More than half (56%) of employer respondents plan to review their company car policy in the next year, according to research by Willis Towers Watson.
Its 2016 Company car benefits survey, which surveyed 1,187 UK organisations, also found that 51% of respondents that offer company cars enable staff to opt for an environmentally-friendly vehicle.
The research also found:
- Three-quarters (75%) of respondents offer a company car as a benefit.
- A quarter (25%) of respondents only provide a car allowance option to staff.
- 41% place a CO2-emissions limit on cars available to staff through a company car scheme.
- Less than one in ten (7%) respondents run trade-down policies to encourage the use of more fuel-efficient cars.
- Around a third (30%) of respondents encourage staff to travel less and make use of tools such as web-conferencing, and 16% encourage employees to work from home.
Lisa Grunditz, senior consultant in Willis Towers Watson’s data service team, said: “The growth in greener-car options has been driven by the increased tax burden that many countries have placed on vehicles with higher CO2 emissions. The introduction of tax policies based on carbon-emission levels has meant that lower-emitting, or environmentally-friendly, vehicles have become more affordable than higher-emitting alternatives.
“Company car schemes and car allowances are increasingly used as a tool to reward staff in a more competitive way while introducing greater flexibility, which employees are increasingly demanding in all areas of compensation. In the UK, the choice of whether to have a car or take an allowance is an important element of this.”