When employers are looking to set up workplace benefits the motivation is usually to offer packages that boost staff morale, that help to increase staff retention and mark that employer out as being somewhere people are keen to work.
With would-be employees increasingly focusing on factors other than the pure financial, the employers who stand out because they provide workplace nursery schemes, gym membership, cycle to work schemes and more have a huge advantage.
However, we live in challenging times when the financial impact of Covid-19 means that many employers have more fundamental concerns., Just staying afloat, perhaps by reducing costs in part, seems more important than worrying about setting up a scheme for employees.
What many employers fail to realise is that in setting up workplace benefits they can also reduce both their tax and National Insurance burden. Rather than creating a mountain of admin and eating into company income, the benefits can be largely self-running and lead to savings of many thousands of pounds per year – potentially far more still depending on the size off the company.
We will look at a couple of example.

Savings With Childcare Schemes

Workplace nursery schemes are the benefit that often has there biggest positive impact for any employee with young children.
To give brief details, the scheme sees an employer partner with a local nursery, employees can then send their children to this nursery only with the payments made as a salary sacrifice they save greatly against tax. The savings typically run to thousands of pounds per year and some parents with two children in nursery save close to £10,000 per year.
When operated through an expert workplace benefit provider, there is little admin so it is a benefit that makes a huge impact to employees. If an employee was suddenly able to take advantage of this scheme they would effectively be several thousand pounds better off per annum.
That’s all great, but what of the employer? Beyond helping their staff, how do they benefit?
The answer lies in NI savings – if an employee is paying £1,000 per month for their childcare, by using the scheme the employer would potentially save £53 per month. 
If the employee is paying more, the company will save more. Multiply this across numerous employees and it quickly turns into a benefit that saves the employer a five-figure sum per annum.
Another example is the cycle to work scheme. In common with gym membership , there is an obvious benefit in that having fitter, more physically active employees is likely to lead to a reduction in sick leave and other health-based issues.
The scheme, though also saves the employer money and again through NI savings – if you had 10 employees use the scheme you might save a four-figure sum per annum.

Get Fit – and Save Money

A cycle to work scheme is also almost no admin for the employer, the benefit managed through a hub whereby employees set their own choices and the employer can easily check which benefits are being used.
There are so many other benefits too – diners clubs, car and phone leasing, gym membership, holiday exchange schemes, discount clubs, will writing, employee assistance programmes, medical and dental insurance and many, many more.
Any employer offering a wide range of benefits is likely to see each individual employee sign up for numerous benefits. That not only strengthens their tie to the company – leaving that bit less likely if it also impacts their childcare or other costs – but helps the employer financially too.
We have a handy calculator on site to give a guide as to the savings available by simply utilising a few of the benefits. In many cases the savings will run to a five-figure sum, potentially the same as one salary saved per annum. Larger businesses can make far greater savings.

About Us

At Enjoy Benefits, we have great experience in helping companies of all sizes introduce benefits that are suitable for their workplace. 
Benefits are easy to set ups and ongoing administration is then run through a hub, this allowing employees to manage their own benefits while the employer can see which benefits are proving popular and what level of take-up each has had.
If you would like an obligation free chat to discuss which benefits might work for your business and your employees, please contact us by calling 0800 088 7315 or using our Contact Form.