Sabbaticals, normally a perk of the job, are now being used to save them, with carmaker Vauxhall considering asking staff to stay away for nine months on 30% pay, or risk losing their jobs completely.
The fact most employees would rather have work than nice-to-have extras is a sign of the times that is revealed in the first of our features in this special employee benefits supplement. Exclusive research with benefit solutions provider Vebnet reveals that employees seem far more concerned about having any available budget put into their wages (see p4) rather than their benefits pot.
But what these findings reveal is that against a more likely backdrop of wage depression, it has never been more important for HR professionals to communicate better the full range and money-saving impact of their benefits programme. I've seen advance findings of the CIPD's annual Reward Management Survey, due to be published next month. It is expected to reveal that only a quarter of organisations (employing more than one million people) actually have a total rewards strategy. A further 22% plan to introduce one this year, but that still leaves more than half of businesses without one. The survey will also show that this year more than 50% of businesses now see inflation as the single, most important factor when deciding salary reviews, up from 39% just a year ago.
Nowhere have the differences between benefits typically been greater than between private and public-sector organisations. However, as exclusive research carried out for us by Best Companies reveals, 2009 could be the year local councils close the gap in terms of what they offer. Councils are rightly recognising that, to attract and retain the best people, they still need to compete with their benefits provision, and cutting back on what they offer is not a long-term solution to the short-term economic difficulty. Differences also abound between countries. We also profile some of the ways employees can receive different benefits working in different territories despite being employed by the same company.
Perhaps the best way to manage your way out of the economic downturn is by properly scrutinising which benefits actually pay their way, by seeing which achieve higher take-up rates, and which actually provide real value for money. David Woods reveals why more HR managers could be doing more of this and providing evidence to the board about the benefits that best make sense.
Finally, for those who are looking to see how they can offer something different to their staff, we take you on a tour of some of the best benefits to brag about.
It may not feel like it is the best time to be seeing what you can do with your benefits programme, but your employees all want you to spell out clearly what you have, and what you might be able to offer in the future.
