How the Channel Supports Employees During the Cost-of-Living Crisis
One-fifth of workers are less productive because they spend working hours worrying about money.
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Distributor Exertis is offering employees a range of initiatives to help them navigate the current climate, said Vishal Chhatralia, the company’s chief digital and marketing officer. These include health care benefits, staff discounts, pension and loyalty schemes via an Employee Assistance Program. It also offers a health cash plan paid for by Exertis.
“We offer confidential 24/7 telephone support with qualified counsellors, face-to-face counselling sessions, access to financial, legal and health support, health risk assessments, cognitive behavioural therapy, and webinars. These sessions are tailored to our people help them with a range of concerns, and recent talks from third parties have included mortgage support and pension scheme benefits.
“Additionally, we’ve recently launched a bonus payment for our colleagues earning under £30,000 per annum to help them with rising bills.”
Cloud-based IT service provider Cloud Geeks is offering financial advice and assistance to help employees. This includes giving them corporate credit cards to allow them to manage work-related expenses. This ensures they don’t have to use their own money and wait for expenses to be paid, says Cloud Geeks managing director Mike Ianiri.
The firm has also created strategic partnerships with local restaurants and gyms to give staff discounts. And it has invited a local bank mortgage specialist to discuss money matters with staff.
“[We have] guided staff to use the Money Advice Service as they have a really good budget planner they can fill in online, said Ianiri. “Through our group medical scheme, employees are able to speak confidentially to counsellors regarding any mental health issues that money issues may be having on their well-being.
“[We are also] advising our staff to shift to electric cars. They can then use our corporate account to charge the cars rather than petrol/diesel fuel expenses having to be paid on a monthly basis.”
Rob Mackle, director and co-founder at Assured Data Protection, noted it’s a challenging time for businesses, owners and employees.
“Rising costs affect all of us, but it is businesses who can offer the most help,” he said. “Our business provides support for our team in a variety of ways, such as flexible work hours and the ability to work from home to reduce on commuting costs.
“It’s also easy to feel isolated at times, so we encourage employees to come to work to keep the company culture alive and give them a sense of camaraderie. When they do, we make sure we provide free lunches and refreshments. It is important for us to enable employee development and progression and we always want to make our employees feel valued by paying fair remuneration,” he added.
“Employee well-being has always been our top priority,” said Alexa Greaves, CEO at AAG. This means focusing on maintaining both physical and mental health.
“During this unprecedented time, our value of togetherness has never been more prominent,” she said. “We believe in supporting each other and looking after those who may be struggling. Throughout this difficult period, we aim to support the team as best as we can.
“We understand the need for a work/life balance and promote a flexible working environment by offering hybrid working and flexible hours. This allows the team the opportunity to choose whether they work from home or the office, depending on which is more sustainable and what external commitments they face, such as childcare.”
Additionally, AAG is increasing salaries in line with market rates so no one experiences difficulties due to costs associated with rising inflation.
“At AAG, we believe that everyone deserves a fair salary, and we strive to continually improve and believe that hard work deserves to be rewarded.”
“2022 has presented several external challenges which affect the Embridge staff in many ways,” said Embridge Consulting founder and CEO Emma O’Brien. “We started with the excitement of the lifting of the COVID lockdown in the first quarter, followed by the devastating war in Ukraine and then the tension with the changes in our political leaders and market response, all of which have influenced the current cost of living crisis today.”
O’Brien says Embridge is reviewing what it can offer to support staff through these “difficult and challenging times.” Changes include increasing health care offers, reviewing salaries aligned to a competency framework, options of salary sacrifice schemes, enhanced employer pension contributions and providing discount platforms. These, said ‘Brien “put money right back into individual pockets.”
· Enhanced Employer pension contributions, therefore reducing employee contributions so savings can be made and enhanced monthly income can be achieved.
· Enhanced Cycle to work scheme to encourage more staff to utilise this scheme and saving on transport costs where possible.
· Flexible Buy & Sell Annual Leave Scheme, empowering employees to sell or purchase up to a maximum of 10 days annual leave which would in turn increase monthly earning potential.
· Health cash plans for staff from day one of joining Embridge.
· Enhanced working from home allowance – where possible the working from home allowance is to take into account rising energy costs.
· Incentive gifts to keep staff motivated and to celebrate achievements.
· Introduction of a tailored discount and wellness platform.
· Flexible working abroad for agreed periods.
· Salary sacrifice schemes that support payment of expenses and savings in NI e.g. childcare costs, etc.
· Discounted gym memberships/online fitness classes staff can access freely.
· Benchmarking of all salaries – Embridge will work with external bodies to ensure all roles within the organisation are being paid within the expectations of market rate as a minimum. This will reflect the changing landscape and market conditions seen in 2022.
“The Embridge team is like family, and in the coming months we will continue to listen to our staff, seek and share professional financial advice and tips,” said O’Brien. “We are here to support each other and will ride this wave carefully balancing the needs of the business as well as the needs of our people.”
Photo courtesy Joel Chant, ERP Today
“2022 has presented several external challenges which affect the Embridge staff in many ways,” said Embridge Consulting founder and CEO Emma O’Brien. “We started with the excitement of the lifting of the COVID lockdown in the first quarter, followed by the devastating war in Ukraine and then the tension with the changes in our political leaders and market response, all of which have influenced the current cost of living crisis today.”
O’Brien says Embridge is reviewing what it can offer to support staff through these “difficult and challenging times.” Changes include increasing health care offers, reviewing salaries aligned to a competency framework, options of salary sacrifice schemes, enhanced employer pension contributions and providing discount platforms. These, said ‘Brien “put money right back into individual pockets.”
· Enhanced Employer pension contributions, therefore reducing employee contributions so savings can be made and enhanced monthly income can be achieved.
· Enhanced Cycle to work scheme to encourage more staff to utilise this scheme and saving on transport costs where possible.
· Flexible Buy & Sell Annual Leave Scheme, empowering employees to sell or purchase up to a maximum of 10 days annual leave which would in turn increase monthly earning potential.
· Health cash plans for staff from day one of joining Embridge.
· Enhanced working from home allowance – where possible the working from home allowance is to take into account rising energy costs.
· Incentive gifts to keep staff motivated and to celebrate achievements.
· Introduction of a tailored discount and wellness platform.
· Flexible working abroad for agreed periods.
· Salary sacrifice schemes that support payment of expenses and savings in NI e.g. childcare costs, etc.
· Discounted gym memberships/online fitness classes staff can access freely.
· Benchmarking of all salaries – Embridge will work with external bodies to ensure all roles within the organisation are being paid within the expectations of market rate as a minimum. This will reflect the changing landscape and market conditions seen in 2022.
“The Embridge team is like family, and in the coming months we will continue to listen to our staff, seek and share professional financial advice and tips,” said O’Brien. “We are here to support each other and will ride this wave carefully balancing the needs of the business as well as the needs of our people.”
Photo courtesy Joel Chant, ERP Today
The U.K. is experiencing the greatest cost of living crisis in 60 years.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a squeeze on gas supplies throughout Europe. At the same time, rising transport and packaging costs are making imports more expensive. This has resulted in a sharp increase in goods and energy prices.
It has also been revealed that former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ disastrous mini budget in September cost the country £30 billion. This doubles the sum the U.K. Treasury says it will have to raise via a huge program of tax rises and spending cuts.
With recession looming, the current U.K. inflation rate is now more than 11%.
Many people are worried about making ends meet this winter. Research shows that 10% of U.K. employees have missed days at work due to financial problems. A further one-fifth of workers were less productive because they spent working hours worrying about money. This amounts to a total annual cost to businesses of more than £6 billion.
This is only going to worsen in the current economic crisis.
At the same time, a survey has found 39% of U.K. managers do not have a clear strategy in place for supporting staff during the cost of living crisis. Additionally, 57% do not feel well-equipped to support their colleagues through the crisis.
In the slideshow above, five channel firms share with us what they’re doing to support employees during the current crisis. This includes financial help, flexible hours and ensuring people’s mental and physical well-being.
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