Couriers for Hermes were no doubt delighted when, earlier this week, the parcel delivery business agreed to lead by example and provide them with benefits such as holiday pay and a guaranteed level of earnings.
Described as a new ‘self-employed plus’ status, the deal allows workers to retain the flexibility of self-employment, while enjoying some of the benefits traditionally reserved for employees.
Commenting on the agreement, Hermes’ UK chief executive officer Martijn de Lange said he was proud to lead the way with this pioneering development in employment models.
While on the topic of demonstrating best practice, it is worth recognising that the Chartered Insurance Institute has voluntarily disclosed the ethnicity pay gap across its 243 employees.
The professional body published the information, revealing a 1% mean ethnicity pay gap for hourly pay in 2018, as part of a new report aiming to encourage dialogue around diversity and inclusion.
Meanwhile, TSB’s gender pay gap data, disclosed in line with the government’s gender pay gap reporting regulations, highlighted a 31% mean gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay as at April 2018.
While the figure is unchanged from April 2017, the banking organisation is taking steps to address the gap. Helen Rose, its chief operating officer and executive sponsor for gender, said: “It is only by being transparent and sharing information that we can drive change and help all UK businesses work towards making the gender pay gap a thing of the past.”
Indeed, employers that choose to drive change and challenge the status quo are the ones that will ultimately reap the best rewards, as Michelin star chef Michael Caines MBE well knows.
Caines will draw upon his personal experience of using leadership to drive employee engagement and motivation during his keynote address at Employee Benefits Connect 2019.
For Caines, vision, leadership and communications are vital, as is perseverance. He will explain to delegates the important role of leaders when it comes to inspiring employee engagement, and how this can affect business success, using real-life examples from his own experiences as an employer.
Be sure to attend his session, ‘The secret sauce of winning leadership’, which will close the five-stream conference programme on Wednesday 27 February 2019.
Kavitha Sivasubramaniam
Editor
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