All articles by Tom Washington – Page 22
-
Article
Pressure on pay rises
Employers plan to keep a tight rein on pay increases in the coming months, and one in eight do not intend to conduct a pay review at all this year, according to the latest quarterly Chartered Institute of Personnel Development/KPMG Labour market outlook survey. Those that are planning salary reviews ...
-
Article
Graduate salary freeze
Graduate salaries will remain largely static this year, but some employers, particularly in the banking and financial sectors, will cut them by up to 8%. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters' 2009 Winter Survey, the median starting salary has been frozen at 2008's £25,000 level. Salary growth is expected ...
-
Analysis
Salary sacrifice benefits
The range of benefits that can be offered under salary sacrifice arrangements has expanded in recent years and the advantages for employer and employee are considerable, says Tom Washington.Salary sacrifice arrangements around tax-efficient benefits allow staff to swap part of their gross salary for a non-cash benefit provided by their ...
-
Analysis
Alternatives to private medical insurance
Private medical insurance may seem a likely target for reducing expenditure on perks, but some newer hybrid products may offer a more economical alternative, says Tom WashingtonIf benefits practitioners are looking to reduce employee-related costs by reviewing expenditure on perks, private medical insurance (PMI) is likely to come under the ...
-
Article
Perks under review during recession
One in four (25%) employers will review their compensation and benefits programmes during the economic downturn. According to research published by Hewitt Associates, leadership development (38%), talent retention (34%) and employee engagement (30%) will be top of the agenda. The Fourth European HR barometer, which surveyed 53 organisations with 3.5 ...
-
Article
Tectura switches PMI provider
Tectura has switched providers for its private medical insurance (PMI) scheme after a staff survey revealed employees would value wellbeing perks, such as discounted gym membership.The IT firm, which pays for the benefit for all its 100 employees, switched to Pruhealth's Vitality scheme in January.Under the scheme, staff can get ...
-
Article
Somerfield updates vehicle management process
Somerfield has taken steps to make the administration of its fleet more efficient and help meet its duty-of-care responsibility.The new online scheme includes an automated mileage capture system to record details of business trips and personal mileage, run by the Miles Consultancy. This is designed to make the process of ...
-
Article
Fujitsu Services pilots road risk programme
Fujitsu Services is piloting a two-month long occupational road risk programme for more than 1,000 of its company car drivers.For the first time, all business-need company car users who drive a minimum of 8,000 business miles a year have been asked to complete an online driver risk training and assessment ...
-
Article
BDO Stoy Hayward Investment Management launches redundancy service
BDO Stoy Hayward Investment Management (BDO) has launched a financial redundancy counselling service for companies making redundancies.The service, which integrates independent financial advice into the overall redundancy consultation process, can be structured according to employers' needs as well as and the employees that are affected. Employers can choose one or ...
-
Article
Northgate Vehicle Hire takes gold in Rospa awards
Northgate Vehicle Hire has won a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’ (Rospa) 2009 Award for the first time for promoting health and safety to employees and customers.The Darlington-based firm will be presented with an Occupational Health and Safety Gold Award at a ceremony at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole ...
-
Article
Jaguar Land Rover staff agree pay freeze and four day week
Staff at Jaguar Land Rover have agreed to take a pay freeze and work a four-day week in order to avoid redundancies as the motoring industry continues to be hit by falling car sales.The news follows data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) released yesterday that revealed ...
-
Article
Employees' financial worries affect performance at work
More than a quarter of workers do not feel in control of their finances and believe their financial worries are affecting their performance at work.According to research published by the Institute for Employment Studies, 30% of employees are concerned about their financial wellbeing, while almost 10% felt this issue had ...
-
Article
Goodwin defiant over pension
Sir Fred Goodwin is refusing to hand back any of his £693,000-a-year pension despite calls from government ministers for him to do so, and claims that ministers were aware of the arrangements some months ago.Goodwin left Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) as chief executive last October, soon after it ...
-
Article
Former RBS chief receives GBP693,000 pension a year
Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), is receiving a pension of £693,000 a year.Goodwin stepped down from his position four months ago, soon after RBS was bailed out by the government with the help of £20billion of public money. News of ...
-
Article
Many employers unprepared for 2012 pension changes
Many UK companies are unprepared for the pension reforms in 2012 and will need to make significant changes to their existing scheme to meet the new legal requirements.According to research conducted by Watson Wyatt, nearly a third of FTSE100 firms had not considered the implications of 2012 and the introduction ...
-
Article
Royal Mail must be privatised to save pension, says trustee chairman
Royal Mail pension scheme members have been warned that their retirement savings could be halved if the plan to privatise part of the business does not go ahead.Royal Mail pensions trustees chairman, Jane Newell, has said that if the recommendations made in the Hooper report were not implemented it would ...
-
Article
Hewlett-Packard cuts pay and benefits
Hewlett-Packard is reducing employee compensation and benefits following a drop in profits.The international technology firm, which employs about 20,000 staff in the UK, plans to cut employee pay by 5%, although for some workers it will be 2.5%.It announced the changes during its first-quarter earnings conference call in which it ...
-
Article
Toyota freezes pay and bonuses
Toyota has frozen pay increases and ruled out management bonuses at its UK operations this year and is discussing further action to reduce labour costs to cope with the downturn in demand.The Japanese car-maker's 4,500 UK employees were informed of the moves this week as the firm reacts to a ...
-
Article
Pension Regulator reappoints non-executive directors
The Pensions Regulator has reappointed two non-executive directors, Alan Pickering and Chris Swinson, for a further four-year term.Pickering and Swinson began their new contract on 8 February, having already served a four-year term as inaugural non-executive directors.David Norgrove, Pensions Regulator chairman, said: "I am delighted that Alan Pickering and Chris ...
-
Article
BT to pay £16.6m into PPF after European ruling
British Telecom (BT) will have to pay the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) £16.6 million.It follows a European Commission decision that a Crown guarantee which exempts BT from paying full levies to the PPF is partially illegal.The guarantee safeguards the pension of BT employees, who were working at the firm at ...