All Employee Benefits articles in Web Issue – Page 671
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Analysis
International wellness needs a balanced approach
Adding to that is stress, which the World Health Organization has called the ‘health epidemic of the 21st century’.Traditionally, employers have managed health by providing isolated medical benefits. However, as benefits costs have continued to rise, employers now have to balance providing the best benefits package with a need to ...
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Article
Appetite for pension de-risking remains strong
The appetite for pension de-risking solutions remains strong among both employers and trustees, according to a report by JLT Employee Benefits.Its Buyout market watch update found that total de-risking deals in 2013 are set to exceed last year’s figure of £4.5 billion.In July 2013, the EMI Group Pension Fund completed ...
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Article
Employers do not view auto-enrolment as beneficial
More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents do not think pensions auto-enrolment will be beneficial for their organisation in the long term, according to research by Hargreaves Lansdown.Its HL Employer attitudes survey, which questioned 100 employers, found that 76% of respondents think they should get more recognition for implementing auto-enrolment.The research ...
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Article
Philips insures defined benefit pension
Electronics manufacturer Philips has entered into a bulk annuity transaction for its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.The policy, with insurer Rothesay Life, is being held by the trustee of the Philips Pension Fund and covers £484 million worth of liabilities.It provides the pension scheme with a secure, low-risk asset with ...
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Article
Grant Thornton overcomes AE postponement challenges
EXCLUSIVE: Grant Thornton opted to postpone auto-enrolling its employees by three months, but found that the move presented significant challenges.The professional services organisation opted to auto-enrol its staff on 1 October, three months after its staging date of 1 July.Employers must offer employees the ability to auto-enrol on their official ...
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Article
PeopleValue unveils fuel card voluntary benefit at Employee Benefits Live
This article has been supplied by our channel sponsor, PeopleValue.PeopleValue, a leading provider of motivation solutions serving companies in the UK, launched a new fuel card voluntary benefit product at Employee Benefits Live last week to wide acclaim.The new fuel card proposition was launched at Employee Benefits Live alongside Advantage6, ...
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Article
Employee recognition more important than ever
The first, a survey conducted among 3,000 employees by Research Now on behalf of Capita Employee Benefits, found that being thanked or recognised for work is the second most popular employee benefit, after a pay rise.Michael Rose, director at Rewards Consulting, said: “Because the economy is tight and pay increase ...
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Article
Barnett Waddingham launches pensions governance health check
Barnett Waddingham has launched a free health check to help employers and pension trustees examine how they are managing pension governanceissues.The health check is in response to The Pension Regulator’s (TPR) latest governance report, which highlighted that pensions governance was lacking in certain areas.It aims to:Help employers and trustees to ...
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Article
Aviva completes sale of US business
Aviva has completed the sale of its US life and annuities business, Aviva USA, to Athene Holding Limited.The transaction proceeds are US$2.6 billion (£1.7 billion) and are subject to customary completion adjustments.Cash proceeds to Aviva are US$0.8 billion higher than announced on 21 December 2012, at US$2.3 billion (£1.5 billion), ...
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Article
Consultation on executive pay published
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a consultation on executive remuneration.The consultation follows legislative changes, which came in on 1 October, which made votes on remuneration reports binding.It will cover three specific areas:Clawback arrangements.Whether non-executive directors who are also executive directors in other organisations should sit on the remuneration ...
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Article
Telephonophobia: It exists
Something for the weekend…Have you ever cast your eye over at your new intern, work experience colleague or young employee and wondered why they weren’t picking up the phone to make a call?It’s because one in 20 employees between the ages of 18 and 24 suffer from something called telephonophobia, ...
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Article
The top 10 most read stories this week
Employee Benefits Live 2013 speaker slidesGrant Thornton overcomes AE postponement challengesEmployers want eligibility criteria altered for auto-enrolmentHMRC reports on real-time information issuesKey points about private medical insurance open referralEmployers fail to reward staff at ChristmasBITC launches 2014 Workwell benchmarkThe Positive Ageing Company launches eldercare schemeLe Creuset launches gym benefitPeopleValue adds ...
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Opinion
Ant Donaldson: High employer pension contribution leads to engagement
I respond to Richard Fleet’s description of auto-enrolment contributions as “a payroll tax” in your September letters page and that an employer contributing above the minimum “is putting itself at a competitive disadvantage”.At E.On, we believe it’s important to help employees to retire comfortably. Consequently, we auto-enrolled all of our ...
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Article
Employee Benefits Connect back in London for third time
This highly popular one-day event, which focuses on getting benefits professionals to ‘connect’, offers a range of workshops, conference sessions and networking facilities to enable delegates to meet and share their ideas and knowledge.Feedback from both exhibitors and visitors to the 2013 Employee Benefits Connect was hugely complimentary.Ricky D’Ash, head ...
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Article
DOD’s blog: What do we do with ‘big data’?
At last week’s Employee Benefits Live, a debate started among HR people frustrated by the volume of management information they were being swamped by.As an aside, have you noticed how people seem to have stopped saying ‘management information’ and now call it ‘big data’? Oh, big deal.Over the years I ...
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Article
FTSE 350 pension deficits rise to £98bn
The estimated aggregate deficit for the defined benefit (DB) pension schemes of FTSE 350 companies stood at £98 billion at 30 September 2013, according to research by Mercer. This is equivalent to a funding ratio of 85%.Its Pensions risk survey found that asset values increased by £4 billion over the ...
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Article
Tax on benefits-in-kind should be equal
More than three-quarters (81%) of respondents said benefits-in-kind should all be taxed at the same rate, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) and the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).The research, which surveyed payroll and accountancy professionals, is in response to an Office of Tax Simplification ...
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Article
Tesco pension deficit rises to £2.4bn
Tesco has reported a net pension deficit of £2.4 billion, a rise from the £1.8 billion deficit reported at the last year end on 30 March 2013.The retailer’s Interim results 2013/14 reported that this was due mainly to the reduction in real corporate bond yields leading to a fall of ...
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Article
22% of staff feel supported when stressed at work
Only one in five (22%) of employee respondents felt that their employer takes active steps to help them manage stress, according to research by charity Mind.The research, which surveyed more than 2,000 employees, found that a third (36%) of respondents believe that looking after staff mental wellbeing is an organisational ...
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Opinion
Janet Mckenzie: Flex continues to change and develop
Thanks for the informative flexible benefits supplement in September’s magazine. A key piece for me is how flex continues to change and develop. The concept of flex is a much more varied proposition now than it used to be, with organisations increasingly confidant to pick and choose the elements and ...