All articles by Kate Donovan – Page 8
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Article
Morrison Bowmore Distillers' appoints Capita for pensions admin
Morrison Bowmore Distillers' has appointed Capita Hartshead to provide its pension administration services.Following a tender process, Capita Hartshead won a two-year contract to provide the third-party pension administration of the Scotch Whisky producers' closed defined benefits scheme.Stuart Heatley, Capita Hartshead's sales and marketing director, said: "We are delighted to have ...
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Article
Inflationary pay surge not as dramatic as feared
Despite fears that inflation would force wage increases, August's labour market statistics reveal that growth in average earnings has fallen.The August 2007 Labour Market Statistics from the Office for National Statistics, reveal that growth in average earnings, both including and excluding bonuses has fallen. Average earnings growth fell to 3.3% ...
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Article
Kerry Foods implements new employee time and attendance system
Kerry Foods is implementing a time and attendance model for the group as part of the integration of its HR and payroll system.The food processing manufacturer is outsourcing the time and attendance management of 3,000 employees at 15 UK-based manufacturing plants using a new system provided by Kronos.This will replace ...
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Article
Citigroup buys out Thomson Regional Newspapers' pension fund
Citigroup has reached an agreement to buy Thomson Regional Newspapers’ (TRN) closed pension fund.Citi will acquire the UK sponsor company for the TRN pension fund which has been closed to new members for more than 10 years. The acquisition will result in the transfer of the sponsor, and its financial ...
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Article
TD Waterhouse launches flexible benefits scheme
TD Waterhouse has launched a flexible benefits scheme to promote employee wellbeing and offer more tax-efficient perks for staff.Communications to employees at the stockbroking firm included coverage in an internal newsletter; posters; desk-drops and 21 presentations to employees over a fortnight. More than 80% of employees have chosen to participate ...
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Article
Thinc Group acquires PIFC Consulting
Thinc Group has acquired employee benefits consultancy PIFC Consulting.The acquisition is Thinc Group's first significant move into the corporate benefits market. PIFC has a fee-based remuneration model and provides benefit solutions to companies in the financial services, media, legal, insurance and IT sectors, many of which are UK subsidiaries of ...
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Article
New tax rules for health screening
Health screening must be offered to all employees once per year in order for tax exemptions to apply, according to new rules that come into effect next week.An amendment has been made to the Income Tax (Exemption of Minor Benefits) Regulations 2002 which will come into force on 14 August ...
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Article
Law firm White & Case adds learning accounts to flex
White & Case’s London office has extended its flexible benefits scheme to include learning accounts, pensions consultations, a bike-to-work-scheme and health screening.The global law firm’s new learning accounts give employees the opportunity to sacrifice up to £50 gross a month from their salary which the firm will match with a ...
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Article
Virgin Media appoints Bupa to provide private healthcare
Virgin Media has appointed Bupa Healthcare Insurance to provide private healthcare to its employees for the next three years.Virgin Media was formed earlier this year following the merger of Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net with the combined entity of NTL and Telewest. Following the deal, Virgin set about combining the two ...
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Article
FTSE 100 pension funds move in to surplus
The UK pension schemes of FTSE 100 companies moved into a fragile net surplus of £12bn in the middle of July after favourable investment returns helped to wipe out an overall deficit.The Accounting for Pensions 2007 research from Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), shows an improvement on 2006, when a ...
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Article
Standard Life Healthcare launches mix and match product for SMEs
Standard Life Healthcare has launched a modular private healthcare and wellbeing product for the SME market.Businesses with up to 250 employees can take up bespoke ‘mix and match’ healthcare plans offering different levels and types of cover to separate segments of the workforce.Each employee can have a different benefits package ...
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Article
Annual pension fund directory publshed
International Pension Funds and their Advisers 2007/08 directory for the global pensions industry has been published.The annual directory, from AP Information Services in conjunction with IPE International Publishers, contains detailed listings of 3,400 pension funds from over 50 separate countries including Europe, North America, Latin America and Australasia. It provides ...
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Article
Fewer executive bonuses determined by financial measures
The number of top UK companies offering annual bonus plans to executives on purely financial measures has fallen by more than half over the past year.Levels of customer satisfaction, employee engagement and environmental measures are now increasingly favoured over hard financial targets when it comes to organising executive bonuses. In ...
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Article
Nottingham City Council launches tax-free bus travel
Nottingham City Council is to launch tax-free bus travel through salary sacrifice for its 12,800 employees.Through the Greentravel2work scheme, provided by Motivcom, employees can pay for an annual bus pass on a monthly basis through salary sacrifice. This payment is exempt from income tax and will offer savings of up ...
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Article
Moneysupermarket.com staff reap flotation perks
Eligible employees at UK finance and travel price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com were expected to have taken up offers of free shares worth around £3,000 each and the option of partnership shares on 31 July, at the final stage of its flotation.Staff were also offered a preferential allocation of shares of ...
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Case Studies
Employer Profile: National Express
National Express was previously hampered by retention issues, but creative use of perks has helped staff stay on board, says Kate DonovanWhen scheduled coach operator National Express discovered its staff turnover had hit 50%, it became apparent that its lack of employee benefits was clearly taking its toll. Prior to ...
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Article
Unison to mount mass equal pay litigation covering Wales
Unison Cymru is mounting a campaign of mass litigation to secure equal pay for underpaid women employed by local authorities in Wales.The move by Wales' largest trade union follows the expiry of the April 2007 deadline by which local governments across England, Wales and Scotland should have implemented equal pay ...
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Article
Rok to build flexible benefits scheme for staff
Rok is planning to launch a flexible benefits scheme early next year once it has gained board approval.The construction company, which has approximately 2,700 employees across the UK, has already taken steps to gauge employee opinion by running focus groups and surveys, both online and in a paper format.Richard Sadler, ...
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Article
Novartis' purchase of Chiron prompts move to flexible benefits
Novartis UK is looking to introduce a flexible benefits scheme in order to harmonise benefits provision across the organisation having recently acquired a business which enables staff to pick and choose perks.The pharmaceuticals company, which has approximately 4,000 UK staff, is to carry out a feasibility study in September as ...
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Article
Britannia's flexible benefits take up rates reach 17%
Employee take-up rates for Britannia Building Society's flexible benefits scheme that was launched in May have reached a figure of 17%.Buying holiday was the most popular option with 5.9% of employees using their flex allowance to buy extra days.Andrea Adams, change manager for group reward, said: "We were hoping for ...