At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week 13-19 October 2017
The headlines you might have missed between 13-19 October.
Royal Mail wins High Court injunction to postpone strike action in pensions dispute
Employee Benefits: Postal organisation Royal Mail has won an injunction from the High Court to postpone planned strike action in an ongoing dispute over pensions. Read story
Google advises employers to invest in people as much as technology
Employee Benefits: Employers should ensure they invest in their people as much as in new technologies in order to create an empowering organisational culture and a strong business environment. Read story
Government publishes Parental Bereavement (Pay and Leave) Bill
Employee Benefits: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published details of proposed legislation which would entitle working parents to paid leave following the death of a child. Read story
Travis Perkins and Hays tailor financial wellbeing messages
Employee Benefits: Building merchant organisation Travis Perkins and recruitment organisation Hays have tailored their respective financial wellbeing communications in order to engage their differing workforces. Read story
Lloyds Banking Group to acquire Zurich’s UK workplace pensions and savings business
Employee Benefits: Lloyds Banking Group is to acquire Zurich’s UK workplace pensions and savings business in a deal including assets under administration of more than £15 billion. Read story
UBS encourages personal development with international assignments
Employee Benefits: UBS encourages junior staff to take advantage of international relocation opportunities as part of its approach to personal development. Read story
Malcolm McLean: Will the Budget put an end to pension policy limbo?
Money Marketing: Urgent clarification is still needed on issues such as the state pension and tax relief. Read story
Average earner builds up £2,440 AE pot in 5 years
Corporate Adviser: An average earner making minimum auto-enrolment contributions since October 2012 will have built up a fund of £2,440, but will more than quadruple their pot over the next five years, according to figures from Aegon. Read story
Under-25s struggling because of lower pay
HR Magazine: Under-25s are missing out on between £820 and £6,300 a year because they are not entitled to the National Living Wage. Read story
Motivating employees without money
Incentive and Motivation: It’s the unspoken holy grail of any business – the ability to motivate employees without money. We can all see the benefits of a whole culture built on capturing every moment that matters with a meaningful reward, but time gets in the way or budgets get stretched. Read story
Nottinghamshire to create portals for improved admin
Pensions Expert: The Nottinghamshire County Council Pension Fund is implementing portals for both employers and members as part of a push to improve administration across the scheme. Read story
Social Housing Pension Scheme deficit hits £1.5bn, LCP predicts
Pensions Age: The latest triennial valuation of the Social Housing Pension Scheme will reveal a deficit of £1.5bn, up from £1.4bn in 2014, LCP analysis predicts. Read story
Race to cash in pension pots could spell retirement disaster
Reward Guide: Bumper pension scheme transfer values are luring thousands of individuals to cash-in their final salary pension pots - also known as defined benefit (DB) schemes - which could spell disaster for their retirement plans. Read story
Gender equality at work has barely improved in 10 years, report finds
People Management: The UK’s gender equality at work has barely budged in 10 years, a recent report has found, sparking warnings that women could be waiting decades to see a real difference. Read story
Medway NHS Foundation Trust abolishes lowest pay grade
Employee Benefits: Kent-based Medway NHS Foundation Trust has abolished its lowest pay grade in order to improve the financial wellbeing of its employees. Read story
37% see a clear link between their pay and performance
Employee Benefits: More than a third (37%) of employee respondents working in the UK see a clear link between their pay and performance, according to research by Willis Towers Watson. Read story
45% want a job with more flexible hours when returning to work after having a child
Employee Benefits: More than two-fifths (45%) of respondents who are parents want a job with more flexible hours when they return to work after having a child, according to research by New Skills Academy. Read story
Star-Dundee launches employee ownership trust
Employee Benefits: Aerospace engineering organisation Star-Dundee has launched an employee ownership trust. Read story
75% cite workplace stress as a key cause of disrupted sleep
Employee Benefits: Three-quarters (75%) of respondents cite workplace stress as a key cause of their disrupted sleep, according to research by CV Library. Read story
Pearson completes £1.2bn pensions buy-in
Employee Benefits: Education and learning organisation Pearson has completed two pension buy-in transactions totalling £1.2 billion. Read story
Philadelphia restaurant to provide $197,917 in back pay to staff
Employee Benefits: Philadelphia-based restaurant Talula’s Garden has agreed to pay 63 employees $197,917 (£149,368) in back pay to resolve minimum wage and overtime violations. Read story
Should you offer employees financial support?
Incentive and Motivation: Financial worries plague one in four employees, according to published research. Read story
Age-based tax relief rumours met with industry criticism
Pensions Expert: Philip Hammond is understood to be considering cuts to tax relief for older workers to fund tax breaks for younger people, a move that would ‘smack of ageism’ and cause further confusion, industry figures say. Read story
Auto-enrolment strikes a chord with small businesses
Pensions Expert: Small and micro employers are finding auto-enrolment less costly and time-consuming than they had anticipated, research by the Department for Work and Pensions has found. Read story
UK companies risk being outperformed by EU rivals when it comes pay programmes
Reward Guide: UK companies are going against best practice in delivering compensation programmes by not sufficiently differentiating pay for top performers. Read story
Christmas Gifts – What’s the perfect staff reward to give this festive season?
Reward Guide: It may seem a long way off, but it’s worth thinking now about the perfect reward to give staff during the festive season, Sarah Chesterton at Sainsbury’s Business Direct gives helpful hints of the best way to reward staff at Christmas. Read story
UK employers 'not pulling their weight' with AE contributions
Professional Pensions: UK employers are lagging behind in terms of the proportion of pension contributions they are providing to their staff, a study of worldwide defined contribution (DC) provision reveals. Read story
Windfall for pensioners as inflation hits five year high
Professional Pensions: UK pensioners are set to see their state pension payouts grow and lifetime allowance rise thanks to the highest inflation rate since April 2012, at 3%. Read story
What to expect from the AE review
Professional Pensions: Jamie Jenkins, one of the three chairs of the DWP external advisory group of the AE review, speaks to Kim Kaveh about its key themes. Read story
50% of UK employees take a sabbatical to escape the stress of working life
Employee Benefits: Half (50%) of respondents in the UK take a sabbatical in order to get away from the stress of working life, according to research by opodo.co.uk. Read story
75% have not received employer-provided financial education
Employee Benefits: Three-quarters (75%) of employee respondents have not received financial education from their employer to help them understand what savings choices exist and what is best for them, according to research by Close Brothers and the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA). Read story
London Business School holds fitness sessions for staff
Employee Benefits: The London Business School has held fitness sessions for its 750 staff to help demonstrate how employees can fit regular exercise into their busy routines. Read story
Parliament reveals final make-up of Work and Pensions Committee
Professional Pensions: The House of Commons has unveiled the final membership list of the Work and Pensions Committee (WPC). Read story
Keep employees with a great retention strategy
Incentive and Motivation: Whatever the ‘economic climate’, the state of your business, time of year or what colour underpants you have on, people are looking to leave your business. Read story
Government confirmation brings transparency to salary sacrifice schemes
Reward Guide: Tusker, the Car Benefit People, has been clear about the changes to the tax structure since the release of the Finance Bill in March 2017. However, there has still been much confusion in the industry about its impact, with many commenting that car benefit schemes would be far less cost-effective. Read story
Just one in 10 Brits feel engaged at work, says Gallup
People Management: Only a tenth (11 per cent) of UK employees feel engaged at work, according to new research from Gallup, while a fifth (21 per cent) are actively disengaged. Read story
PLSA mulls scrapping councils for strategic policy board
Professional Pensions: The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) could ditch its defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) councils and replace them with a single policy board. Read story
Opperman confirms support for dashboard with DWP to lead project
Professional Pensions: Pensions minister Guy Opperman has confirmed the government will support the dashboard. Read story
Facebook and Northern Gas and Power among UK’s best organisations for workplace culture
Employee Benefits: Facebook, HomeServe UK, Northern Gas and Power, and Peninsula are among the top 20 organisations for best workplace culture, according to research by recruitment website Glassdoor and professional management body the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Read story
Heineken awarded for pensions communication
Employee Benefits: Pub, cider and beer organisation Heineken has been awarded the Pension Quality Mark’s {PQM) Distinction Award for its approach to pension communication. Read story
Total pay falls by 0.3% in real terms
Employee Benefits: Total pay for employees in Great Britain, including bonuses, fell by 0.3% in real terms between June to August 2016 and June to August 2017, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Read story
60% of critical illness claims in 2016 were for cancer
Employee Benefits: Under two-thirds (60%) of overall critical illness claims made in 2016 were for cancer, according to research by Aegon UK. Read story
LaingBuisson: PMI hit by Brexit and IPT but cash plans soar
Corporate Adviser: Brexit-fuelled political uncertainty, the sharp hike in insurance premium tax (IPT) and an increase in patients self funding have been blamed for a stagnating private medical insurance market, says Laing Buisson. Read story
SMEs Reaping Benefits of Rewarding Employees
Incentive and Motivation: A recent study has shown that more than 94% of SMEs gift rewards to employees and a third (34%) attribute improved employee retention to cultivating a culture of rewards. Read story
One in five FTSE 100 DB schemes could fail in a recession
Pensions Expert: Twenty per cent of FTSE 100 defined benefit schemes would be at risk of failure in the event of an economic downturn, according to new research by Cardano and Lincoln Pensions. Read story
5 minutes with… Becky Thoseby, group head of wellbeing, Department for Transport
Reward Guide: HR managers and wellbeing professionals are well acquainted with tight budgets – but promoting wellbeing doesn’t need to be an expensive and arduous task. Becky Thoseby discusses her experience with initiate cost-effective and engaging wellbeing programmes. Read story
A quarter of workers are stuck with low pay, says Social Mobility Commission
Personnel Today: A quarter of low paid workers in the UK are stuck in poorly paid jobs, according to the Social Mobility Commission. Read story
Third of HR professionals not aware of childcare voucher changes
People Management: More than a third (36 per cent) of HR professionals are unaware of upcoming changes to the childcare voucher scheme, despite significant reforms coming into force in just six months. Read story