All Employee Benefits articles in Web Issue – Page 262
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Article
N Brown Group staff share profits
N Brown Group’s profit share scheme has paid out in full to its 3,000 employees after the firm hit its profit targets for 2008.The scheme, launched in March last year, replaced the mail order retailer’s previous annual reward programme, through which all staff received gifts such as glass vases.After the ...
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Chevron offers free shares to UK employees for the first time
Chevron has issued free shares to its UK employees for the first time as part of its annual incentive programme.The energy firm has run an employee share plan since 2003, but its business structure, with groups of employees in different bonus arrangements, meant it had been unable to comply with ...
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Article
Consultancy firms merge
consultanTS Towers Perrin, Forster and Crosby, and Watson Wyatt are to merge, creating a global firm, Towers Watson and Co.Towers Watson will focus its operations on three main areas: benefits, talent and reward, and risk and financial services. It will build on its existing thought leadership and research, supported by ...
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Debi O'Donovan, editor of Employee Benefits: Time is running out for rethink on retirement and pensions
All of us in benefits know that current retirement and pensions practice cannot continue. No politician wants to tell the people that to make the state pension work, most of them cannot live until the official retirement age, or the sums simply do not add up.So the nation is being ...
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Michael Rose, director, Rewards Consulting: Benefits analysis can be very revealing
Most organisations have a range of benefits that may have been built up over years, often with little strategic intent. However, with the increase in flexible benefits schemes and the concept of total reward, benefits are now being positioned more clearly. But I believe it is worth standing back and ...
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Reasons to be equal
The Equality Bill reached committee stage last month, just days after the government shelved plans to allow fathers to take six months' paternity leave, blaming the recession for its u-turn.On the face of it, the Equality Bill looks more recession-proof than the paternity plans, with its main purpose being to ...
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Duncan Brown, director of reward services, Institute for Employment Studies: Fairness is the key for executive reward
The annual reporting season, amidst the current recession and what Lord Turner at the Financial Services Authority called "the biggest crisis in the history of market capitalism", was bound to produce the obligatory headlines we have seen recently criticising executive excess. Shell's executive remuneration report was voted down by investors ...
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Interview with Anthony York, head of reward at Punch Taverns
No matter how employers go about rewarding staff, Anthony York, head of reward at Punch Taverns, says the importance of doing it properly should never be questioned.“Reward, including pay and bonuses, is often one of an employer’s biggest spends, yet so often it is taken for granted that it is ...
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RBS keen to invest in staff
Investing in employee reward is just as important in difficult times to help businesses recover, but they may come under public scrutiny for doing so, said Jim Cowan, senior consultant, remuneration and benefits at Royal Bank of Scotland.Speaking in an open forum at the summit in Monte Carlo, Cowan (pictured) ...
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Analysis
Engaging male staff in wellbeing perks
Men can be reluctant to take health issues seriously, and employers may need to make a special effort to get them interested in wellbeing benefits and initiatives, says Nicola SullivanIf you read nothing else, read this…- Men are almost three times as likely as women to die while they are ...
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Spotlight on total reward
In the current economic climate, total reward is coming under the spotlight as employers re-examine their motives for adding benefits during good times and the way variable pay has been used.Duncan Brown, director of reward services at the Institute for Employment Studies, said: "Some of the assumptions we have been ...
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Article
Retirement age fear
Raising the retirement age will exacerbate the recession, global economist Roger Nightingale told summit delegates. It will expand the workforce, leading to downward pressure on pay. It might also lead to an increase in the supply of goods and services, but decreased demand because workers are unable to afford what ...
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Analysis
Protecting expatriate pay value as exchange rates fluctuate
Fluctuations in currency exchange rates can reduce the value of expatriate employees’ pay so what steps can employers take to protect them - and should they? Debbie Lovewell reportsIf you read nothing else, read this…- Exchange rate fluctuations have seen the pound fall against other major currencies, such as the ...
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Call for global balance
Global benefits strategies must be flexible enough to reflect local cultures, said Debra Corey, senior director compensation and benefits for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Quintiles. This could result in some unusual benefits, she said. In India, for example, employers provided an allowance for staff to buy curtains, while ...
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Maintaining staff health and wellbeing through the downturn
With the recession putting workforces under strain, health and wellbeing benefits pay their way by keeping staff fit, says Debbie LovewellWhen the going gets tough, people cope in different ways. As the recession tightens its grip, many may be tempted to reach for a glass of wine or a bar ...
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Analysis
Restructuring pay and benefits in the recession
The recession has forced many employers to rethink, and sometimes restructure, their pay and benefits arrangements, says Tom WashingtonIt may be a tough time for reward, but never has there been a better opportunity for the function to prove its worth. To produce results within tight parameters, reward professionals must ...
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Productivity warning
Rising employee stress caused by the recession will damage productivity, warned Will Cavendish, director of health and wellbeing at the Department of Health. Fear of redundancy is causing a rise in the destructive behaviours of some staff, including poor sleeping habits, over-emotional reactions, and a greater reliance on alcohol. Cavendish ...
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Strategies to win through
Remaining competitive, motivating staff and total reward strategies are key themes to be tackled by speakers at the largest benefits exhibition and conference in Europe - Employee Benefits Live.While the recession is a thread running through all the sessions, speakers will suggest ways to remain competitive, improve productivity, reduce absence ...
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Case studies and experts are on stream
As always, the range of case studies in the conference programme is a vital draw for delegates. This year, they will include Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Munich Re, Coors Brewers and Unilever.Employee Benefits Live will be split into five streams each day. There will be streams dedicated to total reward, international benefits, ...
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Employer profile: VT Group
The VT Group has moved from shipbuilding to a wide range of industry support services and is in the middle of a major restructure, says Nicola SullivanThe VT Group is on the crest of change. Once synonymous with British shipbuilding, the firm will start to sink that part of its ...