At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week
The headlines you might have missed between 15-21 April 2016.
EY enhances parental benefits for US employees
Employee Benefits: EY is extending its paid parental leave policy for US employees and introducing new parental financial assistance benefits. Read story
70% believe pay transparency improves employee satisfaction
Employee Benefits: Almost three-quarters (70%) of employee respondents believe that salary transparency has a positive impact on employee satisfaction, according to research by Glassdoor. Read story
39% of female financial services staff believe they receive a fair salary
Employee Benefits: Less than one in four (39%) of female employee respondents in financial services believe that they receive a fair salary for the work they are doing, according to research by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). Read story
Carr’s Group ploughs into surplus
Pensions Expert: Carr’s Group has reeled in its scheme deficit after years of steep cash contributions and restructured the scheme’s matching portfolio to shore up funding on the road to buyout. Read story
Environment Agency Pension Fund shakes up investment monitoring
Pensions Expert: The Environment Agency has released information about its investment process, emphasising a move away from more traditional benchmarking and quarterly reporting in favour of monitoring fundamentals and ad-hoc reporting. Read story
Aldermore ups matching in employee retention drive
Pensions Expert: Retail banking group Aldermore has improved its matching contribution offering as part of a wider overhaul of employee benefits aimed at improving employee retention. Read story
EY launches return-to-work programme
Employee Benefits: EY has introduced a return-to-work programme to help individuals who have taken a career break to re-enter the workplace. Read story
Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo launches employee ownership trust
Employee Benefits: US organisation Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo (WATG) has launched an employee ownership trust. Read story
Scottish Parliament staff accept pay deal
Employee Benefits: Scottish Parliament staff have accepted a two-year pay deal for 2016-2018. Read story
The pension changes - one year on
Reward Guide: Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, Wealth At Work, discusses the impact of the pension changes one year on. Watch video
McDonald’s to allow employees to opt out of zero-hours contracts
People Management: Fast food retailer acts after staff request guaranteed work because of personal difficulties caused by employment status. Read story
Aviva clarifies excepted group life tax charge scenarios
Corporate Adviser: A tax charge of £10,500 could arise from an excepted group life policy payout of £500,000, but creating a new trust and policy prior to the 10-year anniversary of the policy could mitigate the risk of this becoming payable says Aviva. Read story
7 out of 10 seriously ill back to work with GIP
Corporate Adviser: Unum got 7 out of 10 people with serious health problems that used its group income. Read story
EIOPA shelves solvency plan but pushes new reporting regime
Corporate Adviser: The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has shelved plans for new solvency requirements for pension schemes, but is proposing to push ahead with a new reporting regime that would cost £167m a year to administer. Read story
Chris Sier – The fastest route to charge transparency
Corporate Adviser: A voluntary code is the fastest route to real progress on pension fund charge transparency says Stonefish Consulting managing director Chris Sier. Read story
Regulator announces mastertrust crackdown
Pensions Expert: The Pensions Regulator has announced plans to crack down on poorly governed mastertrusts, as auto-enrolment begins to show clear winners and losers among schemes. Read story
Support for six-hour working day
Pay and Benefits: Around three-quarters of office workers are in favour of a Swedish-style six-hour working day, while three in five bosses would consider introducing it at their organisation. Read story
FCA issues fresh warning on inducements to advisers
Cover Magazine: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a fresh warning about payments from providers to advisers over and above the costs incurred for training or educational material in an update to its ongoing work on inducements. Read story
EXCLUSIVE: JLT achieves 18% engagement rate with car salary sacrifice scheme
Employee Benefits: Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) has seen 18% of eligible employees register interest in its car salary sacrifice scheme in the three months since it was launched. Read story
ABI consults on simplifying pensions language
Employee Benefits: The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is launching a consultation into the language used around pensions and retirement savings. Read story
Green Lantern Group launches voluntary benefits programme
Employee Benefits: Contractor services firm Green Lantern Group has launched a voluntary benefits programme for its 1,000 contractors. Read story
TPR toughens up on late DC scheme returns
Professional Pensions: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has warned trustees risk being fined if they do not prepare for changes in their annual defined contribution (DC) scheme returns. Read story
Millennials to embrace annuities as older people ditch them
Professional Pensions: An overwhelming majority of millennials are considering including annuities in their retirement strategies according to research. Read story
Firms should be ‘publicly shamed’ for cutting perks and pay rates to fund NLW, says Osborne
People Management: Chancellor is ‘angry’ with employers as CIPD warns changes to conditions may be counter-productive in the long term. Read story
1.6m reasons why technology is key to auto-enrolment
Pensions Expert: As our industry is busy preparing for the 1.6m small employers set to auto-enrol over the next two years, we are focused on the scale of the task before us. After all, we are halfway through the biggest shake-up to the pensions sector in our lifetimes. Read story
Time for sponsors to fIRM up their thinking
Pensions Expert: For corporates, pension funding is an issue that just will not go away, so perhaps it is time for some fresh thinking before embarking on any more rounds of discussions with their trustees. Read story
ABI consults on simplifying pensions language
Employee Benefits: The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is launching a consultation into the language used around pensions and retirement savings. Read story
Gender pay gap reporting takes shape
Employee Benefits: In February 2016, the government expanded on its plans to require organisations with more than 250 employees to publish gender pay gap data. Read story
41% of workers expect a pay rise this year
HR Magazine: There was a divide in expectations along gender lines, with men more confident of a raise than women. Read story
Tata Steel employees accept temporary 3% pay cut
Employee Benefits: UK employees at Tata Steel’s Long Products Europe business have agreed to a temporary reduction in pay to facilitate the sale of the business to Greybull Capital. Read story
Benefex gains living wage accreditation
Employee Benefits: Employee benefits provider Benefex has been accredited as a living wage employer by the Living Wage Foundation. Read story
40% rank health insurance in their top three employee benefits
Employee Benefits: One in four (40%) of respondents rank health insurance among their top three most-valued employee benefits, compared to 37% in 2015, according to research by Willis PMI Group, part of Willis Towers Watson. Read story
Welsh Funds choose BlackRock to manage £2.8bn of passive funds
Professional Pensions: BlackRock has been chosen to run nearly £2.8bn of passive assets by the eight Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) known collectively as the Welsh Funds. Read story
Royal Mail and Unilever among winners at 2016 Workplace Gender Equality Awards
Employee Benefits: Deloitte, Herbert Smith Freehills, Royal Mail, Southbank Centre and Unilever are among the winners at the 2016 Business in the Community (BITC) Workplace Gender Equality Awards. Read story
Pay increases by 2.2%
Employee Benefits: Regular pay, excluding bonuses, increased by 2.2% in Great Britain between December 2014-February 2015 and December 2015-February 2016, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Read story
75% believe employers should proactively support staff health and wellbeing
Employee Benefits: Three-quarters (75%) of employer respondents believe that organisations should proactively support employees to manage their health and wellbeing, according to research by Axa PPP Healthcare. Read story
Football club hit with £22k auto-enrolment fines
Money Marketing: Swindon Town Football Club has been fined £22,900 after it repeatedly failed to enrol eligible workers into a pension scheme. Read story
FCA to ban commission for secondary annuity market
Money Marketing: The FCA says brokers working in the secondary annuity market will not be allowed to charge commission. Read story
Govt eyes pension freedoms for auto-enrolment
Money Marketing: Radical plans to let employees overrule their employers on workplace pensions risk tearing up the rules around automatic enrolment, Money Marketing can reveal. Read story
MPs to form cross-party group on women’s state pension
Money Marketing: A group of MPs have agreed to form a new all-party parliamentary group to support the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign. Read story
Welsh LGPS funds lead the pack on pooling with passive manager appointment
Pensions Expert: Welsh Local Government Pension Scheme funds have announced the appointment of BlackRock to a £2.8bn passive mandate, following a joint procurement exercise. Read story
Blue Apple improves employees’ sleep quality by 26%
Employee Benefits: Catering firm Blue Apple achieved a 26% improvement in its employees’ quality of sleep between September and December 2015, throughout which it ran a wellness programme provided by Super Wellness. Read story
Royal London calls for guidance for Lifetime Isa savers
Money Marketing: Royal London has called on the Government to offer impartial guidance for savers who want to put money into Lifetime Isas. Read story
National living wage and global uncertainty blamed for rise in UK unemployment
People Management: Wage growth reduces, according to ONS figures, as companies remain ‘cautious’ on costs. Read story
Confusion around annual allowance taper could 'cost savers thousands’
Professional Pensions: Pension savers may miss out on thousands of pounds in tax relief due to confusion around the annual allowance taper rules implemented earlier this month. Read story