Employee Benefits

Employee benefits is what we do. Discover the difference that a responsive, integrated and bespoke reward, recognition and wellbeing platform can make to your people.

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Job Vacancies Highest Since Omicron Wave Began

Employee Benefits

The economic recovery that was cut short by the Omicron variant has returned. There has been an increase in job adverts for every type of role across the UK, with job postings continuing to rise through January and February. A reverse on most January-February trends.

In the last week of February, there were around 1.8 million active job adverts in the UK – up by 8.6% from the previous week and by 41.5% from the same period in January, report the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

The number of job adverts in the UK has been steadily growing since the beginning of 2022, as the Omicron wave receded and hiring activity ramped up. According to the REC, there were 224,000 new adverts posted in the week of 21-27 February – the highest weekly figure since early December.

The REC suggested that the gradual return to offices and other workplaces could also be increasing demand for some roles. Childminders saw an increase in demand of 16.8% from the previous week, while adverts for mobile salespeople with rounds, including those selling food and drink to office workers, increased by 23% week-on-week.

1) Add “plus benefits”

Employee benefits are a cost-effective way to add value to your employee proposition. It covers a wide variety of different ways your employees will benefit from working with you, from savings on everyday purchases to enabling teams to show gratitude for a job well done. A brilliant employee benefits platform helps retain your staff. See what you can do from as little as 50p a month.

2) Company Paid Health Insurance

When judging salary,what appears attractive £24,080 PA, or 24,000 PA plus health insurance? Did you know that you can get company-paid health insurance for all your colleagues for as little as £80 per employee? Insurance that covers: hospital care, physio, dental and ophthalmic treatments. Visit our sister site, My Health Xtras, to discover more.

3) Salary Sacrifice

Help make the big purchases easier with salary sacrifice. Not only does it reduce the costs to a manageable amount per month; it also reduces national insurance contributions for your employee and your company. Find out more about Salary Sacrifice

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Businesses surveyed said need to recruit new staff to meet growth targets in 2022.

Business growth requires recruitment

Almost one in three mid-sized businesses say they will need to recruit this year to support their growth objectives, but many struggle to find candidates with the right skills.

40% of organisations surveyed are worried about finding employees with the skills they need, and 35% report a lack of staff who can work the hours their business requires – rising to 40% of firms in retail and wholesale.

A third (32%) say they need to recruit new staff to support their growth trajectory, but for companies with an annual turnover of between £10m and £50m, the proportion is 43%.

Two years after Brexit, 32% are concerned by a shortage of workers from overseas – particularly firms in the North East (45%) and North West (33%). The shortage of overseas workers has meant a quarter of businesses will rely on a more significant proportion of domestic hires this year.

Many of the 500 medium-sized businesses polled are also struggling to access apprentices, with 31% citing a shortage of apprentices as an issue affecting their hiring plans.

To entice candidates and retain existing employees, 23% say they will introduce new perks and 21% will be more flexible in the working practices. Pay is also increasing rapidly, with 16% stating that they are paying staff more to keep up with rising inflation and 17% doing so to attract and retain talent.

This comes as the CIPD found average pay awards are set to hit 3% this year, although this is likely to be swallowed up by inflation which is set to hit 7% by the spring.

Despite the hiring struggles and increased costs they face, 60% of the firms polled say they will return to pre-pandemic revenues in the next 12 months.

My Staff Shop will make a difference to your colleagues. For a free demonstration or to answer any question, please get in touch.

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National Employee Appreciation Day

Employee Benefits

National Employee Appreciation Day, is all about a company’s greatest asset, their employees! At My Staff Shop, we believe that every day should be a day where an employee’s contribution is recognised, not just on the first Friday of March each year. Peer-to-peer gratitude is proven to boost morale and build stronger teams. There is a basic human need for recognition. When completing a project or task, we all want to know, “Was that OK?”

There are countless psychological papers proving a link between gratitude and happiness. There is now a strong correlation between giving appreciation and team building in the workplace. Gratitude is a two-way street: receiving gratitude rewards employees for a job well done and, by actively seeking out a reason to praise a colleague, the gratitude giver also gets a psychological lift. Within psychology studies, this is referred to as “Find, Remind, and Bind” which leads to a virtuous cycle of praise & reciprocation that can only benefit the organisation’s morale.

My Staff Shop provides a unique way for organisations’ teams to give each other peer-to-peer acknowledgement, thus fostering strong internal rapport and strength. Fanmail (exclusive to My Staff Shop) is a way for employees to quickly show their appreciation to their colleagues, and for managers to give praise. Fanmail has ready-made templates which are easily customisable for the users.

Fanmail is non-financial and all your employees have total freedom to use when they feel it is appropriate. Because it is free to the user, it’s a valuable tool for human resources and rewards managers who are serious about using Employee Benefits to foster good team spirit.

1. Improve Job Satisfaction

One of the simplest ways for employees to be happy at work is for them to be able to give thanks to each other. In fact, research suggests that employees experience greater job satisfaction “through belonging to a work-place culture that endorses gratitude.”

With a peer-to-peer recognition program in place, employees become more engaged. Colleagues start to see how their position affects the work of others, on both their team, and other teams within the organisation. In the long run, peer-to-peer recognition can even help reduce staff turnover, as 75% of employees say that giving and receiving recognition makes them want to stay at their current organisation longer.

2. Greater Productivity

With peer-to-peer recognition taking place, you may find that employees are more productive, taking fewer sick days and managing deadlines better. You might even see increased engagement with your company’s wellbeing program!

3. Relationships strengthen and grow

Peer-to-peer recognition encourages employees to make deep, personal connections with their team members. This is because gratitude uses a process called “find-remind-bind” that helps create and strengthen our most important relationships. When we regularly recognise our peers, we find new relationships or remind ourselves of existing ones, serving to bind the relationship more closely together.

Peer-to-peer recognition significantly increases the probability of a constructive team culture. Not only that, but peer-to-peer appreciation also strengthens the connection between employees and increases psychological safety. Teams become more cooperative, rather than competitive, when they are able to recognise each other and don’t have to waiting for recognition coming from the top down.

4. Employees and organisations thrive

Gratitude has been found to stimulate pro-social behaviour: those altruistic social behaviours that benefit other people, such as helping, sharing, donating, and volunteering. When people experience gratitude more often, they are more likely to experience pro-social behaviours. As employees recognise each other more and more often, they will start to experience these behaviours as well. Colleagues will become more inclined to help one another out on difficult projects, to share their office supplies, and to give to their community. This can lead to a wonderful cycle of positivity: the more grateful employees feel, the more likely they are to act pro-socially towards their colleagues, which causes them to feel grateful, and on and on as your workplace culture benefits.

Employee Appreciation Day: Saves you time and money

Employees that work in an atmosphere where performance is appreciated are more likely to be more productive and stay in their post longer. Thus earning your organisation more money as well as saving valuable time and money on recruitment training.

In addition to Fanmail, My Staff Shop offers employers many ways to show that they appreciate their employees. From Reward & Recognition which allows a tax-free financial gift, making salaries go further through the discount platform, and so much more. Show your employees they’re top of your list of priorities, give them access to My Staff Shop from as little as 30p month!

If you’re looking for ways to show employees how much you value them, learn more about our extensive rewards program, with plenty of benefits to boost staff morale and incentivise work?

My Staff Shop give all this and so much more. Read our White Paper to discover more or, if you prefer, request a demonstration for yourself now.

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Employee wellbeing within the wider community

Employee Benefits

At My Staff Shop we not only provide excellent standard employee benefits: discount shopping and reward & recognition. We’re also here to help you improve your business’ standing in the community.

Below top two ways My Staff Shop assist you to improve your employee wellbeing within the wider community.

Green Credentials

“Why drive to the gym when you can cycle to work instead? It’s good for your health, great for the environment and saves you £500 a year in gym fees!”

Dan Wrench, Environmental Officer Shropshire Council
Daniel Wrench
Environmental Officer Shropshire Council

The green commute initiative is a salary sacrifice scheme where the employer makes a 0% interest loan to the employee to purchase a bike and sundries (lights, helmet hi-vis, etc.). The employee pays back through a monthly deduction from their salary.

The great benefit to both parties is the repayment deduction is taken before National insurance is calculated, thus reducing the NI paid by both parties.

Cycle to work or Green commute schemes demonstrates that your organisation takes its environmental responsibilities seriously.

  1. Improves the fitness of the employee
  2. Reduces Carbon Footprint helping the UK hit its Paris agreement goals
  3. Mental Health Benefits- there is a lot of evidence to suggest that cycling helps to de-stress at the end of the day
  4. Reduces the amount of parking space required at the office
  5. Saves Money, with no road tax or fuel to pay, the cost of purchase pays for itself with savings
  6. No more traffic jams on your daily commute

Discover how My Staff Shop can manage your green commute initiative. Discover more here

Supporting small businesses in your area

Shopping locally is proven to boost the economy where your business is based. It is estimated that for every £100 spent locally, £68 is kept within that locality, and that’s twice the amount that chains reinvest.

My Staff Shop has a unique way of promoting local businesses on our employee benefits platform, with our distinctive local deals programme.

Here’s how it works: Similar to Google My Business and easier to get onto, the business displays when a potential customer is looking for a matching service in their town or city. There is no fee!

The only proviso is that the local business offers My Staff Shop users an exclusive offer. This exclusive offer usually takes the form of a percentage discount when a user spends a minimum amount with the business.

Recommend a local deal to My Staff Shop on our promoting local business page

Client Testimonial

The support we have received from My Staff Shop has been excellent, both during launch and ongoing. Anything raised is quickly and efficiently dealt with. Throughout, my account manager has always been available and has been a fantastic support.

Processes have been clear, training has been provided, and support with communications has been great. My Staff Shop ran specific webinars for the discount platform to support the launch and also for budget holders for the Reward & Recognition platform. The result has seen 66% of employees sign into the platform so far.

James Drewry Head of Payroll & Reward Rivus Fleet Solutions
James Drewry
Head of Payroll & Reward

My Staff Shop will make a difference to your colleagues. For a free demonstration or to answer any question, please get in touch.

Mind logo and time to talk day 2022 graphic

Five steps to make mental health conversations easier

Employee Benefits

Time to talk is a day to highlight the idea, the need and the knowledge of holding conversations about mental health. It aims to bring together friends, family, community and workplaces to break the taboo around mental health.

Everyone has mental health, good and bad. Naturally, we tend to only think about poor mental health. Like physical health, mental health can fluctuate due to many reasons. So placed in a stressful situation, your mental health will suffer.

Time to talk removes the stigma of discussing mental health by promoting proven, easy to follow guidelines on starting a discussion on the subject.

Five steps to make mental health conversations easier

Time to talk is a day to highlight the idea, the need and the knowledge of holding conversations about mental health. It aims to bring together friends, family, community and workplaces to break the taboo around mental health.

Everyone has mental health, good and bad. Naturally, we tend to only think about poor mental health. Like physical health, mental health can fluctuate due to many reasons. So placed in a stressful situation, your mental health will suffer.

Time to talk removes the stigma of discussing mental health by promoting proven, easy to follow guidelines on starting a discussion on the subject.

Five steps to make mental health conversations easier

1. Create a time and space for a conversation about mental health. A window of about 10 minutes is often enough. Remember that if you’re in a public area (e.g. an office) be wary of people listening in. A great tip is to talk side by side to avoid the feeling of confrontation.

2. How to ask questions: Ask open questions that start with “What” or “How” will often get the speaker to open up about what is troubling them. Avoid starting conversions with “why”; this is because the responder will often have to pause to think before answering. Be non-judgemental; probably easier said than done, the risk of being judged is often why people bottle things up. Remember to listen to the answer and not just think about what to say next.

3. Don’t try to fix the issue: It’s difficult when a friend or loved one is upset and not want to fix it. However, similar to physical injury, the road to recovery is longer than a 10-minute conversation. Some mental health issues may need professional intervention and, as with severe physical damage, the road to recovery may take some time. Knowing that you are there for them is often enough.

4. Treat them the same: The person you started the conversation with is the same person at the end of the conversation. What you know about your friend has changed, not the person. If you want to support them, continue to do the things you usually do.

5. Patience is vital: You may know someone has an issue; however, they may not be ready to share with you or be prepared to acknowledge that there’s even a problem. Sometimes being there is enough, and you’ve made it easier for them to open up when they’re ready.

Employee Assistance Programme

A professional employee assistance programme (EAP) helps you raise the standard of mental healthcare in your workplace. When stress comes too much to bear, other areas of employees lives are often affected. At work, this may take the form of job performance, presenteeism (being at work when the employee is too sick to work) or absenteeism.

When this stress becomes too much to bear, an employee assistance program can go a long way in making whatever an employee is struggling with outside – or even inside – the workplace becomes more manageable.

Choosing an EAP package that works for you can be a daunting process. At My Staff Shop, we take care of your EAP as part of a comprehensive employee reward package.

Discover more here.

My Staff Shop will make a difference to your colleagues. For a free demonstration or to answer any question, please get in touch.

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Four reasons why the cost of living is about to rise

Employee Benefits

2022 has arrived the great news that coronavirus seems to be under control. However, this news has been buried under the wait for the Sue Gray report, the crisis in Ukraine and the news cost of living is about to rise steeply.

Four reasons why has the cost of living is about to rise?

National Insurance Rises

The health & social care levy, 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance contributions from 12% to 13.5%, will be deducted from pay-packets in April. The increase aims to raise £12 billion, initially for the NHS, and then to cover the rising costs of social care.

Travel Costs

As workers return to the office, they’re likely to be hit with a hike in fuel prices. The rise is a surge in wholesale oil prices and a weaker pound. The average diesel price is now a record £1.50, and there is no change in the foreseeable future for that will see the prices drop.

In addition to rises in motoring costs, rail fares will to rise by 3.8% in March.

Energy Bills

Similarly to diesel costs, worldwide prices and a weaker pound have meant that wholesale fuel costs have risen for energy suppliers in the UK.

The weight of the rises have not been felt by the majority of UK household as the energy price cap is still in force. The price cap ends in April to coincidence with the national insurance rise.

Runaway Inflation

The Treasury and Bank of England annual inflation target of 2% annually has already been shattered. In December, inflation stood at 5.4%, from November’s 5.1%, the steepest rise in 30 years. Inflation may yet to rise to 7% when the energy price cap ends.

Employers will feel affected by the Cost of Living rises.

Studies by Barclays estimate that for every £1 million an organisation spends on payroll, it loses 4% of productivity due to poor employee financial well-being. As the cost of living crisis affects more and more families, the loss percentage is likely to increase.

Employee benefits are a cost-effective way to supplement your employees’ wages. They offer an easy way to enhance the workplace culture, business objectives, and are often tax-efficient.

My Staff Shop will make a difference to your colleagues. For a free demonstration or to answer any question, please get in touch.

image of many using laptop to receive financial education

Workforce Financial Education: A guide to understanding demographic different needs

Employee Benefits

Understanding different demographic needs

For most, personal finance is a complex subject to understand and be engaged with, despite knowing how important it is. For organisations, it is paramount to engage with employees about finance because poor personal finances often lead to poor workplace performance.

A quick reminder of what negative impacts on the workplace occurs when colleagues suffer financial stress:

  • 8 % of the UK Workforce admit to taking time off work because of financial stress.
  • Financial stress costs the UK economy between 120.7 billion & 17.5million lost working hours due to employee absence.
  • Poor job performance is linked to poor finances.

These statistics are pre-covid; however, a recent survey showed that 43% of adults in the UK reported that their mental health had worsened since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown. This damage will be intensified now that the government’s financial buffers have ended.

Financial Education: One size doesn’t fit all

Your message must be relevant to maximise the level of engagement of your employees.

However, the one size fits all approach to financial education doesn’t work: the variety of different age groups, salary size and education levels within your organisation means a multi-stream path is best (This also can apply to employee benefits as a whole).

Whilst individual finances are unique; it is true to say that the different demographics are the best place to start, because, despite the variety of salary & education disparity, each demographic faces similar financial challenges.

This week we breakdown the different financial education needs for each group.

Financial Education: Employees Aged 18-25

  • Young employees in this age bracket are in their first job after leaving full-time education. They are often the lowest-paid within an organisation because of national minimum wage boundaries, apprenticeship wages and graduate schemes giving lower pay for the promise of qualifications and future pay rises.
  • Future financial provision is often at the back of the employee’s mind, working to pay for today rather than a retirement which is forty years away.
  • Graduates have to deal with the prospect of repaying student debt, an average of £45k per student.
  • Elementary financial education is often needed, but overlooked: for instance, 1 in 5 employees do not understand their payslip.
  • Budgeting: teaching how to make a salary last until the end of the month is a skill that many young employees need.

There is a lot of learning on the job, and basic financial skills would allow employees to concentrate fully on the job. 1 in 6 workers under the age of 25 has admitted to defaulting on credit.

Using your employee benefits is a great way to make salaries go further and to introduce the subject.

Financial Education: Late 20s to mid-40s

  • In their working prime, and possibly with a young family to support, they are balancing the demands and costs of childcare, rent, or mortgage payments and expenses of family life. These costs could be increasing due to a growing family, which would include;Higher household bills.
  • Bigger car and fuel costs
  • Incidental costs are higher, i.e. holiday prices increase during school holidays.

With the increase in responsibility, education should ensure adequate income protection against adverse financial life events, saving for a rainy day and making retirement provisions.

Only 28% of working-aged people have some form of financial resilience through savings and life cover, the knowledge gap cuts across economic and education divisions.

Financial Education: Women & Primary Carers Pay gap

A special mention also to women who take career breaks to have a family. Women often lose out because:

  • Career breaks: taking a step off the career ladder means (even with a return to work at the identical rank & pay grade) future promotions and financial compensations are delayed.
  • They are returning to work with fewer hours. Often a parent returning to work will work fewer hours to continue to care for their children. Fewer hours also affect financial planning as a smaller salary means that future savings, i.e. pensions, are reduced.
  • This reduced working life may last ten to fifteen years or 20-30% of a working lifetime.
  • Women returning to paid work from unpaid childcare will often start in positions that are lower in status than the roles they left before they started a family.

In summary, a break in earning and saving to raise a family is often where the pay equality gap begins.

Financial Education: Late 40s onward

Employees in their late 40s onwards need to maximise their retirement provision, secure an income for later life and handle unexpected life events such as the early onset of ill health/ disability, redundancy, or the death of a partner.

Older people are much less likely to find work again following redundancy. Disability and poor health are preventing nearly half a million people, who are approaching retirement, from working.

Financial Education: Close to retirement

There is little in the way of financial education. However, pension provision becomes of critical importance. Accessing information online about the financial choices that are open can be a barrier.

Financial wellness with this age group can be tied in with basic IT skills, allowing greater control of their finances.

How can Employee Benefits Assist your employees finances?

Employee benefits will help responsible employers assist their workforce in several ways:

  • Most discounts provided on platforms are inflation-beating. Used well, an employee can save on most of their financial outgoings. The My Staff Shop platform gives its users value for money (we can’t speak for other platforms!).
  • Financial education: Users on the My Staff Shop employee benefits platform have access to financial education, a free 15-minute consultation with a financial advisor and an easy way to save the savings that the platform provides.
  • EAP (Employee Assistance Program) will help when stress, brought on by financial worries or anything else, rear its head. The EAP is confidential and should be a resource that you can point your colleagues to.

My Staff Shop will make a difference to your colleagues. For a free demonstration or to answer any question, please get in touch.

Image of young execs looking at laptop

Evidence that financial planning improves work performance

Employee Benefits

We need to talk about financial planning.

Employers are reluctant to discuss financial planning with their employees, and with good reason. The feeling that you’re opening a can of worms in terms of pay is an eternal worry. However, financial challenges that your employees face have a direct correlation with their performance when they’re at work.

Employees who receive financial education from their employers are altruistic.

In essence, employees are more productive when they feel secure financially. Subconsciously, employees do expect employers to take care of them financially. Employers who are not engaging their employees’ financial education are perceived as less caring. In contrast, employers argue, “I pay salary, income tax & NI calculated and opt-in pensions with 4% employer contribution. I already do all this for them, isn’t that enough?”

The answer seems to be no! Of particular concern to employers is the proven link between personal financial issues, poor productivity and absenteeism in the workplace. Studies by Barclays estimate that for every £1 million an organisation spends on payroll, it loses 4% of productivity due to poor employee financial well-being.

Five startling facts to consider:

  • 40% of working-age people do not have good control of their money and do not manage it well, assessed as: keeping track of their spending, having a budget and sticking to it, and unable to meet current financial commitments without difficulty. Young people aged under 25 are much less likely to do this well.
  • Only half of working-age people are paying into a pension or have a previous pension.
  • 24% of the UK workforce cannot read payslips or bank statements correctly.
  • Among those who already have a heavy debt burden (measured as missing three key debt repayment deadlines in the last six months), 81% have sought no advice and 33% cannot imagine doing so.
  • This reflects social attitudes which are focused on living for today, with only around 40% thinking it is important to save for a rainy day or for retirement.
Education is the key to improving employees’ finances.

If you asked your employees how to improve their finances, the apparent reply is “to pay higher salaries”. It’s worth bearing in mind that poor money management cuts across the class divide. While the lower-paid workers typically have more deficient finances, this is more often due to proportionally higher living costs. The startling statistic is that as many as 28% of employees have a buffer equal to 3 months of salary saved. How many of your better-paid staff could honestly say that they have three months of salary saved?

So if the salary isn’t the first metric to look at when looking at financial pressures, what are? The age demographic of your employee. In general, each age group has a set of financial touchpoints which will be irrelevant to other age groups.

Next week we look at the various challenges each age group faces with their financial planning.

Before you go

Employees that use the My Staff Shop platform have constantly reinforced messages about saving money on everyday purchases. There is lots of free, targeted information regarding personal investing and using platform savings into longer-term investments. We enable your employees to improve their short, mid and long term financial health. In addition, there is also a free 15-minute consultation with a qualified IFA for those looking for more in-depth advice.

For a free demonstration and to answer your questions please get in touch!

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