For media information please contact Jenny Green @ Smart Arts on 07545 696713 / 01484 685544 or

email jenny@smartarts.co.uk

Attracting Employees with Valued Benefits Advisory article from JCS HR

It’s a proven fact that most employees look for more than just a salary from

their employer these days. In fact a common theme amongst The Time Top

100 Employers list was that they all offered a range of benefits that

employees value.

These included holidays above the statutory minimum; childcare provision;

health and wellbeing; pensions and opportunities to be involved in

charitable or public service volunteering.

However, many small employers do not offer benefits to staff, other than those they are legally obliged to

provide. “The main reasons for this tend to be concerns about cost and/or lack of knowledge of what is

available,” says HR specialist Julie Sykes of Huddersfield based JCS HR.

“Whilst is it is true that some benefits can come with a hefty price tag, there are a range of benefits that

employers can provide at very little, or even no, cost. Examples of these are:

- Childcare Vouchers: These have no cost to the company and can, in fact, save on NI costs. The

benefit to employees is that they can be purchased through a salary sacrifice scheme; this

effectively means that the employee buys the vouchers from their gross salary and only pays tax

on the remaining net salary. This can result in a significant reduction in annual childcare costs.

- Cycle to Work Scheme: In essence, you buy a bike for your employee to ride to work, they ‘hire’ it

through a salary sacrifice scheme, and at the end of the ‘hire’ period the employee buys the bike

from you.

- Computer Purchase Scheme: This works in a similar way to the Cycle to Work Scheme.

- Healthcare Cash Plans: You can provide access to a plan for which your staff make a small

monthly payment, which enables them to claim back dental, optical and other medical costs.

Alternatively, the company can pay for a corporate scheme for its employees, which in addition

advisory article

For media information please contact Jenny Green @ Smart Arts on 07545 696713 / 01484 685544 or

email jenny@smartarts.co.uk

to enabling them to reclaim medical costs, gives access to a range of other benefits such as

discounted shopping and gym memberships. “

So it is definitely worth spending some time researching the various alternative benefits available to find

those that best fit both your company’s and employee’s requirements; and promote these as part of a

more attractive package when recruiting.

For more information on JCS HR visit http://www.jcs-hr.co.uk or call 01484 602708. You can also follow

Julie at http://www.twitter.com/@HRJulie.

-ends-

Notes to editors:

• Julie Sykes has worked in the human resources industry for 25 years and celebrated 10 years

running her own consultancy in 2012.

• JCS HR Consulting is based in Huddersfield and services Yorkshire and Manchester areas.

• JCS HR provides consultancy across all sectors including manufacturing, government, media,

financial services, medical and engineering.

• JCS HR has provided consultancy for groups of up to 1000 people.