Opinion – Page 75
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OpinionBettelley's brooding: Maternity policies are key to retaining top talent
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 ...
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OpinionJacqueline Reid: Will independent governance committees bridge the governance gap between trust and contract-based pensions?
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 ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: The psychology of reward
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 ...
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OpinionFuat Sami: What abolishing pensions contracting out means for employers
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 ...
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OpinionLovewell's Logic: Should saving for retirement always be top priority?
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 ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: It's good to talk
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, ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Could communication be more effective?
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 ...
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OpinionKelly Mitchell: Prepare for childcare changes
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 ...
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OpinionJill Cunnison: Revamping health strategies engages staff
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 ...
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OpinionTom Gaynor: Not just looking at the risk in group risk
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 ...
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OpinionNicholas Stretch: All change for UK tax of expat employee share awards
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 ...
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OpinionLovewell's Logic: New ideas for staff support
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 ...
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OpinionStewart Allanson: Employers must prepare for the workforce revolution
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 ...
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OpinionAlastair Kendrick: Are the rules about to change on taxation of travel and subsistence?
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 ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: The need to care for carers
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 ...
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OpinionLovewell's Logic: Are we suffering from communication overload?
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, ...
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OpinionNadeen Jackson-Barker: Engineer engaging communications
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 ...
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OpinionClare Bettelley: Benefits market consolidation is long overdue
Two of the higher-profile deals saw insurance giant Aviva’s £5.6 billion takeover of Friends Life and Sodexo’s £41 million takeover of incentive and recognition provider Modivcom.For many benefits professionals, consolidation cannot come soon enough to help tackle market saturation, particularly in the healthcare arena.As Jackie Buttery, an independent benefits consultant, ...
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OpinionLovewell's Logic: Should we be tackling UK's pay gap?
In its annual report, investment bank Goldman Sachs revealed that it paid its bankers an average of $373,265 (approximately £245,500) in 2014.In total, the bank set aside $12.69 billion (around £8.35 billion) to pay 34,000 employees’ compensation and benefits packages, which include salaries, discretionary compensation, equity awards and benefits.Statistics from ...
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OpinionJonathan Watts-Lay: Three steps to greater pension flexibility
The 2014 Budget changed the face of retirement options for members of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, with perhaps the most radical pension proposals of our lifetime.The changes will come into force from April 2015, removing many restrictions on how pension benefits can be taken from age 55.But as April ...