PIXIE PAYROLL Blog

Cricket has always been big in our family and so as the summer sport season gets underway, Pixie Payroll has just renewed our sponsorship of Mullion Cricket Club.

It got us thinking more about how both businesses and individuals can make a real contribution to their local community, especially through volunteering.

Triple benefits of volunteering

Volunteering offers more benefits than simply the giving of time. The community project or charity that the volunteers work with will gain access to skills and experience they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, which could help boost awareness and growth.

The volunteers themselves will also be able to learn new skills and get a mental health boost from the pride and satisfaction of making a difference. Finally, the volunteers’ employers will build a positive reputation & brand, and improve employee engagement. 

Giving time off for volunteering

An increasing trend at the moment is sometimes called employer-supported volunteering (ESV) and is when employees are granted paid time off from work each year to volunteer at a charity or local community project. Examples of ESV are the employee volunteering to be a marshal at a fundraising event, helping out at a foodbank or even becoming a school governor or charity trustee.

The amount of paid time off is decided by the employer but could be around 2-3 days each year in addition to the annual leave allowance.

Things to consider when developing an ESV policy

If you’re thinking about introducing an ESV policy in your business, the first step should be to speak to your employees about it and see what they think. Reassure them that taking the time off is optional and that no one needs to feel obligated to volunteer.

Think about how you’ll record volunteering leave and how your employees can share their experiences of volunteering. If other staff members hear about how great taking the volunteer leave is, they will be much more likely to take up the opportunity too.  

Some employees might be really keen to volunteer but don’t have a place in mind so the employer could help them find somewhere – this might be a charity that the employer already has a relationship with or an organisation that can help the employee develop some specific skills.

Spreading the word

At a time where recruitment can still be tricky, including volunteering leave in a job’s list of benefits could help to attract the best candidates. It helps potential employees see that the company’s values align with their own and even gives them the flexibility to continue with an existing commitment such as being a mentor.

And don’t be afraid to share the success of the ESV policy through your communication channels – it’s great content! 

We’ll be spending quite a bit of the next few months listening to the sound of leather on willow (weather permitting!) and we would encourage other employers to think about how sponsorship or volunteering can benefit their business and employees.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt confirmed the details of his budget this week after a number of the policies were published in advance of his speech, which meant there were not that many surprises.

Jobs and work

The chancellor’s budget included a number of initiatives to get more people back into work as he believes we currently have too many people who are economically inactive. That might be because access to childcare prevents younger people from working or because older people have chosen to retire or feel they do not have the skills to work in today’s workplace.

As was extensively discussed before the budget speech was delivered, the government will be offering 30 hours per week of free childcare for all children over 9 months old; currently that is only available for 3 and 4 year olds. This will be phased in starting in April 2024 when 2 year olds will get 15 hours of free childcare with the younger children becoming eligible in September 2024. By September 2025, all eligible children aged between 9 months and 3 years will receive 30 hours.

In addition to this, the amount those on Universal Credit can claim for childcare will increase to £951 a month for one child and £1,630 a month for two.

For those older workers, the chancellor announced that £63m will be available to encourage those over 50s who have retired back into the workforce. Returnships – think internship but for those who already have skills and experience – and skills boot camps will boost skills and confidence to help them return to work.

He also announced that there will be a £20,000 increase in the amount that can be put tax-free into a pension each year, again designed to get people staying in the workforce and not retiring too early.

Taxation

There were no big changes to the amounts people as individuals will pay in tax but the chancellor did confirm that corporation tax will increase from 19% to 25% in April, although there will be tax breaks for investments in machinery and technology.

Taxpayers will now have a bit more time to make voluntary National Insurance payment to top up any gaps in their contributions as the deadline has been extended to 31^st July 2023.

Energy costs

Under the Energy Price Guarantee, the government has limited energy bills for a typical household to £2,500 a year, plus a £400 winter discount. That was due to end in April but will now be extended into June. It is hoped that the fall in wholesale prices and reduced consumption in the summer will mean costs naturally falling back by then, so the subsidy won’t be required after that point.

Other announcements

It is traditional at budget time to see changes to alcohol and tobacco taxation and the chancellor made announcements about those too. Alcohol tax will rise in line with inflation from August although there will be reliefs for beers, wines and ciders sold in pubs to allow for better competition with supermarkets. Tobacco tax will rise by 2% above inflation and 6% above inflation for hand-rolling tobacco.

Fuel duty will be frozen so the 5p cut in duty will continue for another year.

This year’s spring budget didn’t have many headline announcements that will affect the average payroll but there are still some important changes coming up for workers so if you have any questions about the budget, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

You might remember that back in October last year, I wrote about the 4 day week campaign and how some companies were taking part in a pilot to see how it would work for them and their employees in reality.

Well, the results of that pilot have just been released and they make for some very interesting reading.

Headline results

61 companies took part in the pilot and of them, 92% have decided to continue with the four-day week. 71% of employees reported lower levels of burnout and reduced stress. Both mental and physical health improved, and levels of sickness, anxiety and sleeplessness decreased.

For employers, revenue stayed broadly the same which suggests there’s been no dip in productivity, especially given how challenging the last 6 months have been for businesses.

Employer perspective

The companies which took part in the pilot were from different sectors and of different sizes and not everyone took a simple ‘close on a Friday’ approach to a 4 day week. They worked in consultation with their employees to ensure the change worked for them too and so some staggered the extra day off and some switched to an annualised hours model.

Although employees were working fewer hours, no employers reported a corresponding drop in productivity. Overall a majority of businesses said they were satisfied with company performance during the pilot.

The pilot period coincided with a time that some were calling the ‘Great Resignation’ where people were reassessing their work life after the pandemic. However, in the companies switching to a 4 day week, the data shows fewer resignations which suggests the new working pattern was a significant incentive to retaining employees. There was also a fall in sickness and absence rates.

Employee perspective

It’s perhaps easier to anticipate that reducing working hours would have a positive impact on employees but still the results of the pilot are very interesting.

It should be said that not everyone went straight down to working just four days with some variation in exactly how many hours a week people worked. But that said, 71% of employees said their working hours reduced to an average of 34 hours per week.

In terms of employee wellbeing, 39% said they felt less stressed at the end of the pilot and 48% saying they felt more satisfied with their work than before the study started. 43% said they felt an improvement in their mental health and 37% said their physical health had improved.

There was also a significant positive impact on family life with employees reporting more time with family, feeling less tired and 60% said they had found it easier to balance care responsibilities. People had more time to look after children or elderly relatives, to spend on hobbies or volunteering in their community. There was also more time to cook from scratch which could have a positive health impact too.

Conclusion

The 4 day week pilot has had some perhaps unsurprising benefits for employees but also some quite unexpected benefits for employers too. And it is testament to those benefits that so many businesses are continuing with the model now the pilot has finished.

As the 4 day week campaign gains momentum, employees will look for employers who offer this working model and so we think it’s important for other employers to learn from the pilot and perhaps consider implementing it in their businesses in some form.

You can read about the pilot and download the full report here. The 4 Day Week campaign website can be found here which has lots more support and resources for employers and employees.

We’ve nearly made it to the end of January in this new year and there are some very early signs of spring around, despite last week’s snowfall. As is usual at this time of year, we are going to look forward to the upcoming months in this blog and try to guess what might happen.

National Living and National Minimum Wage rates

The government has already announced the rates that will be coming into effect from April this year

	Current Rate	New Rate from April 2023
National Living Wage	£9.50	£10.42
21-22 Year Old Rate	£9.18	£10.18
18-20 Year Old Rate	£6.83	£7.49
16-17 Year Old Rate	£4.81	£5.28
Apprentice Rate	£4.81	£5.28

These new rates represent an uplift of around 10% for all tiers which means they are just about keeping up with the current inflation rate which is good news given the current cost of living crisis.

As always, if you need any help calculating what the new wage rates mean for your payroll just get in touch.

Energy Bills Discount Scheme

We’ve all seen our energy bills rise recently but for some business, the increases have been huge. The current Energy Bill Relief Scheme ends in March and is being replaced by the Energy Bill Discount Scheme. This will focus help on those businesses with high energy costs such as those that fixed their rates before wholesale costs started to come down again and manufacturers who use a lot of energy.

The discounts will be automatically applied to those businesses who qualify and any queries about the scheme should be directed to a business’s energy provider.

Covid-19 support

Life does seem to have somewhat gone back to normal now although it was only a year ago that the Omicron restrictions were lifted, and people were returning to the office. All Covid-19 support schemes have now closed and let’s hope there’s no resurgence of the virus in 2023.

The King’s Coronation

Following the sad passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II in September last year, we now know that the King Charles III’s Coronation will be on Saturday 6^th May. We have been granted an extra bank holiday on Monday 8^th May which of course is very close to some other regular bank holidays we always enjoy in the spring.

We know from our clients that bank holidays aren’t always that straightforward in terms of rotas, extra pay and holidays. An extra bank holiday can also sometimes have an impact on an employee’s annual holiday entitlement so if we can help with any aspect of this additional day off, just get in touch.

Tax and National Insurance

2022 was a bit of a rollercoaster regarding tax and national insurance and we won’t know what’s planned for the future until the Spring Budget on 15^th March 2023. Keep an eye on our Facebook page nearer the time as we’ll be posting updates on the details as we get them.

We’re looking forward to working with our clients in 2023 and also meeting new ones as the year goes on. If you think 2023 is the year you ask someone else to manage your payroll for you, just get in touch.