Saving PDFs, not Lives...

These monthly newsletters are fast becoming an indicator of how fast time can pass by! Just a few weeks after writing the last, the next seems to come around incredibly quickly. While I was off for almost the entirety of October, the last week or so back has been pretty full on. Not least of all because of the UK budget announcement this week (more on that below).

But there was one thing in the last week or so that I saw that really resonated with me. Anyone who uses Instagram Reels or TikTok regularly may have noticed a growth in the number of people (particularly younger people) who are talking about not giving yourself to work. Sharing stories of how employers and bosses don't care (one even about an employee who donated a kidney to her boss, who later fired her for taking too long to recover from the operation - fact checked and unbelievablyTRUE!).

But among this growing resentment towards the way the employer and employee relationship has evolved, there was one video that really resonated. I cant find it again, but this one guy said that you can do a great job, commit to work, try our best, be a high performer but also leave work at the door. He ended with the phrase "you're saving PDFs, not lives - get a grip".

The UK Budget

In theory, many of the elements contained in the budget should contribute to improving the social and economic wellbeing of individuals and communities across the country:

• An overarching theme of moving away from short termism and a bigger focus on longer term investment and policy.
• "Get Britain Working Again" whitepaper
• Bigger investment capital spending (￡100bn over 5 years)
• Increases to National Minimum Wage
• Carers Allowance uplift
• Higher departmental spending of 1.5% year on year

At Benifex we held a recent webinar that was attended by 500 people (so far) where we distilled what the budget covered that was relevant to employers, but also what we think might happen next as a result. You can watch the recording here: https://hellobenefex.com/on-demand-webinar-what-does-the-new-uk-budget-mean-for-employers

As referenced in the most recent budget, in just a few months’ time, Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will rise by 1.2% to 15%. From April 2025, this will essentially make cost of an employee greater. In context, for the average employee, that will add a further cost of ￡432 per year. Roughly speaking for an organisation of 1,000 people, that could be additional people costs of more than half a million*.

It realistic to say that this may affect the way employers spend money related to their people; we may see slow or zero wage rises, we may see wellbeing or benefit budgets cut and we may see benefit spend cut too.

However, while employers are being asked to bear a greater financial burden, this could also be a unique opportunity to leverage salary sacrifice schemes, which allow both employers and employees to reduce NI contributions through pre-tax benefits.

While it’s been two decades since the first salary sacrifice scheme was launched, these types of benefits are particularly pertinent in 2025 for several reasons; not only do they help employers to reduce costs, but they also enable employees net pay to reach further and can contribute to employers ESG goals too. An example of a salary sacrifice benefit that ticks a lot of boxes for all parties this year is electric vehicle leasing.

While some of the changes employers faced in 2024 placed new burdens on employers, we have often found that in times of economic stress, employee benefit schemes have proved by a valuable resource for both employees and their employers. The shadow of the cost-of-living crisis still looms, and consumer optimism isn’t expected to improve much this year. Finding ways to implement benefits that extend the financial resilience of employees, support their wellbeing while also protecting employer spend are critical this year.

This is particular important to note as sickness in the UK is still incredibly high, long term absence is at record highs and people's overall wellbeing is still holding employers back. Any cuts to health and wellbeing spend would exacerbate this further and cause huge problems for employers.

The fact that half of UK job vacancies describe statutory rights as "benefits" shows just how much investment in the things that matter employees want to see.

*Tax Year 2024/25 – Ave UK Salary ￡36k – ER NIC ￡5,400 @ 15% / ￡4,968 @ 13.8%

November Marches On...

November will be a busy month for me. I have been invited to speak at the first Forbes Middle East Wellness Summit in Dubai, I will speaking at Working Futures (https://workingfutures.co/strategy-days/working-futures-autumn-2024/attendees) in London as well as picking up some of my first duties at a new Executive Fellow of King's College London, King's Business School meeting Mark Versey, CEO of Aviva, alongside other business leaders at Somerset House.

But most notably, we officially kick off our work with the new PLG on Workplace Wellbeing - which will be a significant step forwards for HR, Reward, Benefit and Wellbeing leaders in the UK.

The recent Employment Rights Bills and latest Budget shows just how much this new government will be relying on employers to support the countries growth. This PLG has never been needed more as we help the government to navigate the best ways to support employers while also ensuring they move out of the way to enable employers to succeed. For example, tax exemptions for employers investing in employee wellbeing will be at the top of the agenda.

The Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing

As some of you may know, I am the Chair of a new Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing, a new forum that will convene employers, industry experts and parliamentarians in the UK to see workplace wellbeing as a way to drive greater success for organisations, the economy and the country as a whole. The founding board sponsors include large employers like Centrica and SUEZ as well as key wellbeing providers in this area including Wagestream , WEALTH at work and Onebright .

Our inaugural meeting will be taking place in Westminster on the 19th November and I'm incredibly pleased to announce that not only will the first meeting be attended by several sitting MPs, but that Lord Bethal and Peter Cheese, CEO of the CIPD will be among our first guest speakers.

Interest in the PLG has been significant and unfortunately we simply don't have the ability to involved all 200+ people into one hour meetings. Our plan for the year ahead after the first meeting is to focus on various aspects of workplace wellbeing and invite people to those specialist roundtables with the aim of hopefully, over the course of the next 12 months getting everyone involved in at least one Westminster meeting.

If you'd like to know more about the PLG and receive our updates, follow us on LinkedIn here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/plg-on-workplace-wellbeing/posts/?feedView=all and sign up to the newsletter here: https://plgworkplacewellbeing.org/

Onwards and upwards...