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26.
October
2022.
Cost of living: How to help your team through

Cost of living: How to help your team through

 

As the nation stumbles ever deeper into the cost-of-living crisis and people are worrying about how they will afford to heat their homes, feed themselves or cover childcare costs one HR company is advising that employers can do their part to help their teams deal with the stresses and strains.

 

Anthony Sutton, Director of Midlands based HR consultancy Cream HR believes that there are numerous ways that employers can help their staff including, but not limited to, salary increases.

 

He said: "In an ideal world the first place employers would start when supporting their team through these tough times would be with salary increases.  One of our clients, the Centre for Local Economic Strategy (CLES) made the creative decision to take 5% of their total wage bill and spread it in equal sums across their team, thereby disproportionately benefiting their lower earners.  Alternatively, you could look at offering employees a one-off lump sum to support them through the immediate months ahead whilst you look at a longer-term strategy."

 

If this is not an option for your business Anthony suggests that there are many other ways to help cut costs for your staff that will be appreciated.  He continues: "I understand that increasing peoples wages is not possible for everybody but there are other ways to help.  The best place to start is with communication.  Find out from your team what it is they spend their money on and then come up with a plan of how you can help them.  It could be that they need assistance with travel costs or fuel, maybe it's lunch or coffees or it could be that they need support with well-being.  Once you've established their needs you can put a strategic plan and support in place.  This could involve looking at hybrid working more strategically - whilst reducing the number of days employees are in the office might reduce transport costs, for those on season tickets it may not have that much impact - in which case look at more flexible approaches such as a week in the office, a week out to make weekly season tickets more efficient.  Buy a coffee machine for the office to save employees a fortune on coffees bought on the way to work! Or look at a cash healthcare plan to support your employees with additional costs such as glasses/contact lenses and dental treatment."

Cream HR prides itself on providingworld class solutions to businesses to help them with their people challenges.

To find out more visit about Cream HR visitwww.creamhr.comfollow them on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/itsthepeoplestupid/and you can listen to their podcast It's the people, stupid athttps://itsthepeoplestupid.uk/

 

 

ENDS

 

Notes to editor

Cream HR deliver world-class solutions to your people challenges, adding value and helping you to focus on your business.

People are the most important investment in any business. It doesn't matter what you do. Even in a world where Artificial Intelligence is taking centre stage, it's the people bit that matters most.

Cream HR is all about adding value to your business through your people, whether by -

  • Helping you manage employee challenges through the effective application and interpretation of Employment Law, to minimise the risk to your business.
  • Developing structures, processes, and environments to get the best out of your people, creating fully engaged high performance teams.
  • Delivering bespoke training workshops and follow up, resulting in engaged, energised delegates.
  • Recruiting the right people for your organisation through the application of the law of crappy people and many years' experience