I wrote a post about the cost of living crisis last week on Linkedin and it had a lot of engagement, lots of likes, comments and repost. It was even featured by LinkedIn in their news story. Does this mean I’m now famous and gone viral? You be the judge… 🙂
It’s no longer news that everything now costs more. I went grocery shopping and kept checking the receipt because I was convinced there was a mistake, I was wrong.
Should employers pay attention to the cost of living crisis?
Yes.
It affects you and your employees and may influence whether you retain them, the value of their salaries has dropped and some may be looking to bridge that gap by looking for another job.
What are you going to do? Here are some ideas:
* A one off bonus to help with the impact of rising cost. Lloyds Bank will pay £1,000 in August to about 64,000 staff and Irwin Mitchell gave £900 in April. Rolls Royce is giving £2,000 and a backdated 4% pay rise . You can find a figure that is affordable for your size of business.
* Promote the benefits and perks that you already offer, that may have been unused in the past e.g. money off vouchers, Perkbox, matching increased employee pension contribution
* Ensure the lowest paid people in your company earn enough to live on.
*Check your gender and ethnicity pay gaps – women and those from minority groups are less likely than men to have been awarded a salary increase that was in line with or above the rate of inflation for 2022.
* Lifestyle benefits such as discount codes and gym memberships will be a hit.
* Salary sacrifice arrangement: These can include childcare vouchers, a company car, purchasing a bicycle through a cycle to work scheme, and additional pension contributions. You won’t have to pay employer NI on that part of the salary that is sacrificed.
Recruitment and retention are the biggest challenges businesses face currently so don’t miss out on any opportunity to keep the good people you have and also attract great talent.