All articles by Debi O'Donovan – Page 27
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Article
Debi O’Donovan, editorial director of Employee Benefits: Have we lost the art of innovation for benefits strategies?
UK benefits strategies appear to have hit a quagmire. Several leading benefits professionals, both on employer and consultant side, have told me in recent months that they no longer see the innovation and thought leadership that used to exist in this industry. Several have left their jobs for exactly this ...
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Article
New head of talent at Tesco
Tesco has moved its international manager Michael Poulten into the role of head of talent. Poulten said: "Tesco has a great record of recruiting and retaining talented employees and I am looking forward to continuing that, while tackling topics such as the changing workplace demographic." Before moving to the retailer, ...
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Article
CIPD Reward Forum: Maximising tax breaks on company car plans
Speaking at the CIPD Reward Forum, Chris Bolan a consultant at Compass Reward Consulting advised employers to do a cost-benefit analysis on fuel for private use. “Fuel for private use is very tax inefficient,” he said, although many organisations still offer it.He is also seeing increasing numbers of employers considering ...
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CIPD Reward Forum: Corporate Sipps are the new flexible benefits
Group self invested personal pensions are emulating flexible benefits in the 1990s.Speaking at the CIPD Reward Forum, Philip Hutchinson, head of corporate Sipp sales, Pointon York Sipp Solutions, said: “Sipps is exactly where flex was 10 years ago. Everybody wants one but most people don’t understand how they work.”However, more ...
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Article
Aimip aims to be new kitemark for international PMI
The Association of International Medical Insurance Providers (Aimip) aims to help employers and corporate advisers ensure they select an international private medical insurance (PMI) product that assures quality and compliance in the countries it is to be used in.Speaking at the official launch of Aimip, Carl Carter, chairman of Aimip, ...
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Debi O’Donovan, editorial director of Employee Benefits: Staff will make poor choices if offered cash as part of an enhanced pensions transfer
When the chips are down, HR works for the corporate and not the workforce. It is this key understanding, that HR are there to help the company be more productive and avoid legal issues and not as some form of staff union, that explains the apparent soft attitude of many ...
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Arla Foods appoints Tim Pearson
He has joined from Ventura Network Distribution, where he was HR services manager. Pearson said: "Among a long list of things I will be focusing on at Arla [Foods] is the benefits proposition for employees and aligning it to the corporate strategy more effectively. I will also be looking at ...
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Mars appoints Ralph Turner
Mars has appointed Ralph Turner as UK pensions and benefits director. Turner was previously director of benefits at ICI before being made redundant in July. In his new role, Turner will look to review Mars' benefits package and assess health and risk benefits, as well as focus on the way ...
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New pension transfer regulations from 1 October 2008
The final regulations and draft guidance on the calculation of pension equivalent transfer values (ETV) come into force on 1 October. A key change is that the responsibility for calculating cash ETVs will lie with trustees rather than with actuaries. Paul Dooley, senior consultant at Aon Consulting, warns that few ...
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Article
New additional maternity rules from 5 October 2008
New sex discrimination legislation coming into effect on 5 October will require employers to offer the same non-cash contractual benefits to women on additional maternity leave as women currently enjoy during ordinary maternity leave. Employers need to re-examine their maternity policies on the payment of pension contributions and use of ...
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Shareholder dividends total more than pension deficits
Of the 59 FTSE 100 companies with a pension deficit, 46 disclosed a deficit that was less than, or equal to, the dividends paid to their shareholders in 2007, according to the Lane Clark & Peacock's report on Accounting for pensions 2008.In 2007 Vodafone paid dividends of nearly £3.6 billion ...
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Employee sharesave bonus rate boost
Employee sharesave plans received a boost with a generous increase in savings bonus rates in September 2008.Julie Richardson, head of employee share ownership at IFS ProShare, said, "The news that the bonus rates have increased provides further incentives for employees to save through a sharesave scheme. As the bonus is ...
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Analysis
What UK remuneration committees will consider when setting executive reward in Autumn 2008.
Executive Summary This autumn’s remuneration committee (remcos) meetings will be weighing up the internal and external factors influencing a company’s performance, then balancing this against the need to reward executives without upsetting shareholders who have also been hit by falling share prices. Executives get greater comfort from their annual bonus ...
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Debi O’Donovan, editorial director of Employee Benefits: Employers are bad at educating staff about annuities
Debi O’Donovan, editorial director of Employee Benefits: Employers are appallingly bad at educating staff about annuitiesOn the whole, employers are appallingly bad at educating staff about annuities, not least because most HR departments probably don’t even know how annuities work.Too many employees have no idea that the pension pot they ...
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Debi O'Donovan: economic downturn is causing employers to review benefits packages
The economic downturn is causing employers to review their benefits packages to ensure that they are both maximising cost efficiencies and engagement from employees.With the pressure on to prevent spiralling salary increases in the face of rising inflation, we are finding that employers are increasingly turning their attention to their ...
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Alex Lindley exits First Direct
First Direct's reward and recognition manager, Alex Lindley, is leaving the organisation to undertake a masters in Heritage Studies at the University of Salford. Lindley said she has enjoyed her time in reward, but is persuing a career in an area in which she has always wanted to work.
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Fleets review green policies to cut costs and carbon emissions
Employers are reviewing fleet policies to cut fuel use and carbon emissions. Fitzpatrick Contractors offered cash bonuses to encourage drivers to select cars with low CO2 emissions; it aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% over the next three years. McDonalds is trialing mileage-capture technology to identify, then educate, ...
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Debi O’Donovan, editorial director, Employee Benefits: Employers need to budget for pension contributions based on total pay in run up to 2012
Debi O’Donovan, editorial director, Employee Benefits: At the recent Employee Benefits Summit, attended by 50 senior benefits managers from some of the UK’s largest organisations, it became clear that the vast majority had no idea that pensions contributions to the new Personal Accounts will be based on total, not basic, ...
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Credit crunch and pensioner longevity increase pension deficits
The level of funding in defined benefit schemes in FTSE 100 companies fell to a deficit of £41bn by mid July 2008, compared to a surplus of £12bn in July 2007.The findings, from Lane Clark & Peacock’s (LCP) report Accounting for pensions 2008 shows that the credit crunch, equity market ...
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Debi O'Donovan blog: CSR is seen by leading employers as integral to their performance
Debi O'Donovan, editorial director, Employee Benefits: There has been a distinct change in the way employers view corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the workplace.It used to be the case that employers simply saw CSR as the promotion of charitable work among staff, payroll giving and perhaps a commitment to help ...