Pensions pay gap
Attention has rightly been put on the gender pay gap in recent years. With annual reporting required for larger companies this gap is closing, albeit slowly.
But the same endemic issues which cause the gender pay gap – a greater childcare burden, the cumulative effect of lower rates of pay, a lack of access to senior positions – have also led to a pensions pay gap even more stark.
Throw into the mix a lack of financial confidence (generally speaking) in women compared to men and the problem is exacerbated. A survey by UBS found that 63% of UK millennial women deferred long-term financial planning to their husbands or male partners; 85% felt that men know more about investing than they did.
Analysis between 2018 and 2020 found that for every £100 which men accumulated in private pensions, women accumulated only £65. That puts the gap at 35%, although there are other ways of measuring it.
So what can you do as an employer, who wants to foster equality in your business and attract the best talent, be they male or female?
The same actions that you would take to address the gender pay gap are a good place to start – ensuring compliance with the Equality Act on pay rates for men and women doing similar work; checking that your recruitment, retention and promotion processes operate on a level playing field; running a supportive workplace that women do not feel forced to drop out of at key stages of family life.
Some businesses facilitate “lunch and learns” for their employees. These may even be offered for free by third-parties happy to impart knowledge in return for potential customers. Partnering with a local financial adviser could be an excellent way to make all your employees more confident about long-term financial planning.
Company expenses – how long do you take to pay?
The cost-of-living crisis has put sharp focus on a perennial bugbear for employees – the repayment of company expenses which they have had to fork out for from their personal funds.
It is not uncommon for expenses to be repaid at the end of the month, so long as all receipts and other paperwork are accounted for. If there are problems with this bookkeeping, it could take longer. This may result in weeks when employees are out of pocket.
A recent survey carried out by a payroll firm found that during the cost-of-living crisis a quarter of respondents had struggled to pay their own essential bills while waiting for reimbursement of company expenses.
For some employees the sums we are talking about will amount to thousands of pounds over the course of a year.
Such problems for employees can quite easily translate into problems for you. They could manifest as work-related stress which impacts performance; difficult conversations and conflict if the employee thinks that they are being taken advantage of; or higher turnover of staff as dissatisfied employees seek a new job where this will not be an issue.
If you recognise some of these challenges, there are simple, cost-effective measures you could consider. For instance, making your expenses runs more frequent – say fortnightly instead of monthly. Or allowing employees to book hotels and train fares with a company account and so skipping the issue of expenses altogether for these types of payment.
Maternity redundancy
As you will know, women on maternity leave have a number of protections enshrined in law, one of which is protection from redundancy.
This protection is in line to be extended following the royal assent granted to the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023.
Any employee on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave must be provided with a suitable alternative job (if available), should their role become redundant. Currently this protection lasts until the day they return from the leave.
When the new law comes into force (not before April 2024) the protection will last from the day you are informed of their pregnancy to 18 months after the birth. This may add up to another six months in total to what they already have.
Processing maternity leave and pay, and managing the changes to your business at this time is an important part of HR to get right. If you need support, your local HR Dept office can help.
Bring your dog to work day
As a nation of pet lovers, we jump at the chance to spend more time with our furry friends or show them off to those around us.
So National Bring your Dog to Work Day (Friday 23rd June), may be a crowd-pleaser in your office.
If you are keen to take part, it is not as simple as just inviting everyone to bring in their pooch, though. There is legwork to do first, and for some workplaces, it will not be possible.
If there are hygiene reasons which prevent you from taking part, you’ll probably be aware of them already – for example if you run a food preparation business. What may not be so obvious is where you have staff with chronic allergies or a phobia.
For this reason, it is important to ask staff for their approval. If one or two are not happy, could they be offered to work from home? You may be able to find a workaround.
If dogs will be coming through the door, a risk assessment will help you think through the safety issues. Is each dog suitable for a workplace? Where can and can’t they go? What is the procedure if something unexpected happens – like a dog bites someone?
Finally, remember work still needs to get done. So all dogs should be house trained, socialised and well behaved. Uncontrollable scrappers and yappers can stay at home.
Right to switch off
There is no “right to switch off” in the UK for employees at present. It may be coming though. There is such a right in countries such as France and Ireland. And Labour has indicated that they may introduce this right should they win the next election, although by a voluntary code at first.
The thinking behind this is that as technology and working patterns have upset the work/life balance for many people, there is a heightened risk of stress or even burnout. Employees may find it harder to build a family life and may look to change jobs to remedy the situation themselves. So businesses may need to create working patterns that relieve stress: such as “the right to switch off”.
While it is essential for businesses to ensure their employees are productive, good employers will want to respect the work/life balance. To give an indication of what a right to switch off might look like, the Irish model is based on three tenets:
- A right not to routinely work outside of work hours.
- A right to not suffer penalty for refusing to work outside of normal hours.
- An obligation to respect each other’s right to switch off.
There does need to be balance, though, in any new approach.
For instance, some employees, working from home, may have arranged to take a break for child-care cover and then work a few hours early in the morning or later in the evening. Any legislation needs to allow flexibility and choice.
There are also situations where out of hours contact is important. For example, a change of a morning meeting or an emergency situation.
Drinking on the job
A £10,000 pint? Not quite, but an engineer who was disciplined for drinking beer on a Zoom call and eventually dismissed for persistent poor behaviour was ordered by a judge to pay £10,000 to cover his ex-employer’s legal costs. He had brought a tribunal claim against them for unfair dismissal which he lost.
And quite right, too – the judge noted how fairly they had treated the employee while they managed his behaviour. It was reported he even told the CEO to “Deal with it” as he sipped his pint! While many people have a favourite tipple, there is a time and a place – and “on the job” will not be it in most businesses.
