Polycom moves to pensions salary sacrifice

EXCLUSIVE: Polycom is aiming to save more than £50,000 by adding a salary sacrifice arrangement to its new group personal pension (GPP) plan.

The technology organisation auto-enrolled its 250 UK employees into the new pension on 1 May, after postponing from 1 February.

Polycom-VideoConference-2014

It intends to use the savings to fund the cost of auto-enrolment compliance as well as giving some of the savings back to employees in the form of pension contributions.

The organisation is considering three options for splitting the money saved through the salary sacrifice arrangement, including:

  • 50% to the employer and 50% to the employee.
  • 70% to the employer and 30% to the employee.
  • 80% to the employer and 20% to the employee.

Sona Sharma, total rewards consultant, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Polycom, said: “There have been a lot of changes to our benefits structures and the way we deliver benefits to employees. 

“Following the change in legislation and introduction of auto-enrolment, we partnered JLT Employee Benefits to deliver our benefits using its online portal, BenPal.”

This is the first time Polycom has brought all of its benefits together in an online portal.

It had also previously offered employees a GPP, provided by Aegon, which offered only one contribution level.

The new pension scheme, also provided by Aegon, has two levels of contributions: 1% employee matched by 1% employer and 3% employee matched by 5% employer. Employees can select which they wish to take up.

Sharma added: “In addition to our normal contribution structure, we have created an additional matching contribution layer, which will make it more affordable, especially for younger employees, who will be joining a pension scheme for the first time.”