All articles by Nicola Sullivan – Page 10
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Article
Disney lifts ban on facial hair
After a 60-year ban on beards, Disney is finally allowing facial hair to sprout within the walls of its magic kingdoms.Employees at its theme parks in Florida and California will be able to come to work sporting a beard or goatee, providing the bristle is less than quarter of an ...
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Article
Employer pension contributions chief reason for remaining auto-enrolled
Benefiting from employer-funded contributions is the biggest reason for employees staying auto-enrolled in occupational pensions, according to research by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).The ABI consumer survey, conducted by YouGov, showed that not missing out on employer-funded pension contributions (47%) and tax relief (14%) on contributions were the most ...
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Article
Auto-enrolment pension contribution increases delayed
The increase in the minimum pension contribution rates for employers and employees required under the forthcoming pension reforms will be delayed from 1 October 2016 to 1 October 2017.This delay is to account for the fact that auto-enrolment staging dates for small and medium-sized employers have been pushed back to ...
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Article
Government confirms new staging dates for auto-enrolment
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released a revised timetable of staging dates by when employers must comply with the forthcoming pension reforms, including auto-enrolment.During a work and pensions select committee, pensions minister Steve Webb, confirmed that employers with staging dates on or before 1 February 2014 will ...
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Article
Vince Cable outlines measures to crack down on executive pay
Business secretary Vince Cable has outlined a raft of measures around executive pay, including proposals to increase the power of shareholders and demystify complex pay deals.Cable said that shareholders should get a legally binding vote on boardroom pay policies (including how performance in measured), exit payments worth more than one ...
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Article
Santander selects Marie Curie Cancer Care as charity of the year
Santander has chosen Marie Curie Cancer Care as its charity of the year partner for 2012 following an all-staff vote.The year-long Santander partnership has a fundraising target of £500,000, which will help fund 25,000 hours of free Marie Curie nursing care for people in their own homes.Fundraising activity will kick ...
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Article
Morgan Sindall Group to introduce new pension scheme for auto-enrolment
The Morgan Sindall Group is to introduce a new pension scheme in order to comply with the forthcoming pension reforms.The scheme, which is provided by B&CE, is designed to cater for the UK construction and regeneration group’s 2,200 operatives, who are paid on a weekly basis, once auto-enrolment commences for ...
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Article
Pensions and life cover some of modern Britain's greatest conundrums
Pensions and life cover are among the 50 greatest conundrums of modern Britain, alongside Stephen Hawking’s theories and Jedward.The 2,000 respondents to research conducted by Puzzler World 2012 were baffled by the difference between life insurance and life assurance, which was the eighth conundrum on the list above the theory ...
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Article
Workplace pensions exempt from compulsory unisex insurance pricing
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 ...
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Article
Promoting wellbeing at work through regulation is counterproductive
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 ...
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Article
Defined benefit pension scheme deficits up £50 billion
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 ...
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Article
EXCLUSIVE: Employers will impose pay freezes to save jobs
Troubled employers will impose pay freezes to save jobs in the next 12 months, predicts Charles Cotton, public policy adviser, reward at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).“Organisations seem more prepared to freeze pay than to make redundancies,” he said.According to the CIPD’s Labour market outlook, published in ...
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Article
EXCLUSIVE: Killik Employee Services launches web portal for executive share plans
Killik Employee Services has launched a web portal to help employers illustrate the value of executive share plans.The portal enables staff to conduct online transactions and model the value of their shares if they hit performance conditions. An instant messenger system allows contact with share scheme administrators and brokers.Employees can ...
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Article
HarperCollins checks reward for critical roles
?EXCLUSIVE: HarperCollins is upgrading its performance management system to identify staff who have critical roles in the business and ensure they are rewarded appropriately.After the publisher’s human resources team has identified with senior management what the critical roles are, the data will be fed into its online system, which is ...
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Analysis
International reward: Take a look at offshore pension schemes
If you read nothing else, read this …Employers offer international pension plans (IPPs) to ensure they properly and competitively compensate employees for living outside of their home country.An employer needs to find a suitable offshore jurisdiction on which to base its IPP, understand the tax implications of the scheme, decide ...
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Case Studies
Case study: Mars international pension scheme has DC and DB flavours
Mars, which manufactures brands such as Pedigree, Dove and Snickers, set up an international pension scheme for its globally mobile senior managers in 2008.The scheme, based on a design incorporating both a defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) pension, is in two parts. Employees put contributions into the DC ...
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Analysis
News analysis: New year rings in legislative changes
Pensions, healthcare and group risk benefits will be affected significantly by a raft of legislative developments this year, says Nicola SullivanSeveral legislative developments affecting employers’ reward packages will hit the headlines in 2012. These relate to six key areas covering pensions, healthcare and group risk benefits.First up is the retail ...
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Article
EXCLUSIVE: Kantar Worldpanel rejigs age rules for GPP contributions
?Kantar Worldpanel plans to make the age-related contribution structure for its group personal pension (GPP) plan more flexible to comply with the 2012 pension reforms.At the moment, employees of the market research firm who are aged under 35 can contribute 2% and receive a 4% employer contribution, while those aged ...
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Article
Hays research: More than half of public sector workers would sacrifice pension for private sector job
More than half of workers in the public sector would sacrifice their pension for a career in the private sector, according to research conducted by Hays.The Hays Career Outlook Survey showed that although those working in the public sector were fiercely defensive of their pensions, they also found the private ...
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Article
Ernst and Young research: Graduates rank training and development over a large salary
Graduates rank training and development over a large salary when selecting a future employer, according to research conducted by Ernst and Young.An online poll, which registered nearly 600 respondents, showed that 41% of graduates view training and development as the most important consideration when weighing up a potential employer. This ...