All articles by David Woods – Page 16
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Article
Somerfield links managers' salaries to staff engagement
Somerfield is rolling out a strategy to deliver a "direct and significant link" between managers' salaries and staff engagement levels.The supermarket will reward managers for improvements in employee engagement following surveys conducted in retail stores earlier this year and at its head office last month.The aim is to use the ...
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Article
Product in focus: Experience days
Experience days are a way for employers to offer perks that help with team building and motivation, says David Woods.Experience days can cover a wide range of activities such as spy games, paint balling or circus skills, to name just a few.Employers that wish to offer such a perk have ...
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Analysis
Choice over popular perks
Good old-fashioned core benefits such as life assurance and private medical insurance may provide a bedrock for flex, but don’t dismiss cheap low take-up options that provide a little pizzazz says David WoodsSelecting options offered by a flexible benefits scheme is like ordering from a menu in a glitzy restaurant. ...
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Article
Compensation and benefits is highest-paid specialism
Almost two-thirds (63%) of compensation and benefits managers report that they have good or excellent job satisfaction, while only 14% think that their pay is above the market rate.In fact, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Croner Reward's Personnel rewards 2007 survey shows that compensation and benefits ...
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Article
Coda adds Shariah compliant fund
Financial systems firm Coda has added a pension investment fund to its group personal pension (GPP) that meets the needs of Islamic Shariah law, following feedback from Muslim staff who were unable to join the scheme on religious grounds.Shariah law restricts the payment and receipt of interest, which prevents some ...
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Article
Toshiba to roll out raft of new perks across the UK
Toshiba Information Systems is upgrading its flexible benefits scheme and introducing voluntary benefits and online total rewards statements (TRS) for its 700 UK-based staff.The online TRS and voluntary benefits scheme will go live from November.The firm will also relaunch its flexible benefits scheme in April 2008 and is considering additional ...
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Article
EC Harris rolls out flex across nine European countries to align benefits
Property consultancy EC Harris has rolled out flexible benefits and online total reward statements (TRS) to employees across nine European countries in an attempt to give all staff the same benefits opportunities.EC Harris employees in the UK have an annual flexible benefits allowance of £500 and employees in the nine ...
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Article
DC contributions too low to support retirement
Average contribution levels to defined contribution (DC) schemes are still too low to adequately support employees in retirement, despite rising slightly in recent years.Employers now contribute an average of 6.8% of salary, while employee contributions average 3.6%. Overall, total average contribution rates have risen to 10.4% of salary, up from ...
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Article
Travis Perkins Group adds retail vouchers and savings club to perks
Travis Perkins Group has added retail vouchers and a savings club to its range of perks with the aim of boosting interest in its benefits package.Employees can get up to 9% in discounts on the retail vouchers they purchase, and for every £9.50 staff pay into the savings club the ...
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Article
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council plans cycle to work
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council plans to introduce a cycle to work scheme through salary sacrifice by the end of this year, following pressure from staff to launch the benefit.The firm is in an evaluation process with a number of providers to decide which will best meet their needs in delivering ...
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Article
RFU records private healthcare take-up of 10%
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has achieved a take-up rate of more than 10%, for its part-funded private healthcare benefit, which was offered to all non-senior executive staff in June.Out of a possible 350 non-senior employees, 40 took up the Pru Health plan, which is 50% financed by the RFU.Senior ...
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Article
Banning smoking breaks could increase staff stress and absence
Banning smoking breaks for staff could lead to increase stress and absence levels within an organisation.Less than a quarter (24%) of of the 2,103 people surveyed for Croner's The workplace implication of the decline of the smoking break report said that they would cope well or fairly well if smoking ...
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Article
Nottingham-based employers face car parking tax
Employers in Nottingham who provide car parking spaces for staff could be taxed on each place if plans for a workplace parking levy (WPL) go ahead.The tax will apply to organisations that have more than ten parking spaces, which make up about 20-30% of the city's employers. Employers who are ...
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Article
FirstGroup offers 5,200 employees flexible benefits
First ScotRail and First TransPennine Express, part of FirstGroup, are providing their staff with flexible benefits to provide choice and to help attract new employees.The two companies, which together employ 5,200, are using Vebnet technology and administrative services.The flex schemes will have a small selection of benefits to begin with, ...
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Article
Competitive staff threaten productivity
Competition in the workplace is threatening to undermine productivity, with 28% of employees claiming that they compete with their colleagues to get ahead.YouGov's Healthy Competition? research also reveals that 38% of the 1,986 employees surveyed online, claim that the people they work with are competitive and 45% of these believe ...
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Article
Finance professionals are working longer hours
More than half (53%) of finance professionals in the UK admit that they have increased their working hours in the last two years.A similar proportion (52%) of finance professionals globally have put in more time over the last two years. The two most popular reasons for this increase in working ...
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Article
CBI reports increase in flexible working
Flexible working is on the increase with nine out of ten employers (95%) offering at least one form of flexible working practice, according to the CBI.The Employee Trends Survey 2007 carried out by CBI in association with employment agency Pertemps, revealed that 60% of firms now offer staff more than ...
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Article
GlaxoSmithKline goes ahead with plans for group SIPP
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is pressing ahead with plans to implement a group self-invested personal pension (SIPP).The pharmaceuticals company has appointed Mercer to help implement the group SIPP. Mercer will also help GSK review it's defined contribution (DC) plan design and investment strategy. The plan, which has assets of around £850m has ...
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Article
Rewards management fails to keep pace with business needs
Reward and performance management programmes are failing to keep pace with business needs, according to research from Towers Perrin.The survey found that despite shifts in the business landscape, including globalisation, the emergence of ageing populations, technological advances, and skill and labour shortages, most companies have made minimal changes in the ...
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Article
On-site health screening launches in the Channel Islands
An on-site health screening service has been launched in the Channel Islands enabling employers to provide staff with the perk without having to send them the UK for a check up.Healthcare provider IHC is offering health screening to employers based in the Channel Islands, in association with Prevent plc, which ...