal, which is designed to work with the provider's existing platforms, will collect information from employers' payroll and HR systems, and assess it against the ...

  • Article

    Health Matters 360 introduces Olympic-themed wellbeing programmes

    2012-01-20T11:00:18Z

    Health Matters 360 is introducing workplace health and wellbeing programmes aligned to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.The health and wellbeing provider will work with previous Olympics’ athletes to design corporate programmes to help employees achieve physical and emotional wellbeing.The programmes can be tailored to each organisation’s specific needs.Anna Hemmings, the ...

  • Article

    Mercer appoints Paul Macro as head of defined contribution

    2012-01-20T11:00:00Z

    Mercer has appointed Paul Macro head of defined contribution (DC) in its UK retirement business.Macro will be responsible for managing Mercer’s UK DC consulting team.He joins from Towers Watson, where he was senior consultant and a member of the DC management team. He also worked on formulating the consultancy’s response ...

  • Article

    House of Fraser for Business launches e-gift card

    2012-01-20T10:55:28Z

    House of Fraser for Business has introduced an e-gift card, which can be used by employers in motivation and incentive schemes.The e-gift card can be sent in PDF format via email so it can be printed and used in any House of Fraser store nationwide. The cards can be loaded ...

  • Article

    Pensions Regulator to issue statement on recovery plans for defined benefit pensions

    2012-01-19T11:11:04Z

    The Pensions Regulator will issue a statement in April to help trustees dealing with the valuation and recovery of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.Stephen Soper, executive director for DB regulation at TPR, has announced it will also publish an annual statement setting out its stance.TPR will consult with the industry ...

  • Article

    British Medical Association urges government to reconsider pension plans

    2012-01-19T11:08:29Z

    The British Medical Association (BMA) has called on the government to urgently reconsider proposed changes to the NHS pension scheme.The decision was taken at a meeting on 18 January following the results of a UK-wide survey, which found that medical staff are greatly opposed to the proposal.The BMA pensions survey ...

  • Article

    PizzaExpress enters motivation and incentives market

    2012-01-19T11:06:37Z

    PizzaExpress has entered the corporate incentives market with the creation of PizzaExpress for Business.The reward and motivation division will supply gift cards and electronic rewards to employers across the UK and Ireland for use in employee reward and benefits schemes.The £10 and £15 gift cards will be pre-loaded with the ...

  • Article

    Paradigm Group to launch corporate wrap business

    2012-01-19T11:06:00Z

    Paradigm Group is to launch a standalone corporate wrap business.The independently-run business will join the consultancy group’s other businesses: Paradigm Partners, Paradigm Pensions and Paradigm Mortgages.Its corporate wrap product will include a group personal pension (GPP) plan, alongside a workplace independent savings account (Isa) and other savings vehicles.The product can ...

  • Article

    Two-thirds of respondents expect pay to rise

    2012-01-19T11:03:00Z

    Nearly two-thirds of accounting, business support and financial services employee respondents expect pay to rise in 2012, according to two salary surveys conducted by Morgan McKinley.The Accounting, finance and support UK 2012 survey was conducted in November 2011 among 350 HR and operational managers working with accountancy, finance and business ...

  • Article

    Workplace pensions exempt from compulsory unisex insurance pricing

    2012-01-18T11:18:55Z

    Occupational pensions will be exempt from a European directive which is set to make it compulsory for insurers to adopt the same prices for men and women.In March 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that gender-based pricing of insurance products was incompatible with human rights.However, in a communication document ...

  • Article

    Increase in Midlands councils’ managers' remuneration

    2012-01-18T10:57:00Z

    The number of middle management staff at Midlands-based councils that earn over £50,000, excluding pension contributions, has increased by 12% year on year, according to research by Taxpayers Alliance.The Midlands councils’ spending uncovered report found that the number of middle and senior managers earning this remuneration package increased by 759 ...

  • Article

    Pay growth down in private and public sectors

    2012-01-18T10:21:00Z

    Total pay, including bonuses, was down 0.2% on the three months to October 2011, with both the private and public sectors showing lower pay growth, according to figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).The Labour market statistics: January 2012 found that regular pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 1.9% on ...

  • Article

    Promoting wellbeing at work through regulation is counterproductive

    2012-01-17T10:37:00Z

    Efforts to promote wellbeing at work through regulation are likely to be counterproductive, according to research by the Institute of Economic Affairs.According to the report, … And the pursuit of happiness: wellbeing and the role of government, more regulation would see more jobs lost. It also found a strong link ...

  • Article

    A third of employees will go to work ill due to economy

    2012-01-17T10:31:00Z

    A third (30%) of employees are more likely to go into work ill due to the economic downturn, according to a survey by Nuffield Health.The Wellbeing at work survey, which polled 1,600 UK workers, also found that the group most likely to go into work ill is those earning below ...

  • Article

    Toshiba and Verizon among employers awarded the Pension Quality Mark

    2012-01-17T10:30:11Z

    Five organisations have been awarded the Pension Quality Mark (PQM) since the start of 2012.The firms are Cambridge Silicon Group, independent bank C. Hoare and Co, Toshiba, manufacturer Urenco and Verizon.Awarded by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), the PQM recognises defined contribution (DC) pension schemes with minimum employee ...

  • Article

    Michelin UK appoints pensions consultancy

    2012-01-17T10:10:32Z

    The trustees of Michelin UK’s pension and life assurance plan have appointed a defined contribution (DC) consultant.†Hymans Robertson will advise the trustees on investment and wider DC issues, and will refresh the communications strategy for the organisation's DC and defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.Chris Wood, chairman of the trustees for ...

  • Article

    Clegg outlines plans to boost employee share ownership

    2012-01-16T11:05:00Z

    Employees could be given the right to request shares in the organisations they work for under proposals put forward by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.During a keynote speech to the CentreForum and the City of London Corporation on 16 January, Clegg outlined plans to boost employee share ownership by giving ...

  • Article

    Defined benefit pension scheme deficits up £50 billion

    2012-01-16T10:41:00Z

    The deficit of the UK’s defined benefit (DB) pension schemes ended 2011 £50 billion up on 2010, according to figures by Xafinity Corporate Solutions.The figures, based on the FRS17 and IAS19 accounting rules, showed that liabilities rose by £101 billion, but these were offset by £51 billion growth in the ...

  • Article

    International pension market grows by 50% in five years

    2012-01-16T10:25:00Z

    The international pension plan (IPP) market has expanded at a rapid rate to grow by 50% the last five years, according to research by Towers Watson.The 2011 Towers Watson International Pension Plan Survey found that the IPP market showed a 15% growth rate in the last year, and 36 new ...

  • Article

    Majority of respondents offer flexible benefits

    2012-01-16T10:21:00Z

    The majority (79%) of respondents to research by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) offer flexible benefits to staff.The research, Flexible employee benefits survey, also found that 85% of employee respondents rate employee benefits as either important or very important.Of the benefits offered by the employer sample, the most ...