How to attract and retain employees through affordable benefits provision

How to attract and retain employees through affordable benefits provision – affordable car schemes are giving HR advantages to forward-thinking employers

In today’s competitive job market, it is increasingly clear to employers that a comprehensive benefits package which actively increases wellbeing for employees is of utmost importance when it comes to attracting new staff and retaining existing talent.

For businesses, alongside the advantages in recruitment and retention, the provision of robust employee benefits is also valuable in increasing an employer’s duty of care towards its staff, which has a positive impact on CSR values.

Employee wellbeing benefits continue to increase and now range from financial wellbeing programmes to healthy living and exercise plans, to mental health awareness and mindfulness courses, all of which are proving popular for both employees and employers.

This higher focus on wellbeing has been proven to increase productivity within the office, however there is also one area in which employee wellbeing, and by extension the employer’s duty of care can sometimes be overlooked – which is employee commuting and travel.

While employee salary sacrifice schemes for rail travel, such as season ticket schemes aren’t particularly new in the benefits space, they’ve increasingly been appreciated for their environmental credentials, and for the ability to contribute towards employees’ financial wellbeing.

However, with 68% of the UK’s working population commuting to and from work by car¹, employee benefits that help employees with sustainable travel by car are now on a rise, and for good reason. Ensuring the health and safety of employees when they are driving on company time or at work, whether in a company or hired vehicle, or in the employee’s own vehicle can be a potential minefield for employers.  This is particularly true when employees use their own vehicles for company travel, the well-known ‘Grey Fleet.’

An easy, cost effective solution

An easy, cost effective solution to this is the introduction of a salary sacrifice car benefit programme. These schemes offer employees access to highly affordable, (and if desired) low emission vehicles which, due to the way salary sacrifice is structured, are beneficial for not just the driver, but for employers’ duty of care responsibilities as well.

For most employees, after housing, a vehicle will be their largest financial outlay, so any organisation that can offer their employees access to affordable cars, especially electric cars, often report a huge increase in the ability to attract and retain talent, alongside an increase in employee motivation at the same time.

Such schemes provide new and safe vehicles for employees to drive whether at work, or outside of it, and importantly, because the scheme’s insurance includes both commuting and business use, whatever happens on the road, appropriate cover will always be in place.

Better still, salary sacrifice car schemes offer the greatest savings to employer and employee when Electric Vehicles and Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles are selected, due to the Benefit-in-Kind bands favouring such vehicles, so while Tusker’s schemes can be set up only to include EV or low-emissions vehicles, the incentive to choose one is strong even with no restrictions in place.

As employees move towards low-emissions vehicles, the environmental benefits are immediately obvious, with tailpipe emissions falling as drivers turn away from the more polluting petrol and diesel cars.

Tusker car benefit scheme

Tusker’s schemes also offset any vehicle emissions created over the life of each contract using verified carbon offsetting schemes – from petrol and diesel tailpipe emissions to EV charging emissions, which are calculated on the worst-case assumption that every EV is being charged with non-green tariffs.

As a result of the way in which Tusker’s schemes are set up, it is not just higher earners that are able to enjoy new cars. With Tusker, basic rate taxpayers are just as able to benefit from new cars and savings, as higher rate tax payers, making it a truly equal benefit for businesses.

Thanks to Tusker’s innovative salary sacrifice car benefits schemes, more employees can be rewarded and incentivised than ever before. Tusker’s research shows that most drivers on salary sacrifice schemes are coming from vehicles which are more than seven years old and so the majority of new EV or low emission car drivers are often giving up an older and more polluting car as a result.

If you are looking to modernise your company’s HR benefits provision, attract and retain talent and boost ESG and CSR credentials at the same time, then Tusker’s expert team are on hand to talk you through the process of achieving all goals at once.