All articles by Robert Crawford – Page 44
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Article
Wages set to grow by 1.8% in 2014
Wages are set to grow by just 1.8% in 2014, according to a report by EY.Its EY Item Club’s latest quarterly forecast also found that wages will slowly start to rise, growing up to 2.7% by 2015 and 3.5% by 2016.Peter Spencer, chief economic advisor to the EY Item Club, ...
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Article
Large pay gaps cause strikes and employee sickness
Organisations with big pay gaps between the highest and lowest-paid staff suffer more industrial action, more work-related sickness and higher staff turnover, according to research by the High Pay Centre.The high cost of high pay: an analysis of pay inequality within firms report, which surveyed 1,923 organisations, found that organisations ...
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Article
Newcastle Theatre Royal selects payroll system for auto-enrolment
Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust has selected a payroll system to help it comply with pensions auto-enrolment legislation.The theatre will use Carval Computing’s HR Unity system for in-house payroll processing and HR functionality to help auto-enrol its 150 employees.It will also manage the organisation’s staffing situation, which includes staff on regular, ...
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Opinion
Paula Hargaden: Healthcare trusts have key attractions
A trust can be employer-branded and can cover treatment that might be prohibitively expensive to obtain from an insured solution. Alternatively, the healthcare benefit can be packaged to mimic an existing insured solution, for example to ease the transition from insured to trust-based arrangements, so that, from the employee’s perspective, ...
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Article
Government to delay pension charges cap
The government’s proposed 0.75% cap on pension charges could be delayed for a year until April 2015.The introduction of a cap was originally intended for April 2014, which aimed to protect millions of employees from high fees, after being auto-enrolled into their organisation’s pension scheme.A Department for Work and Pensions ...
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Article
Music to motivate staff by
Something for the weekend…With a number of employers offering their workforces access to an on-site gym, perhaps pumping out the top 10 most motivating tunes will encourage staff to make the most of the facility.Brunel Univeristy and Spotify studied more than 6.7 million fitness compilations, to put together the ultimate ...
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Article
Top 10 most read stories this week
The top 10 most read articles on employeebenefits.co.uk from 9-16 January:1. Communication strategies to engage staff with pensions auto-enrolment2. The Pensions Regulator publishes DC code3. How much pension fund choice should employers offer their workforce?4. Now: Pensions partners Staffcare for auto-enrolment5. Employers plan benefits strategy changes in 20146. 39% of ...
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Article
Employers face increased minimum wage penalties
Employers that do not pay employees the national minimum wage will face an increased penalty of up to £20,000.The government is to increase the financial penalty percentage from 50% to 100% of the unpaid wages owed to workers found to be underpaid, plus the penalty fine of up to £20,000.Currently, ...
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Opinion
Kuljit Kaur: Staff motivation and morale issues in the NHS
HR professionals in the NHS must examine how to get the best value out of their employee benefits and incentive budgets to deliver tangible results.While pay hits the headlines, studies show that the main reason employees leave an organisation is lack of recognition, with our recent NHS Employee survey finding ...
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Article34% of employees received a pay rise in 2013
Only a third (34%) of respondents nationally received a pay rise in 2013, according to research by recruitment website Reed.The Reed 2014 Salary and market insight report, which surveyed 2,500 employers and employees, found that only 24% of employee respondents received a bonus in 2013.The research also found that nearly ...
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Case StudiesUnited Response took extra time to communicate auto-enrolment message
Many of the organisation’s 3,500 employees were already in its stakeholder pension scheme, but a further 1,451 were auto-enrolled on 1 October, postponed from its staging date in July 2013.Diane Lightfoot, director of communications and fundraising at United Response, says: “We did our first briefing in April. We knew we ...
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Analysis
What are the legal requirements for auto-enrolment communications?
Communication must include:A statement that the employee has been, or will be, automatically enrolled into a pension scheme.The enrolment date.Details of the pension scheme provider.The value of both employer and employee contributions.If it is a defined contribution pension scheme, the employer must advise staff of the phased increases as a ...
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Article
Pay rises for non-executive directors set to end
Pay rises for non-executive directors in FTSE 100 organisations are coming to an end following five years of steady increases, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).Its Non-executive director fees report found that base pay for non-executive director roles are beginning to plateau, as companies try to keep pay rises for ...
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AnalysisCommunication strategies to engage staff with pensions auto-enrolment
If you read nothing else, read this…When communicating auto-enrolment, employers must remember their audience, make it relevant and start early, using various communication methods.Communications must be tailored to individual employees. Technology is a key factor in engaging staff with auto-enrolment. Before communicating the details of how auto-enrolment will work and ...
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Article
Executives 'boss-napped' over redundancy pay
Something for the weekend…With the economy in slow recovery, organisations are still struggling to meet some employees’ pay, bonus and reward expectations.But members of the French trade union Confederation Generale du Travail went to the extreme by ‘boss-napping’ two Goodyear executives for two days on 6 and 7 January.The union ...
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Article
Top 10 most read stories this week
The top 10 most read articles on employeebenefits.co.uk from 2-9 January:1. BP and Microsoft access wellbeing scheme2. Average gender pay gap among HR professionals hits £8,844 3. How to motivate lower-paid staff in high-pay cultures4. Shared parental leave could create issues5. 2-3% pay rises most common among HR professionals6. Low-cost ...
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Article
Chief executives earn workers' annual pay in two days
UK chief executives have already earned more money in 2014 than the average employee will in the whole year, according to research by the High Pay Centre.The independent think-tank’s calculations found that FTSE 100 bosses surpassed the UK average salary of £26,500 by mid-morning on 8 January, which it has ...
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Opinion
Barbara Allen: The new disclosure regime for executive remuneration
Under the new format, remuneration reports must include a letter from the chairman of the remuneration committee outlining any significant changes during the reporting year, a forward-looking policy report and an annual report on remuneration setting out how the organisation’s remuneration policy was implemented during the year.The policy report, which ...
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Article
First Autumn Statement changes take effect
The investment limits for share plans will increase from April 2014. The limits on sharesave schemes will double from £250 to £500 a month, while the maximum value of shares that an employee can acquire with tax advantages through share incentive plans will rise to £1,800 for partnership shares and ...
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Article
Shared parental leave could create issues
Under the new system, eligible working families will have more flexibility around how they can balance work and caring commitments. Parents will be able to be at home together or to work at different times and share the care of their child.The government also announced that the system will include: ...