London Borough of Havering Council
Like many local councils, the London Borough of Havering Council is under significant financial pressure, and has little in the way of budget for employee benefits.
But when Ross Marshall, HR wellbeing consultant at the council, took on his current role in late 2023, he was keen to do more to help employees improve their lives and set about exploring ways to do this without incurring additional costs.
The council partnered with Perkbox, which provides it with a benefits platform at no cost under a public sector framework arrangement. The platform itself also generates savings for the council as a result of lower employer national insurance (NI) and local government pension scheme (LGPS) contributions, stemming from salary sacrifice arrangements.
Essentially, this means the council has been able to enhance its benefits offering while also realising financial savings. The council absorbs the administration needed to run the benefits platform in its existing team, so it has not needed to increase overheads, says Marshall.
The council offers both a bikes-for-work scheme and home electronics on a salary sacrifice basis. “We already had a salary sacrifice [bikes-for-work] scheme but we wanted to broaden the scope and explore the emerging world of salary sacrifice for home electronics,” says Marshall.
The home electronics scheme means employees can spread payments for new electrical items over 12 months, as well as benefiting from paying less tax and NI. “We wanted to be able to offer financial support if someone’s fridge-freezer breaks and they suddenly need to replace it,” says Marshall. “It’s our way of trying to help our employees as best we can, within the financial constraints that we have.”
To date, around half of the workforce have signed up and the platform is used as a recruitment tool by the organisation’s talent team, he adds.
Other benefits offered on the platform include discounts on supermarkets and lifestyle items such as cinema visits, gym memberships or holidays. Havering is also able to promote other benefits through the platform, such as an employee assistance programme, a health cash plan and a food and intolerance testing service.
