It‘s official: online search engine Google is officially the best place
to work on earth, as voted by US readers of Fortune magazine.
Outstripping other well known contenders such as Cisco Systems at
number 11 and Microsoft at a dismal 50, Google sets the standard for
Silicon Valley and beyond. The online search engine tops the polls with
free gourmet meals three times a day, swimming facilities, spa and free
doctors onsite for all of its 12,000-strong workforce.
Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have embraced a number of
imaginative and fun staff perks that have fostered an innovative
culture, but they also expect a high degree of productivity in return.
The company has launched a number of new services in the UK this year
alone ranging from Google Checkout, an online payments system, to
Google Mini, a business intranet search engine similar to its web
product which can search up to 100,000 documents.
What Google‘s creators realised from an early stage was that rewarding
staff and making their work life more fun has a positive effect on
their output. Staff perks that would, to many business owners, seem
like sanctioned skiving can in fact prove extremely lucrative. Take
Google‘s ’20% time‘ initiative, for example, where engineers can spend
up to 20% of work time on independent projects. Two of its recent
groundbreaking products – Google News and Google Mail – both had their
inception as part of the scheme.
While Google
undoubtedly has deeper pockets than most companies and can afford to be
relaxed in its approach to creativity, there are a number of ways that
smaller businesses can reward employees without breaking the bank.
Common tax-free perks in the UK include season ticket loans, worth up
to £5,000 per person to cover the cost of public transport; and
independent financial information, worth up to £150 per employee.
Businesses can similarly reward a strong annual group performance with
the traditional Christmas blowout and save on their tax bill in the
process. Up to £150 per head can be claimed for this group event.
Return on investment
Employee benefits schemes may inject some much-needed fun into an
organisation, but there is also a sound business case for introducing a
rewards structure. There is a growing recognition that a generous
benefits scheme can give companies the edge over competitors in the
recruitment market. Google, for example, now gets a staggering 1,300
résumés a day. “A cash bonus for exemplary work is a headline figure
that can attract talented people,” says the Chartered Institute of
Personnel Development‘s (CIPD) rewards advisor Charles Cotton.
Occupational pension schemes can prove equally attractive for
prospective employees. Staff can obtain income tax relief at their
highest marginal rate and employers are able to offset their own
contributions against corporation tax. To encourage employees to
contribute to an occupational pension scheme, some employers match what
their employees pay in. Others link their contribution levels to length
of service as a way of rewarding employee loyalty.
An extra bonus
is salary sacrifice pension schemes, where the employee‘s contribution
is taken from the gross salary, thereby reducing the employee‘s tax and
national insurance burden. An employee earning just over the marginal
tax threshold at £35,000 and contributing 5% to a salary sacrifice
pension, for example, will have their taxable salary reduced to £33,250
and be eligible for the lower tax rate.
pay up to £50 a week in vouchers and be exempt from paying any national insurance on that sum‘
Childcare vouchers are also becoming increasingly popular as a salary
sacrifice scheme. Employers can pay up to £50 a week in vouchers and be
exempt from paying any national insurance contributions (NICs) on that
sum, while employees do not have to pay any NICs or income tax on the vouchers provided.
Small companies that are keen to attract and retain staff could
consider introducing flexible and remote working opportunities. This
could be particularly attractive to older workers or those with
children who may be willing to accept a lower salary in return for a
better work/life balance and has the advantage of being relatively
cheap to set up.
According to independent advice
bureau Acas, types of flexible working can vary immensely and can
include, but are not restricted to, part-time work; job-sharing or
working from home; term-time working, whereby an employee on a
permanent contract takes paid or unpaid leave during school holidays;
or working on staggered hours, where employees have different start and
finish times.
Under UK law, parents and other
employees with caring responsibility for children aged under six or who
have disabled children under 18 have the right to request a flexible
working arrangement, provided they have accrued at least six months‘
service. This is only the right to request flexible working – not to be
given it – but employers must be able to prove they have a sound reason
for not granting a request, such as it being too costly or too onerous
on other employees.
Employers keen to ensure the
health of their employees – and get some ’green‘ points – might
consider a bicycle-loan scheme, whereby employees get a bike and all
the accompanying kit at half price and pay for it in instalments over
18 months. The company buys the bike for the employee, together with
lights, locks, helmet, clothing and panniers and then deducts the cost
from that person‘s wages over an agreed time period.
The advantage is that the employee does not pay national insurance on
the repayments and if the employer is registered for VAT this is
deducted from the cost, which means that the bike ends up costing the
member of staff as little as half of the showroom cost. In addition,
employers can also provide tax-free meals and drinks to those who cycle
to work.
Obstacle course
But while many organisations recognise the reasons for introducing a
benefits scheme, some complain of the complexity and time burden
involved. According to a recent CIPD survey, only 35% of all UK firms
currently offer a written, structured benefits scheme that is aligned
with stated business objectives. “That response could reflect the
degree of difficulty some companies experience in implementing a
rewards strategy,” suggests the CIPD‘s Cotton.
Smaller businesses, in particular those without a dedicated human
resources division, might consider staff benefits as an impracticable
luxury. But a number of specialist benefit providers have emerged in
response to the growing benefits culture. These outfits typically set
up, run and administer employee schemes, including regular usage
reporting and updates to benefits on offer. Companies include
Projectlink Motivation, P&MM Consulting and Xafinity Consulting,
all of which help businesses maximise the value of employee benefits
for both staff and employer.
There are also
potential political implications of introducing a rewards scheme.
“Benefits are an emotive issue and can create a culture of expectation
of reward among employees,” says the CIPD‘s Cotton. He also points out
that some organisations face a degree of resistance to the introduction
of benefits schemes from middle and upper managers, who perceive a
resulting increase in their workload. “Some managers are happy to blame
the HR department for their own lack of communication about the needs
of the business,” he says.
If introducing a
structured benefits scheme really does sound too much like hard work
then there are other less onerous ways to reward staff. “An
organisation may decide that employees are better motivated by cash
incentives that are linked to staff performance, such as a group or
individual achievement,” says Cotton.
Whatever the
motivation, rewards schemes can be beneficial for both employees and
the business. Google didn‘t get to be one of the world‘s most
successful companies without its highly motivated staff and neither
will any growing business.