Don’t roll your eyes when you read the words ” employee benefits”
I spoke to a client at the end of last year who was quite sceptical about employee benefits and their worth. He did actually give out a little sigh and roll his eyes at the start of our meeting!
Unperturbed I carried on explaining that I wasn’t talking about free fruit on fridays and hola hoop lessons in the staff canteen, but real tangible benefits that would motivate his employees and transform the performance of the business.
This particular client had a city centre office and car parking was a huge expense for everyone at around £10 a day. I told him we could offer his employees the benefit of annual car parking passes, at discounted corporate rates, through salary sacrifice.
Working with our car park providers, we found a car park less than 2 minutes walk away. The rate for the car park was £1800 a year for an annaul pass, compared with the current cost of around £2600. Offered through salary sacrifice, an employee paying basic rate tax was then able to save tax and national insurance on this cost bringing the annual nett cost down to £1224.
This meant their parking cost was only £4.70 a day!
Of his 30 strong workforce, 10 very delighted employees took up the benefit. The business then made a significant saving in employers national insurance of £2484.
Happy employees and a much less sceptical employer!
I’m discussing further benefits with him next month.