Opinion – Page 6
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OpinionCharles Cotton: The challenges employers face in 2021
Firms that are growing currently will want to make hay while the sun shines and could look to offer a pay rise to retain talent, or lure new recruits with a higher-than-average salary in 2021. However, given the competitive job market at present, employers may find this is not necessary ...
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OpinionTamsin Nicholds: Protecting low-paid employees on Universal Credit with employee ownership bonuses
The start of 2020 saw press coverage relating to organisations which had seen their good intentions thwarted when they had paid cash bonuses to employees only to see that those employees lost a corresponding amount of their benefits provided through Universal Credit.In practice, paying bonuses often has a negative effect, ...
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OpinionCaroline Harwood: Tax implications of Christmas parties during Covid-19
As we are now well into autumn, and Christmas decorations start making their way into shops, employers may have started to think about their annual Christmas party; but this year, it is different.With Covid-19 (Coronavirus) restrictions likely to be in place until Christmas in some shape or form, employers will ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Resetting the people agenda
Today (Friday 16 October) marks the final day of the inaugural Employee Benefits Reset online series. Over the past two weeks, this has featured sessions from leading HR and reward professionals discussing how the current landscape has prompted them to reset and reshape their organisation’s approach to people strategy.One thing ...
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OpinionAlastair Kendrick: The effect of Covid-19 on staff travel schemes
We have seen, over a number of years, employers challenged to move towards a greener approach to business. This challenge included the question of whether this could incorporate a change to staff travel.These discussions questioned whether there was the opportunity to avoid a physical journey by taking a conference or ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Recognising opportunities for reinvention
For many of us, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it a series of challenges. What is less often discussed, however, is the opportunities that have also arisen as a consequence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the business world, particularly when it comes to how we work how ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: What does the current jobs market mean for benefits?
What a week it has been; in the space of just seven days, Office for National Statistics’ figures reported 730,000 fewer individuals are on payrolls since March 2020 and the UK economy officially entered recession.For the hundreds of thousands of individuals that have entered the UK jobs market, competition for ...
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OpinionScott Cawood: Investing in post-pandemic workforces through total reward
As we trend toward the recovery phases of the economic meltdown triggered by Covid-19, people will begin returning to their workplaces. Many organisations will welcome back furloughed workers. The workforce we had prior to the pandemic will not be the same that returns. The pure mental and physical fatigue that ...
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OpinionJames Davies and Amy Cooper: How are employers continuing to deal with Covid-19?
The Covid-19 (Coronavirus) crisis presents businesses with multiple challenges, including how to continue to get the best out of their workforce while keeping them safe.Many employees have had to juggle childcare and schooling responsibilities with working in makeshift home offices. The government’s furlough scheme has, meanwhile, helped preserve jobs where ...
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OpinionKate Martin: Managing an employee’s holiday allowance while on furlough
With so many holidays booked and cancelled during lockdown, and there being a number of bank holidays that have fallen during this period, it has left employers wondering what is the right way to be managing employees’ holiday allowances while they are on furlough.The government guidance on taking holiday while ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Is flexible working becoming the new normal?
How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected working arrangements in your organisation?As many organisations, particularly in the retail sector, have begun to open their doors again this week, and others prepare to do so, many businesses are questioning what changes to working arrangements resulting from the pandemic and lockdown could mean ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Should Facebook base employees' pay on location?
Should your salary be set according to the area in which you live?This was the question raised earlier this week when Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerburg, discussed the organisation’s plans to move towards remote working in the post-pandemic era. In a public livestream, Zuckerburg explained that over the next five to ...
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OpinionDuncan Brown: Will reward strategies post Covid-19 mean the end of extreme market-driven flexibility?
Writing this piece in my back room in the midst of our coronavirus lockdown affords a good opportunity to reflect soberly on where recent reward and benefits orthodoxies and trends have taken us; and how they need to change in the future.A demotivated, low productivity workforce through manifestly ‘bad work’ ...
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OpinionStephen Perkins: Benefits management involves knowing employees' needs
A single cash award may seem the simplest method of reward, and one which allows employees to control what they do to benefit from their earnings, but benefits have become part of an expected package.How does an employer offer benefits that employees want and value, compared with cash? How can ...
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OpinionMark Witte and Sarah Robson: 2020’s biggest benefits trend might not be benefits
With Madonna on tour again and bum-bags making a fashion comeback, it feels like 2020 is history repeating itself. Nevertheless, although Aon's UK benefits and trends survey 2020, published in January, showed a lot of consistency, it also indicated some clear trends and changes, including an increasing interest in value-on-investment ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Moving into a post-Brexit world
Love it or loathe it, 31 January 2020 is an historic date for the UK, as the country finally officially departs from the European Union (EU). With an 11-month transition agreement in place to last until 31 December 2020, and a number of negotiations still to take place, Brexit day ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: The NHS's move to greater flexibility
Last month, NHS England and Improvement appointed Jane Galloway to the position of head of flexible working.Often reported as a highly stressful and pressurised place to work for many, the NHS’ steps to create a culture of flexibility is a positive move. In its interim people plan, published in June ...
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OpinionTim Middleton: Do pensions still have a role in attracting talented employees?
Decades ago, a pension scheme would have played a vital role in helping employers recruit and retain talented individuals.Today, however, things are significantly different. For one, employers are far less likelyto want to recruit employees who will stay with them to retirement. Moreover, as it is now a statutory requirement ...
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OpinionRebecca Thornley-Gibson: Asda’s own Supermarket Sweep
Organisations need to be agile in the way they react to change in their sector and the wider economy. However, changes inevitably have a people impact, and the current Asda employee relations dispute regarding changes to staff terms reflects the challenges in place for employers that need to maintain market ...
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OpinionPhilomena Price: Employment law changes to watch out for from April 2020
April 2020 sees some key changes coming into force that employers need to be aware of. As with any employment law matter, it is beneficial if employers start thinking about how these changes may affect their businesses now, and plan accordingly, rather than waiting.First, all workers, including employees starting work ...