Opinion – Page 81
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OpinionLawrence Sutton: Tackling the auto-enrolment complexities of weekly-paid staff
Staging dates always fall on the first of the month, which will often be in the middle of an employer’s pay reference period for weekly-paid employees. Employers can consider using postponement to align the date at which they auto-enrol employees with the start of a pay reference period to avoid ...
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Opinion
Carolyn Wilkinson: Thank you for another great event
We are made to feel welcome immediately on arrival by the people in the entrance hall, and then on entering the hall, what a buzz with lots of conversations taking place. It was great to see some new providers this year, especially such high-profile organisations that had embraced the spirit ...
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OpinionDavid Webb: Make the most of change
Yet mention change and often the initial reaction is hostile. We can still be locked into a primeval fear of the unknown.Many employers recognise the need to manage change effectively to keep staff working at their best. Handling change badly can have a wider, damaging impact on how an employer ...
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Opinion
Jill Clucas: Changes to pensions lifetime allowance
Accruing benefits above the value of the lifetime allowance is permitted. However, once an individual has used up his or her LTA, any further benefits will be subject to the LTA charge of 55% on lump sums and 25% on pension income, which will also be subject to income tax. ...
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Opinion
Rachel Dineley: Employers' legal duties around cancer
At all times, employers should avoid making any assumptions with respect either to a particular type of cancer or to how any particular employee will cope with it. Without invading an employee’s privacy, it is usually both practical and appropriate for an employer to discuss in confidence how a [recruitment] ...
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Opinion
Jo Keddie: Legally-compliant long-service award schemes
Employers may have moved away from the time-honoured carriage clock to gift vouchers and celebratory dinners for long-service awards, but many continue to operate long-service schemes as a way of acknowledging and appreciating staff loyalty, irrespective of an employee’s role within the organisation.When the Equality Act 2010 was implemented, many ...
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Opinion
Diana Bruce: Zero-hours contracts could be advantageous to employees
In response to September’s Big Question, Should zero-hours contracts include minimum benefits provision?, by offering workers on zero-hours contracts a minimum benefits provision, there is debate that [employers] would then, in effect, be treating them as employees rather than workers, entitling them to certain statutory rights. The priority here, as ...
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Opinion
Janet Mckenzie: Flex continues to change and develop
Thanks for the informative flexible benefits supplement in September’s magazine. A key piece for me is how flex continues to change and develop. The concept of flex is a much more varied proposition now than it used to be, with organisations increasingly confidant to pick and choose the elements and ...
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Opinion
Ant Donaldson: High employer pension contribution leads to engagement
I respond to Richard Fleet’s description of auto-enrolment contributions as “a payroll tax” in your September letters page and that an employer contributing above the minimum “is putting itself at a competitive disadvantage”.At E.On, we believe it’s important to help employees to retire comfortably. Consequently, we auto-enrolled all of our ...
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Opinion
Stephen Menko: A happy workforce is a productive one
At a time when employees are often faced with increasingly tight deadlines and managers are tasked with getting more from limited budgets or personnel, every aspect of working practice is being evaluated by HR professionals to see what might yield better results.There is certainly a changing perception among HR professionals ...
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Opinion
Jamie Jenkins: Auto-enrolment tips from large employers
At school, we often blamed the fictitious ‘big boys’ for everything that happened. With auto-enrolment, we will be glad the big employers did it first, and instead of blaming them, we’ll learn from them.First things first, though: let’s state some obvious ground rules. Employers come in all shapes and sizes, ...
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Opinion
Peter Nuttall: Happy staff equals happy customers
Yet, employee engagement remains one of the three top challenges facing organisations.It is important that employees are treated as customers, sovereign within an employer’s internal marketing efforts and crucial to the delivery of an organisation’s promise to its external consumers. Underestimating the emotional bonds employees desire to have with the ...
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Opinion
Colin Boxall: One size PMI does not fit all
Bupa’s market share and influence can, arguably, enable it to mould medical insurance thinking more effectively than other insurers.Its bold approach to managing treatment costs, in turn managing client premiums, has been validated to some degree by the recent Competition Commission findings highlighting that hospital costs in some areas should ...
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Opinion
Lynn Graves: Which pension scheme is right for auto-enrolment?
With auto-enrolment well under way, for the first time every employer must offer a pension scheme to staff. As we venture through the next few years, many small to medium-sized organisations are considering workplace pension provision for the first time, raising some challenging questions about the type of scheme to ...
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Opinion
Alastair Kendrick: Employers seek solutions to rising fuel costs
Some of the ideas that are being explored include permitting more home working with better IT capability, which enables employees working at home to Skype/video conference into meetings, removing the need for them travel to the office.Employers may also allow staff that do need to travel in to work to ...
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Opinion
Martha How: What's next for UK flex?
These standards encompass the 10 key benefits present in most plans: pension, holiday, life insurance, income protection, medical insurance and health screening, childcare vouchers, bikes-for-work, dental, travel and retail cards, plus a compliant salary sacrifice structure, with employer control over funding core benefits and harmonisation of variable terms of employment.About ...
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Opinion
Matthew Gregson: Refresh flexible benefits frequently
Organisations should ensure that the big-ticket items they offer employees are right, including holiday, pension scheme and healthcare, and only consider changing these infrequently. It is more appropriate to review add-on benefits, such as dental cover and gyms on a frequent basis.Employers must be mindful of the fact that changing ...
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Opinion
Terry Gostelow: Rolling out global benefits platforms
The rollout of global benefit platforms is treading a similar path to those in the payroll and human resources information system (HRIS) industries, where global providers have become established in recent years. However, while payroll in particular, and sometimes HRIS, remain a back-office tool, rolling out a benefits platform globally ...
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OpinionCarina Paine Schofield: Communicate to all generations
Each generation comes to the workplace with different backgrounds and skills, plus different wants and needs. As different elements drive their lives and careers, each generation thinks differently about the world of work.Our research shows a disconnect between generations on the approach to, and expectations of, work. Generation Y like ...
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Opinion
Leanne Rigby: Work-life balance is a cause for concern
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Spring 2013 Employee outlook survey , 41% of employees are reporting excessive pressures at work on a regular and ongoing basis, while 43% feel they are not achieving the right balance between work and home life.These figures are a cause for ...