• As people choose between the cost of travelling to work vs heating their homes, and keeping money aside for other essentials, we’re likely to see a shift in the balance between the number of home working days and going on to site.
• Is it more expensive to stay at home and work or travel to site to work?

• The disparity between those who benefit from home/remote working and those who must come into work is likely to widen.
• At the time of writing, it seems that fuel prices have dropped slightly but they’re unlikely to come back down to the heady days of £1.50 per litre.
• This disproportionately impacts certain sectors: the emergency services, shops, factories, health worker, refuse collectors, schools … the very people we depended on during the pandemic.

• Although the Energy Price Guarantee has been introduced, the cost of home energy has more than doubled in the past 18 months.
• The End Fuel Poverty Coalition estimates that the number of households across the UK in *fuel poverty from 1 October 2022 will be 7 million, this could rise to 7.8 million from early 2023.
• If you have people in minimum pay roles in your business, it’s quite possible that they will be in fuel poverty.

• Many companies are now offering one off ‘cost of living’ payments, which come with their own challenges.
• Bit of a no sh*t Sherlock one this … but prevention is better than cure – make sure you pay people at least a living wage.
• No, not the National Living Wage but the Actual Living Wage as measured by the Living Wage Foundation.
• If you’re not sure you can afford a living wage, there may be ways you can make your business more efficient and unleash potential to achieve more, or create headroom for better wages.

• If you’ve made greater profits than forecast, consider passing on some of those earnings to your team, as soon as possible.
• It goes without saying that your people are your greatest asset and should share in the company’s successes.

• Stop funding ‘ghost’ benefits and reinvest that money.
• Whether you’re due to review your employee benefits or not, now is the perfect time to look at the flexible/opt-in benefits that you offer and understand if they’re being used or not.
• Things like perks websites, opt-in discount schemes, employee health cash plans, all cost money. If they’re not making a difference, get rid and use the money in a different way.

“Individuals’ preference and satisfaction levels in relation to reward are dynamic, not fixed. External events, for example a recession, can affect individuals’ confidence, altering their satisfaction with current reward offers.”

— CIPD 2015, Show me the money, the behavioural science of reward

• If you have an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) it may well offer 24/7 access to wellbeing, financial and legal advice.
• This means employees and workers (including board members and volunteers) can go to someone independent if they’re struggling.
• If you’ve got this benefit shout about it!
• Make sure everyone* that’s eligible knows about it. (*Some EAP providers have a minimum earning level/working hours in the contract so check first.)

• Facilities, HR and Operations teams should prepare now for greater workspace usage over the winter.
• Remember: you should have plans in place to comply with any change in COVID-19 public health measures alongside a greater desire to come into the office (if possible).

Just yesterday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that the main measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was 11.1% in October 2022, up 10.1% in September 2022.

CPI is at an eye-watering figure and it’s not something you can control, so what can you do?

• Many companies are now offering one-off ‘cost of living’ payments, which come with their own challenges.
• Bit of a no sh*t Sherlock one this … but prevention is better than cure – make sure you pay people at least a living wage.
• No, not the National Living Wage but the Actual Living Wage as measured by the Living Wage Foundation.
• If you’re not sure you can afford a living wage, there may be ways you can make your business more efficient and unleash potential to achieve more, or create headroom for better wages.

• Financial wellbeing and education is something most employers don’t know they can provide for their teams.
• We’ve seen plenty of examples of organisations working with independent advisors and coaches to help their teams manage their money well and deal with any debt issues that might also be crippling their household budgets.

• Travel allowances have fallen out of fashion, but it might be time to reconsider, perhaps refocusing on public transport rather than vehicle allowances.
• If you’re not able to offer a travel allowance, you might want to consider an interest-free season ticket loan that colleagues can access via payroll.
• You’re not actually paying for the season ticket; however, you’re helping your colleagues to avoid a crippling season ticket payment and reduce the cost of coming to work.
• If lots of people drive, consider a carshare scheme.
• You could also introduce a cycle to work scheme, which would help support health and wellbeing as well as being a travel solution.

• Add EV charging/parking points to your company properties/car parks.
• This won’t help everyone but as EVs become more popular, it’s another way to help your team and encourage others to switch away from petrol/diesel.
• If you have solar panels on your buildings, use the energy to feed the EV charging points FOR FREE for your colleagues and visitors. (If you’re in Wales/South West we can recommend some reliable contractors to do this work for you – get in touch)

• Consider how you can share profits through a performance-related pay scheme.
• Maybe even consider how an employee ownership model might work for you?
• There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach here and in some sectors, this wouldn’t be right, e.g. use of public money, however it’s worth looking at if it’s an option that’s appropriate for you.

• If performance-related pay isn’t right for your business, you might want to consider a shadow equity scheme (good for VCs and those looking to retain key talent, grow and sell within 3-5 years).
• A great way to share the benefits of a business sale with your team.

• These tend to work better for businesses and executives alike, rewarding long term performance and productivity instead of short-term results.
• In the context of a cost of living crisis LTIPs incentivise executives to make decisions that retain talent and ensure a good customer experience, meaning executives are less likely to make short-term decisions to save a few quid at the expense of long-term performance.