All articles by Robert Crawford
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AnalysisThe role reward plays in creating a destination employer
If you read nothing else, read this …The ability to attract, retain and hire talented employees helps create a destination employer.Reward packages play a role in all three stages.Reward and benefits strategies must be engaged at an early stage of an employee’s lifecycle, such as onboarding, to help motivate staff.It ...
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ArticleUniversity of Lincoln rewards staff with retail credit
EXCLUSIVE: The University of Lincoln has rewarded its more than 2,000 employees through an online recognition scheme to thank them for their contribution to the organisation’s success over the course of the year.It has awarded employees with £40 worth of credit, which they can use to claim vouchers from a ...
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Case StudiesArup employees engage with group risk benefits
The organisation feels that providing protection for its employees is necessary to protect the business.It offers four different types of group risk cover: life assurance at four-times salary, income protection, critical illness insurance and personal accident insurance.Evan Davidge, head of reward at Arup, says: “We have a moral responsibility to ...
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ArticleHigh Court sides with BBC to cap pensionable pay
The BBC took the decision to introduce a 1% cap on increases to pensionable pay to its three DB schemes to cut its pension liabilities. But the approach that it took to implement the change, requiring members to accept the cap or receive no pay rise, or alternatively to cease ...
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OpinionKatie Davies: Hypothetical tax and calculating fair compensation for expatriate employees
These multiple tax obligations are, of course, inconvenient for expatriate employees. More importantly, though, these obligations may result in significant employee financial losses, or sometimes even gains.Many multinationals have tax-equalisation policies to account for these tax differentials. These policies seek to remove any tax-related advantage or disadvantage that could affect ...
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ArticleBNP Paribas wins top prize at Employee Benefits Awards 2015
The organisation took five prizes in total: ‘Best healthcare and wellbeing benefits – large employer’; ‘Best flexible benefits plan – large employer’; ‘Best alignment of benefits to business strategy’; ‘Best benefits communications – large employer’; and Grand Prix.The judges selected the banking firm as the Grand Prix winner because of ...
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Case StudiesHyde Group builds employee engagement with benefits strategy
Hyde’s external brand is strongly associated with its internal brand, with reward linked to the organisation’s goal of ‘making a lasting difference’ to both residents in the 50,000 homes it owns and manages and the people it employs. Employees have had a constant say in Hyde’s benefits offering through its ...
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Article
Compliance developments impacting benefits in June
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has returned a case to a tribunal for a re-hearing to consider whether redundancy dismissal, where the timing meant an employer avoided significant pension costs, could amount to age discrimination.Compensation received by an employee to settle a discrimination claim is not taxable as earnings, a ...
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ArticleTop 15 most visited stories online in June
1. Virgin Management offers a year’s parental leave on full pay2. Queen’s Speech confirms legislation on tax and NI3. British Gas appeals holiday pay decision4. Government to press ahead with pensions agenda5. DLA Piper increases maternity benefits6. Simplyhealth sells PMI business to Axa PPP Healthcare7. Willis Employee Benefits partners Benefex8. ...
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ArticleBritish Sugar introduces holiday trading
EXCLUSIVE: British Sugar has introduced holiday trading to its flexible benefits offering and is launching a salary sacrifice company car scheme this month (July 2015).The food manufacturer has seen take up of holiday trading reach 10% of its 1,250 workforce since its launch.It has also made a straight saving of ...
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Case StudiesThe benefits offered by Hyde Group
Pension:Trust-based defined contribution pension scheme, with the option to make contributions via a salary sacrifice arrangement available via flexContribution rates are set at 1%, 3%, 4% or 5%, which are doubled by the employer. Employees can pay more but employer contribution is capped at 10%A number of legacy trust-based defined ...
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ArticleSky uses film imagery to increase flexible benefits take up
EXCLUSIVE: Sky has increased the take up of its flexible benefits by more than 30% following the introduction of new communication techniques.The home entertainment and communications organisation embedded the characters from the Monsters University film into the workplace and used them to create awareness around its My Sky Rewards benefits ...
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Case StudiesCapital One develops proposition to become a destination employer
Its vision of ‘making lives better’ underpins everything the employer does, having gone on a journey of rebuilding trust between the business, leadership, management and its employees.Karen Bowes, vice-president of international HR and sustainability at Capital One, says: “It is hard to compete with employers with a big external brand ...
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Case StudiesUKTV creates ideas culture to attract and retain employees
The TV broadcaster builds on this strategy to become a destination employer for top talent. It operates a strong focus on reward and recognition with three schemes to incentivise people to be creative, including a peer nomination scheme, on-the-spot thank yous from manangers and an employee awards ceremony.It also offers ...
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ArticleHigh Court closes two firms over pension savings scam
The High Court has wound up two organisations for operating an £11.9 million misleading pensions liberation scheme.Clients were encouraged to use their pension savings to buy shares in Liverpool-based KJK Investments, which would then increase by 6% in value each year.The 209 clients were also told to obtain a loan ...
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ArticleIBM granted appeal against pension judgement
IBM has been granted permission to appeal both the breaches and remedies judgements made by a High Court in February 2015 to the higher courts.The decision made by the High Court ruled that members of the organination’s UK defined benefit (DB) pension scheme would be able to claim damages against ...
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Article
Barclays C&ES closes to new business
Employee benefits consultancy Barclays Corporate and Employer Solutions (C&ES) will cease to offer its services to new business following a consultation by Barclays. Its benefits consultancy services and auto-enrolment consulting will close and will not be open to new employers.Barclays will continue to honour existing employer client commitments within these ...
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ArticlePensions seen as safest way to save for retirement
Workplace pension schemes are now seen as the safest way to save for retirement, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Its Wealth and assets survey found that confidence has increased with 40% of individuals citing a workplace pension as the safest option to save in the period ...
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ArticleSAB Miller to invest in staff motivation
SAB Miller is to invest in implementing new initiatives across the organisation to help improve staff motivation. Its Annual report 2015 highlighted that 64% of employees who participated in its engagement poll believe they receive appropriate recognition from the organisation.The beer and soft drinks brewer, which owes the Meantime Brewing ...
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ArticleHyde Group pilots workplace massages
EXCLUSIVE: Housing association The Hyde Group (Hyde) is to pilot massages in the workplace across all its main offices as it puts an increased focus on employees’ health and wellbeing.The programme, provided by Massage in the Workplace, will take place throughout July, although it will continue to run until December ...