EXCLUSIVE: Independent charity Teach First has introduced pension salary sacrifice to drive up scheme membership among its young staff, and has also launched a flexible benefits scheme.

HR director Will Davies said: “Our average age is 30, so we want to try to drive up the pension membership and salary sacrifice is a way of doing that. Earlier in the year we launched the My Benefits website, which raised awareness of our total reward package. Now we have brought everything together.”

Teach First has 210 staff, but its numbers are growing by 35% a year. It conducted an employee survey in the summer to find out what benefits staff wanted. “We wanted to make sure we were introducing a benefits structure
employees wanted, and doing it by flexible benefits means we can scale it up or down as we continue to grow,” said Davies.

New benefits for the flex launch also include an employee assistance programme, health screening, travel insurance, gym membership, holiday purchase and payroll giving.

Teach First hosted roadshows with provider Enrich Employee Benefits to promote the new perks. It has supported these with letters and emails sent out to all staff.

Read more about flexible benefits schemes