All Opinion articles – Page 69

  • Debbie Lovewell, deputy editor, Employee Benefits
    Opinion

    Lovewell's Logic: The rush for Lamborghinis?

    2015-04-10T05:00:00Z

    After a relatively quiet start – well, it was Easter Monday after all – many pension providers are reporting higher than average call volumes from customers, suggesting employees are engaging with the new freedoms and, at the very least, are interested in finding out more about their options.And, as far ...

  • Andrew Powell
    Opinion

    Andrew Powell: IBM case provides important insight for HR and pensions admin

    2015-04-07T15:21:00Z

    The remedies judgment was handed down on 20 February and, while lengthy, provides some important insight for those working in HR and pensions administration. The original High Court ruling found that IBM had breached the contractual duty of trust and confidence when it undertook a statutory employment consultation process in ...

  • Opinion

    3 leader: Clare Bettelley: Why employers should avoid creating dictatorial health and wellbeing strategies

    2015-04-01T09:50:00Z

    Employers’ efforts are being driven by corporate objectives ranging from becoming an employer of choice to boosting employee engagement and retaining key talent. And then there are the organisations that are simply copying their competitors’ initiatives or chasing the latest market developments, particularly around wearable technology.But employers must beware of ...

  • Clare Bettelley
    Opinion

    Bettelley's brooding: Maternity policies are key to retaining top talent

    2015-03-30T00:00:00Z

    The study of more than 800 business divisions from two employers from the retail and hospitality sectors also found that gender-diverse divisions report better financial outcomes than those dominated by one gender.This is why workplace benefits, such as paid maternity leave, are crucial for employers that want to retain skilled ...

  • Reid-Jacqui-Linklaters-2015
    Opinion

    Jacqueline Reid: Will independent governance committees bridge the governance gap between trust and contract-based pensions?

    2015-03-27T16:52:00Z

    Following increased government scrutiny of defined contribution pensions, providers of contract-based pension arrangements will have to introduce and maintain independent governance committees (IGCs) from April 2015. These changes apply to personal or stakeholder pensions run by firms regulated under financial services legislation but not to occupational trust-based schemes.In a trust-based ...

  • Debbie Lovewell, deputy editor, Employee Benefits
    Opinion

    Lovewell's logic: The psychology of reward

    2015-03-27T06:00:00Z

    But should employers be applying the same principles of behavioural science to motivating staff?According to a report published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) this week, a better understanding of the science behind the impact of pay and reward on employee behaviour could help employers to significantly ...

  • Fuat-Sami-Sackers-2015
    Opinion

    Fuat Sami: What abolishing pensions contracting out means for employers

    2015-03-25T06:00:00Z

    For the best part of 50 years, employees and employers of defined benefit (DB) schemes have been able to contract out of the additional state pension.For employees, this has meant paying a lower rate of national insurance contributions (NICs) and building up less state pension in exchange for an equivalent ...

  • Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
    Opinion

    Lovewell's Logic: Should saving for retirement always be top priority?

    2015-03-20T06:00:00Z

    But, in among the flood of press releases that we inevitably receive after such events, I spotted a couple which presented the government’s new Help to Buy Isa as an opportunity for employers.These suggested that employers could include this new type of Isa in their remuneration packages and facilitate employer ...

  • Lovewell-Debbie-EBLive14-2015
    Opinion

    Lovewell's logic: It's good to talk

    2015-03-06T06:00:00Z

    Despite having, what I would consider to be, a relatively sociable job, these days I seem to spend more time communicating via email, Twitter and LinkedIn rather than in person, or even by phone. But, despite this, I really do feel there is no substitute for meeting someone in person, ...

  • Debbie Lovewell, deputy editor, Employee Benefits
    Opinion

    Lovewell's logic: Could communication be more effective?

    2015-02-27T06:00:00Z

    In the last couple of weeks, the issue of benefits communication has once again risen up the agenda as two separate pieces of research suggested that employees’ understanding of benefits is not as good as employers may like.First, The Voucher Shop’s survey of NHS staff found that more than half ...

  • Mitchell Kelly- Home Group-2015
    Opinion

    Kelly Mitchell: Prepare for childcare changes

    2015-02-23T00:00:00Z

    Some parents could potentially be worse off under the new tax-free childcare scheme, due to different conditions for eligibility and lower savings for some.Once the tax-free scheme is introduced, employer-provided childcare voucher schemes will no longer be open to new applicants. However, employees already receiving childcare vouchers can continue to ...

  • Jill Cunnison - CapitalOne
    Opinion

    Jill Cunnison: Revamping health strategies engages staff

    2015-02-20T15:51:00Z

    Over the past few years, we have continued to build on our health and wellbeing strategy by launching campaigns and offers around events such as Men’s Health Week and Women’s Health Week.These kinds of events provide a springboard for initiatives such as cancer awareness and a focus on both the ...

  • Boat lighthouse
    Opinion

    Tom Gaynor: Not just looking at the risk in group risk

    2015-02-18T16:57:00Z

    When I first set foot in the group risk market in 2008, it struck me how often I’d hear the phrase: “It’s a small world, group risk.” “Great!” I thought. “I’ll get to know everything and everyone in no time.” Forget the 90-day plan — in fact, halve it. As ...

  • Stretch-Nicholas-CMS-2015
    Opinion

    Nicholas Stretch: All change for UK tax of expat employee share awards

    2015-02-18T06:00:00Z

    From 6 April 2015, the UK taxation and national insurance contributions (NIC) treatment of share option gains and other employee share awards held by internationally mobile employees is changing.The new treatment affects options and awards already granted because it applies regardless of when options or other awards were made, and ...

  • Debbie Lovewell, deputy editor, Employee Benefits
    Opinion

    Lovewell's Logic: New ideas for staff support

    2015-02-06T06:00:00Z

    The scheme, which works in a similar way to interest-free travel loans, offers employees an interest-free loan to pay for a tenancy deposit when they move into a privately-rented home. Repayments are then deducted from their monthly salary over a period of time until the loan has been repaid.This is ...

  • Workplace revolution
    Opinion

    Stewart Allanson: Employers must prepare for the workforce revolution

    2015-02-04T16:34:00Z

    New technologies and increasing mobility are revolutionising the workplace, with huge implications for employers.Not since the industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century has there been such far-reaching change and now, just as then, there is tremendous opportunity mixed with unprecedented risk.Smartphones and devices are the biggest ...

  • Alistair Kendrick
    Opinion

    Alastair Kendrick: Are the rules about to change on taxation of travel and subsistence?

    2015-02-04T06:00:00Z

    The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has been asked by the government to visit these rules and update the guidance to meet the way in which employees presently work. We await the issue of its updated guidance.These rules set out what is considered an employee’s ‘base’ for tax purposes. It ...

  • Lovewell-Debbie-EBLive14-2015
    Opinion

    Lovewell's logic: The need to care for carers

    2015-02-01T00:00:00Z

    How many employees in your workforce are also carers? And how many carers have you lost from your workforce because they felt unable to continue to juggle their work and caring responsibilities?With the public expenditure costs of carers who feel unable to keep working estimated to exceed £1 billion, it ...

  • Debbie Lovewell, deputy editor, Employee Benefits
    Opinion

    Lovewell's Logic: Are we suffering from communication overload?

    2015-01-30T06:00:00Z

    It involved a group of individuals discussing the number of communications they received from one of their employer’s benefits providers. While they didn’t dispute the value of the benefit they received in any way, they felt that the volume of messages received was excessive and led to them, at times, ...

  • Nadeen Jackson-Barker, AXA UK
    Opinion

    Nadeen Jackson-Barker: Engineer engaging communications

    2015-01-25T18:44:00Z

    With workforces becoming increasingly diverse, it is more and more difficult to find the right communication approach to engage staff.And with shrinking benefits budgets and soon-to-be five generations in the workplace, how can employers be sure to communicate benefits programmes in a way that is effective and packs an engagement ...