All Employee Benefits articles in Web Issue – Page 600
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Article
Vinci UK offers mentor scheme to staff
EXCLUSIVE: Vinci UK has offered employees the opportunity to mentor members of the armed forces who are resettling into civilian life.The opportunity is through its partnership with charity Help for Heroes, part of the construction company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, which also includes partnerships with three other charities: The ...
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Article
Auto-enrolment legislation deemed unnecessarily complex
Auto-enrolment legislation is considered unnecessarily complex or difficult by HR, payroll and finance professionals, according to research by Ceridian.Its survey of more than 600 HR, payroll and finance professionals found that 76% considered auto-enrolment legislation to be either unnecessarily complex or difficult.Of these, 22% of respondents considered auto-enrolment legislation to ...
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Article
Barclays C&ES launches global shares and reward services
Barclays Corporate and Employer Solutions (C&ES) has launched its global shares and reward services.The formal launch follows the announcement at the end of 2012 that Barclays C&ES had signed an agreement with Solium Capital to create a version of its Solium Shareworks platform and administration services.At the same time, Barclays ...
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Article
New adviser for local government pension
The Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC) has appointed an actuarial adviser to its local government pension scheme for Northern Ireland.Aon Hewitt will be working closely with the committee and its officers to help manage the £4 billion fund, which has 90,000 members.David Murphy, chief executive and secretary ...
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Article
Virgin Atlantic to freeze pay for staff
Virgin Atlantic is to freeze pay for thousands of staff this year.A statement from Virgin Atlantic attributed its decision to suspend salary increases to external challenges.It stated: “The UK airline industry has faced continued challenges over the past year – this is made worse by government imposed taxes on passengers ...
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Article
FTSE 100 pension deficit improves
The total deficit of FTSE 100 defined benefit (DB) pension schemes improved by £8 billion in 2012, according to research by JLT Pension Capital Strategies.This found that the total deficit of FTSE 100 pension schemes at 30 December 2012 was estimated to be £50 billion.It also found that the total ...
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Article
UK Chamber of Shipping extends pension buy-in
The trustees of the UK Chamber of Shipping’s defined benefit (DB) pension plan have agreed an extension to its buy-in arrangement for the scheme.The arrangement, which was initially agreed with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) in January 2013, includes the deferred members of the plan, representing about 20% of the scheme ...
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Article
Aviva scraps plans to add workplace savings options to benefits platform
Aviva has scrapped plans to add new workplace savings options to its benefits platform Work:Life.The platform, which went live in December 2012, is a single online benefits hub giving employees access to benefits, including the provider’s group personal pension (GPP), pension tracker and flexible benefits package.It had planned to add ...
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Article
Cardiff University plans for auto-enrolment
Cardiff University will auto-enrol staff who are not currently pension scheme members into one of two existing pension schemes or the national employment savings trust (Nest) when it reaches its staging date on 1 April 2013.The majority of the university’s 6,000-strong workforce are already members of a pension scheme so ...
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Case Studies
Glenmorangie finds right platform for pension communications
Ian Drysdale, HR director at Glenmorangie, says: “As an employer, we were very keen to increase membership of our scheme.”Take-up of its DC scheme was 53% higher than that of its previous defined benefit scheme, which closed in 2002. The rise was credited to the communications strategy, which included employee ...
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AnalysisBright future for workplace savings platforms
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS…Workplace savings platforms can offer a range of savings products.The platform market is young and providers are at various stages of product development.Employee take-up of fi nancial products via savings platforms remains low.Ask most workplace savings providers and employee benefits consultants about the future ...
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Opinion
Mark Polson: Slow take-up for workplace savings platforms
Nonetheless, attitudes have hardened to corporate platforms. One major employee benefits consultant told us recently: “I am not sure we have written a single workplace savings platform scheme.”There are four main reasons for the slow take-up of workplace savings platforms. First, auto-enrolment is crowding all thoughts of shiny new things ...
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Article
UK DB pension deficits fall
The aggregate deficit of private sector defined benefit (DB) pension schemes potentially eligible for entry to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) decreased in February 2013, according to research by the PPF.The PPF 7800 index found that the aggregate deficit of 6,316 schemes decreased from £211.2 billion at the end of ...
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Article
Salaries not keeping up with household costs
Average salaries only rose 6% between 2008 and 2012, according to research by price comparison and switching service Uswitch.com.Its research found that, while the average cost of running a household has risen by 25% and bills have risen by 67%, average annual wages rose from £24,900 in 2008 to £26,500 ...
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Article
Half of employers believe they should look after staff
More than half (52%) of employer respondents believe they have an obligation to look after their employees and aim to reflect this in the benefits package, according to research by Unum.The research, which was carried out by Populus and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), surveyed 245 organisations across a range ...
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Article
Tesco introduces bikes-for-work scheme
Tesco has launched a bikes-for-work scheme for its 300,000 employees.The retail giant hopes the scheme will encourage employees to change to commuting by bicycle.Employees can either purchase a bike from one of provider Cyclescheme’s network of independent bike shops, or via the Tesco Direct website. Those who do so via ...
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Supplier article
Health Shield set to tour UK to meet members ahead of AGM
The company will be meeting members in Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham and London, before hosting its annual general meeting (AGM) in May.The aim of the area meetings is to meet face to face with delegates who represent members, sharing Health Shield’s strategy and business performance over the previous 12 months, while ...
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Article
Microsoft expats learn about UK's cultural highlights
And now something for the weekend …Most employees find their own feet when they move abroad for work, but American expatriates at technology giant Microsoft have been given a guide to Great Britian to help them fit in.The employer handed out a 44-page manual of tips on adapting to life ...
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Article
Punter Southall joins PensionChair
Punter Southall has joined PensionChair as its actuarial and administration technical partner.PensionChair, a network made up of chairs of some of the largest workplace pension schemes in the UK, stages 20 meetings a year to give its members the opportunity to explore concerns and challenges facing schemes.Its membership is drawn ...
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Article
Astellas employees donate 9,000 volunteering hours
Employees at Astellas Pharma Europe, the European Headquarters of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma, have donated more than 9,000 employee volunteering hours, equivalent to 390 working days, to their local communities.The organisation enables employees to volunteer as part of its annual Changing Tomorrow Day programme, which has been running for three years. ...