All articles by Tom Washington – Page 24
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Article
Informa revamps flexible benefits plan
Informa has revamped its flexible benefits scheme, communicating it through roadshows and a new website.New options for the scheme, called "Informybenefits", include savings on trips to spas and a broader choice of gym providers.Attendance at communication roadshows was double that of the previous year after staff were sent boarding pass-style ...
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Smeg opts for hybrid private medical insurance and cash plan
Smeg UK has reviewed its private medical insurance (PMI) provision, opting for a hybrid PMI and cash plan to save on costs and improve service levels.Previously, it provided PMI for all its 40 staff. It will now use the sum it would have spent on PMI premiums to fund a ...
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Article
Brakes launches staff communication on employee benefits
Brakes Group has launched a communications drive to increase awareness of perks among its 7,000 UK employees.This includes a benefits website that can be accessed externally by staff who cannot log onto the intranet at work for information on perks. Employees have also been sent The Little Book of Benefits, ...
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Article
Employers in Europe lack good data on employee absence
At a time when organisations are looking to cut costs, many are not managing their employee absence rates effectively because of a lack of good data.While most (76%) employers can access simple data about the number of days employees are absent, only 42% can identify the cause of employee absence ...
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Article
Share plans increase loyalty
Employees who participate in share incentive plans (Sips) and sharesave schemes feel more loyal to theiremployer than those who do not. According to HM Revenue & Customs’ Evaluation of Tax-Advantaged All-Employee Share Schemes report, 82% of Sip and sharesave participants strongly agreed, or agreed, they feltloyal to their organisation, compared ...
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Article
Workers willing to sacrifice pay to keep jobs
One-in-10 UK employees would take a pay cut to keep their job, according to research by Ceridian. The survey of1,000 workers showed that more than a quarter would be prepared to have their hours (28%) and pensioncontributions (27%) cut in order to save their job, while almost half (47%) would ...
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Employers and employees divided on personal accounts
Employers and employees are divided about personal accounts, according to a study by JLT Benefit Solutions. The research showed that although 34% of employers which do not currently provide pensions think their staff will opt out of the scheme, only 29% of employees say they will do so. Almost three-quarters ...
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Analysis
Employer-funded healthcare cash plans
Healthcare cash plans have traditionally been paid for as a voluntary benefit by staff, but an increasing number of employers are seeing the value of funding the perk for their employees, says Tom WashingtonThe healthcare cash plan market typically performs well in tough economic times because of the perk's relatively ...
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Lessons the UK can learn from international pension models
As pensions reform looms for the UK in 2012, there are lessons to be learned from countries that have already introduced new models for pension funding, says Tom WashingtonWith statutory pensions reform due to come into effect in the UK in 2012, introducing auto-enrolment, compulsory employer and employee contributions and ...
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Article
Buyer's guide to employee assistance programmes (January 2009)
The economic downturn is raising the profile of employee assistance perks, says Tom WashingtonEmployee assistance programmes (EAPs) have come a long way from the days when they were primarily a telephone helpline for staff. For many employers, the perk is now an integral part of their wellbeing provision, and some ...
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Article
Guide to fibbing at work hits Japan
Bumper sales of a guide to fibbing your way to a better work-life balance could see Japanese employers battling a barrage of imaginatively explained skiving in the new year.The Incumbent Salaryman's Bumper Book of Excuses, a two-volume handbook which describes itself as a “guide for success in work and love”, ...
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Article
Record numbers working unpaid overtime
A record 5.24 million people worked unpaid overtime last year according to the Trade Union Congress (TUC), who says fear of redundancy could be driving employees to put in the extra hours.It estimates the combined value of the extra hours is worth £26.9bn, and says the figure is the highest ...
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Article
Smaller firms failing to offer pension schemes to staff
Many small business employers are failing to offer their staff any kind of workplace pension scheme, while many of those those who do say they are likely to level-down provision ahead of 2012.New research from the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has revealed that 80% of the 1.2 million firms ...
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Article
Vauxhall offers staff a sabbatical to cut costs
Vauxhall has offered workers at its Ellesmere Port factory a sabbatical of up to nine months on 30% of pay, as car manufacturers seek to cut payroll costs during the economic downturn.Workers at the General Motors owned plant were invited to apply for the leave period in december, in response ...
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Article
Employers taking fleet damage limitation steps
Employers are taking steps to limit their exposure to the cost of accidental damage to leased vehicles in their fleet.Almost 95% of businesses regularly receive company vehicles back at the end of the lease period with unexplained dents and scrapes, and only 5.5% of employers said all damage was explained ...
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Article
Vauxhall in talks with unions over pay cuts and four-day week to save jobs
Vauxhall is in talks with trade unions to stave off redundancies, with pay cuts and a four-day working week among the options on the table.The car manufacturer, which employs 5,000 workers in the UK, has already introduced 'down days' where employees leave work early but still get paid, allowing the ...
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Unemployment hits 1.86 million as experts warn of worse to come
Unemployment has risen to 1.86 million and earnings growth has ground to a standstill in the economic downturn, with experts warning there is worse to come.The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that the unemployment rate has risen by 137,000 to 6% in the three months to ...
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Article
Employees are concerned about retirement savings
Employees are concerned that they are not saving enough for retirement, even though most admit it is their responsibility to provide for their own future.According to new research by JLT Benefit Solutions, despite the majority of both employers (84%) and employees (76%) believing that the responsibility for retirement savings lies ...
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Article
Commission payment errors cost employers millions
Poorly-managed commission schemes can lose employers millions of pounds each year.According to research carried out by market research firm Vanson Bourne on behalf of consultancy OpenSymmetry, 24% of the 153 UK sales directors surveyed said they regularly see errors of more than 10% of the total amount of commission paid. ...
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Article
Corus workers' unions reject 10% pay cut proposal
Unions representing workers at the steel-making firm Corus have rejected a proposed 10% pay cut for the company's 25,000-strong workforce as talks continue with the employer in an attempt to strike a deal to reduce employment costs.Corus met with about 100 union representatives London yesterday to discuss the options available ...