Relationships and Elephants

A couple of weeks ago, Charlotte and I completed the 10 bridges walk in aid of Richard House. A great day was had by all ( over 200 people came out to help support a fantastic cause ) and although the 10 mile journey was a tough one, for me, walking around London is always a pleasure.

One great thing about London at the moment is the Elephants. "Elephants....in London" I hear you say, "What Elephants?". At the moment, there are over 250 brilliantly designed elephants all over London, it's called the Elephant Parade London and are going to be auctioned off to raise money for Asian elephants and 20 UK based conservation charities.

Professionally, I'm helping a number of companies at the moment help retain their employees by providing their staff with the right employee benefits. I'm a great believer in ensuring both the directors and the employees of these businesses have the most appropriate provisions for their business now.

But my job doesn't stop there, as the most important thing is to ensure that these benefits remain appropriate. It's about building long term sustainable relationships with the professional adviser you work with. As you know, companies can grow or shrink, employees can leave and join, and the directors ambitions for their business can change...therefore it's not only important to ensure the benefits for directors and employes are appropriate now, but make sure that these benefits remain relevant...and I do this by ensuring that companies are reviewed on a regular basis.

If you are a individual or the director of a company ( or both ), it's important that you sit down with your adviser on a regular basis. For this to be a pleasure and not a chore, you should work with a professional you like, you trust and you feel confident can manage your financial affairs.

Family and giving something back

The most important thing in my life, like many of you, is my family. My daughter comes home from school every day with a brand new story of life in the classroom and playground. My wife is my best friend, greatest advocate and puts up with all my little foibles. However it's easy when you are busy dealing with the challenges of daily life to lose sight of this, and really how lucky I(and most of you) are.

At a networking event this morning, I was chatting to Viv Talbot of Richard House. Richard House supports families with children who have life-threatening illnesses, and the admirable work they do ensures the families they help are provided with a range of services including respite and end of life care.

I'm a firm believer in giving something back, and therefore I've decided to do get involved in helping Richard House raise some money. Therefore, I'll be doing the 10 bridge walk on the 23rd may with Charlotte coming along to keep me company.

I'll be setting up a just giving page over the next couple of days, and I'll make sure once this is done, it's posted on this blog.

The assets of your business and the impact of NEST

What do you consider the most important assets of your business? There are many answers to this question including intellectual property owned by the business, the relationship with your clients and the reputation of the business. However, for most medium sized businesses, all of these potentially valuable assets are underpinned by one often ignored asset..your employees.

Your client relationships are defined by your employees, the reputation of your business is either damaged or enhanced by your staff, and although business strategy and guidance comes from the directors of a company, many of the ideas and concepts relating to implementing these strategies come from the individuals within your business.

So, what can a medium sized company do to motivate, encourage and retain the right staff. The right working environment is important, as well as an appropriate salary level. However, an interesting survey from insurer Canada Life highlighted the importance of employee benefits when employees look for prospective employment.

When asked,"How important do you consider benefits when choosing to accept a job?", 68% of employees said it was an important factor, 27% were neutral about additional benefits and 5% considered additional benefits to be important.

When employees were asked about the most important benefits, the top 5 were Pensions, Income Protection, Holiday Allowance, Life Assurance and Basic Health Insurance.

However, another important factor which will have a major impact on how all businesses look at their employee benefits is the introduction of NEST. This video from Steve Bee highlights the need for employers to look at the benefits they provide to their staff. The new auto enrollment legislation has an impact on 1.1 million employers. Around 100,000 workplace pension schemes are currently in place. This means that 1 million employers will be in a position where they may need to put in place a workplace pension in the next 5 years.

So, if you are an owner of a business, there are two important questions..

1) Do you review your employee benefits to ensure they are designed to encourage great staff to join your business, and motivate and retain your existing staff to stay?

2) Are you ready for the changes in law which will have an impact on your business within the next 5 years?

Chris Daems,
Principal Financial Solutions.