All articles by Tynan Barton – Page 36
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OpinionRuth Christy: Avoiding the pitfalls of the office Christmas party
The Christmas party season is approaching and, for employers, it could open a Pandora’s Box of complications if not carefully managed.The office Christmas party presents two specific challenges: the party is normally off site and the combination of high spirits and alcohol. This unique work-related scenario requires some forward planning ...
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Case StudiesHome Group uses a range of festive schemes to reward employees
Home Group involves its employees in a range of reward schemes during the festive period to show its appreciation of their work throughout the year.As well as decorating offices and desks, the provider of social housing, and care and support services, has held a 12 Days of Christmas event in ...
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AnalysisWhat are the latest trends in Christmas rewards?
Read more:Gift cards and vouchers remain a popular choice of Christmas reward because they offer employees choice and flexibility around where to spend them.Tailored gifts, such as mobile beauty services, experience vouchers and personalised products, are increasing in popularity among employers.Employers must consider the messages that their Christmas rewards are ...
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ArticleEmployers tax relief for life assurance and overseas pensions to be modernised
Autumn Budget 2107: The government has announced that tax relief for employer premiums paid into life assurance schemes or certain overseas pension schemes will be modernised.The changes, coming into effect from April 2019, will cover policies when an employee nominates an individual or registered charity to be their beneficiary.
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ArticleIncome tax exemption for Armed Forces accommodation allowances announced
Autumn Budget 2017: The government has announced the introduction of an income tax and national insurance contribution (NIC) exemption for accommodation allowances for Armed Forces personnel.The exemption will apply to certain allowances paid to personnel for renting or maintaining accommodation in the UK private market.The exemption is to support the ...
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ArticleStaff will not incur benefit-in-kind tax for charging electric vehicles at work
Autumn Budget 2017: Employees that charge their electric vehicles at work will not incur a benefit-in-kind charge on the electricity used.Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the move, which will come into effect from April 2018, during his Autumn Budget 2017 speech today (22 November).The announcement is part of the government’s focus ...
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ArticleDiesel supplement in company car tax to increase by 1%
Autumn Budget 2017: The government has announced that the existing company car tax diesel supplement will increase from 3% to 4% in April 2018.This will only apply to diesel cars that do not meet the latest emissions limits.In the Autumn Budget 2017, Chancellor Philip Hammond also announced that, from April ...
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ArticleStaffcare relaunches as Zest
Employee benefits technology provider Staffcare has relaunched its business as Zest, and simultaneously launched its new benefits technology platform.The launch marks the culmination of a multi-million, three-year investment programme by Zest, supported by its parent company, The SimplyBiz Group.Ray Sieber, managing director of Zest, said: “Today marks a major shift ...
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OpinionMark Swain: Tips for engaging younger workers with their health and wellbeing
Early-career professionals seem to have a growing mistrust of the 'big bad corporate', and anything that commits them to something over the long term. Maybe that’s symptomatic of younger people making only short-term commitments, and having many more jobs and projects over their working lifetime. And this transience is compounded ...
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OpinionEdward Houghton: The best reward strategies are often data driven
Reward and pay are fundamentally important factors for helping to attract, retain and engage employees at work. Given the availability and increasing prominence of data systems to HR professionals, the best strategies are now, more often than not, data-driven: both in their development and in their communication. To succeed today, ...
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ArticleCivil Service to launch diversity and inclusion strategy
Employee Benefits Live 2017: The Civil Service is to launch a new strategy to improve diversity and inclusion (D&I) within its workforce, in order to see improvements in its business performance.Addressing delegates at Employee Benefits Live 2017 in a session titled How to make progress and impact with diversity and ...
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Case StudiesThe benefits offered by Oliver Bonas
The workplace benefits offered by Oliver Bonas include:PensionPension: Master trust, with standard contribution rates required under auto-enrolment. These currently stand at 1% from the employer and 1% employee.Healthcare and wellbeingPrivate medical insurance, employer funded, for senior managers and store managers.Health cash plans, employee paid, available through the benefits platform.Compay carsCompany ...
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Case StudiesOliver Bonas redesigns benefits strategy to reflect core values
Lifestyle retailer Oliver Bonas has reviewed and restyled its benefits strategy in order to reflect its core values: work hard, play hard, and be kind.With the majority of its 820 employees working part-time in stores, the organisation recognises that its benefits have to appeal to many different people, as well ...
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OpinionSarah Thompson: How employers can prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
We conducted a poll in May to see how many employers were preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force next May. Two fifths (41%) said that 'we were aware of the law but were not taking any action'; 12% were not aware of it. It is ...
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ArticleEXCLUSIVE: Winning award entries should evidence impact on benefits strategy
Employee Benefits Live 2017: A winning award entry needs to have an interesting benefits story to tell.Addressing delegates on day one of Employee Benefits Live 2017 in the session What makes a winning benefits and reward strategy, Sam Kirk (pictured), reward director at TalkTalk, a previous winner and judge of ...
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OpinionJo Dodds: Wellbeing and engagement can improve organisational performance
The Marmot Review, published in February 2010 showed that work can either be good or bad for health.Within the Engage for Success movement, we understand that there is not one particular definition of what employee engagement is. When our founders, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, researched Engaging for Success, otherwise ...
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Case StudiesAnytime enrolment offers Kantar employees more flexibility
Kantar moved from an annual flexible benefits enrolment window to monthly election windows to improve the flexibility of its scheme.Its current scheme, which has been in place since January 2014, offers its approximately 4,000 employees the opportunity each month to make benefits choices.Previously, the flex scheme coincided with the organisation’s ...
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AnalysisWhat are the key considerations of offering anytime flexible benefits enrolment?
Need to know:Flexible benefits schemes have been moving towards anytime enrolment windows over the past few years to give employees more flexibility in accessing their benefits.Certain benefits, such as private medical insurance and group risk benefits, must have fixed annual enrolment periods due to arrangements with insurance providers.Anytime enrolment offers ...
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Analysis
Infographic: How benefits strategy will change to adapt to future challenges
An infographic outlining how respondents see their benefits strategy changing to adapt to future challenges within the industry. (Source: Employee Benefits/Staffcare Benefits research 2017, May 2017)!function(e,t,s,i){var n="InfogramEmbeds",o=e.getElementsByTagName("script"),d=o[0],r=/^http:/.test(e.location)?"http:":"https:";if(/^\/{2}/.test(i)&&(i=r+i),window[n]&&window[n].initialized)window[n].process&&window[n].process();else if(!e.getElementById(s)){var a=e.createElement("script");a.async=1,a.id=s,a.src=i,d.parentNode.insertBefore(a,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async","//e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js");Read moreWhat are the key considerations of offering anytime flexible benefits enrolment?Anytime enrolment offers Kantar employees more flexibility
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ArticleOver 90% say pensions dashboard could help them save for retirement
Nine out of 10 parents believe that an online service showing all of their pensions savings would help them to save more for their retirement, according to research by Mumsnet, the parents network, on behalf of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Pensions Dashboard Project.The survey of 1,206 ...