All articles by Nicola Sullivan – Page 62
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Article
Standard Life set to acquire Vebnet
Vebnet is set to become part of Standard Life in a £24 million deal.Standard Life has agreed to offer 260p per share for Vebnet and will buy the its entire share capital, which is valued at around £24.2 million. Vebnet directors have unanimously recommended the offer to shareholders, who will ...
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Article
The Pensions Trust offloads pensioner liabilities
The Pensions Trust has struck a deal with Paternoster to secure the pension benefits of the pensioner section of its multi-employer pension schemeThe Trust, which operates a multi-employer scheme for the charity, social, educational, voluntary and not-for-profit sectors, provides an occupational pension for employees of the 3,000 employers that currently ...
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Article
Chancellor stands by public sector pay increases
Chancellor Alistair Darling has remained tough on the government's plans to cap public sector pay rises below inflation and slammed large bonus payments.In a speech at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference in Brighton, Darling said that it would be damaging for the government to "allow inflation to become entrenched" ...
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Article
Public sector workers in strike ballot over pay
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is to ballot 270,000 civil servants and public service workers on strike action over the government's policy to cap public sector pay to below inflation.Mark Serwotka, general secretary of PCS, announced the move over the weekend (6 September) shortly before the TUC conference, ...
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Article
Weight Watchers launches dietary programme for the workplace
Weight Watchers plans to offer its dietary services in the workplace so that employees can be helped to shed weight and adopt a more healthy lifestyle.Employees working at firms that take on the Weight Watchers' at work programme will be given advice on healthy eating at classes held during their ...
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Article
Cable & Wireless in £1bn pension scheme bulk annuity contract
Cable & Wireless will transfer more than £1bn pension liabilities of its superannuation fund through a bulk annuity insurance contract to Prudential.The deal will see the transfer of just over defined benefit (DB) pension liabilities to Prudential, which will manage the risks associated with paying the benefits to scheme members.Cable ...
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Article
Marks & Spencer sacks whistleblower
Marks & Spencer has sacked a long-serving employee for leaking the retailer's plans to slash redundancy payouts.The worker, who is represented by the GMB Union, was dismissed on the grounds of gross misconduct, shortly after attending a disciplinary hearing for blowing the whistle on the retailer's proposals to reduce redundancy ...
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Article
Punter Southhall Financial Management acquires City Assurance Consultants
Financial adviser and employee benefits consultant Punter Southall Financial Management (PSFM) has announced it will be acquiring 100% of the share capital of independent financial advisers City Assurance Consultants.The move follows a period of growth for PSFM, which has expanded its private client base and employee benefits teams over the ...
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Case Studies
Case Study: Rentokil
Rentokil eradicates wasteful driving habits Rentokil Initial introduced driver training to combat the rising cost of filling up.It is currently piloting courses, and employees are encouraged to adopt fuel-saving measures such as ensuring tyres are properly inflated and avoiding heavy braking.John Green, procurement director and fleet manager at the pest ...
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Article
Firms see outplacement as redundancy cushion
When making redundancies, most employers believe that if they offer outplacement support for employees it will help to protect the company's reputation. Of the 100 HR directors that responded to The value of outplacement survey released by Reed Consulting in August, 78% said they felt that the provision of outplacement ...
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Article
UK's SMEs shun flexible working arrangements
UK-based small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are less likely to adopt flexible working practices than their European counterparts, according to research commissioned by BT Business. Less than half (46%) of UK SMEs enable employees to work remotely, compared with 86% of SMEs in Spain. The UK also falls behind the European average ...
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Article
Two-thirds of UK workforce believe they are underpaid
Just under two-thirds of British workers say they are not paid enough for the work they do, according to research released by disability insurer Unum.Out of the 3,264 employees that took part in the research, published in August, 65% believe their salaries are not high enough and only 2% think ...
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Article
White & Case holds child first aid talk for staff
White & Case is holding a paediatric medical information talk for parents to increase the understanding of existing health benefits and services available at the law firm.The event, hosted by a doctor from General Medical, which provides some of firm's health benefits, will be held at White & Case's London ...
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Analysis
Constructing an internet policy for staff to avoid abuse
Employees who have been able to watch online video streaming of the Olympics at work over the last few weeks should not take the perk for granted, especially if they are planning to catch up on the football now that the season has started. Employers are actively blocking employee access ...
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Article
First Direct adds carbon offsetting to flex
First Direct has added a carbon offsetting perk to its flexible benefits scheme to educate staff about their carbon footprint and to provide them with the ability to reduce it.Employees can use an online calculator to work out their own carbon footprint. Once they have worked out the amount of ...
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Article
Yell launches structured long-service programme
Yell has introduced a structured long-service awards programme that uses experience days and gifts to reward staff, in a consistant manner, for their loyalty to the company.Employees will be entitled to receive gifts and experiences at the end of each five-year period they have worked for the company, up to ...
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Article
Details of Tesco perk leaked
Tesco employees are encouraging people outside the organisation to take advantage of Tesco's staff-only summer offers for visits to theme parks, even though the public are not entitled to do so.Internet postings from some of the retailer's employees appeared on MoneySavingExpert.com in July, explaining how the general public could receive ...
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Article
GSK offers dietary advice
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will be piloting an employer-paid nutritional advice service to help its employees manage long-term medical conditions.The pharmaceutical company plans to roll out the electronic advice programme, provided by Harmony Cuisine, to between 100 and 200 staff this autumn. If successful, the company will consider extending it to the ...
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Article
Friends Provident revamps bonuses
Friends Provident has restructured employees' annual bonus scheme to increase the potential rewards given, and improved the way targets are communicated. Under the new scheme, introduced to the workforce in July, the maximum bonus each employee can achieve has been increased by 20%.Previously employees' bonuses primarily depended on the company's ...
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Article
Freshfields Bruckhaus staff leap to take up flex scheme
Law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has launched a flexible benefits scheme to improve its benefits provision for employees.The flex scheme, which went live in July, has received a 60% take-up with 1,100 out of the firm's 1,800 UK-based staff making active benefits choices.Adam Brooke, flexible benefits manager at Freshfields Bruckhaus ...