By Scott Wright

NEARLY two years into a gruelling crisis that has shattered expectations of day-to-day life, it is perhaps no surprise to hear job hunters are looking for a bit more than they used to from prospective employers.

Andy Eason, head of Aberdeen-based Acumen Employee Benefits, said salary is no longer the only factor candidates consider when mulling offers of employment.

His firm, which helps companies expand and promote the benefits they offer employees, is seeing growing demand for its services as people increasingly look for packages that incorporate health, wellbeing and environmental commitments.

And, with certain sectors struggling to attract staff in the aftermath of the pandemic, Mr Eason said candidates are increasingly expecting a more comprehensive range of benefits from prospective employers.

“Benefits are such a strong part of that,” Mr Eason said. “We have spoken for years and years of the importance of benefits. It supports retention, it supports recruitment.

“Employees will be looking for rich benefits. In a lot of cases, particularly the higher-paid positions, [people] will expect that. And if they don’t get that they will be looking for augmented salary… [which] is quite an uneconomical way of doing it. If you have the richness of benefits to start with, you retain people and consequently in a more cost-effective way.”

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Mr Eason, who has worked in employee benefits for more than 30 years, said there has recently been a “turbo-boost” in terms of the breadth of benefits now offered.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the pressures brought by the pandemic, benefits that can foster employee wellbeing, from mental and physical to financial, currently top the agenda.

“There’s lots of different opportunities for employers to utilise tools they are already paying for, frankly, but they don’t know about,” he said.

“If you take a traditional life assurance policy that a lot of employers will provide to their staff, it is perfectly conceivable that employees have got access to a virtual GP 24-7, medical second opinions, mental health support, fitness programmes and dietary support.

“These are things that have really ramped up over the last 24 to 36 months and are pretty much becoming standard fare as value-added benefits within traditional benefits.”

He added: “If you are able to harness what you have got, and communicate out to the employees, all of a sudden employees are starting to take notice, not just of the add-ons but also greater appreciation of the things that are hugely important – the pension, the life assurance, whatever else it may be.”

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Recently there has also been a big focus on electric vehicles, which staff can now access in a more tax-efficient way through “salary exchange”.

“It’s one of the potentially true, win-win benefits,” Mr Eason said.

“The business can be saving money and improving their carbon footprint in a sense by encouraging employees to drive more environmentally friendly [vehicles]. But the employees are ultimately getting electric vehicles in a highly affordable way. That legislation changed in April 2020. Because we were right in the middle of the pandemic it was something that never really moved forward at the pace we thought it would. It is now.”

Another area of focus coming up is the imminent increase in National Insurance contributions for employers and employees, which will rise by 1.25 percentage points from April 6. Mr Eason explained the impact on both the employer and employee can be offset with the simple adjustment to the way the pension contributions are deducted.

“However you skin that, it is extra cost to the employer,” Mr Eason said of the rise in NI contributions. “It is an addition to the bottom line and it is damaging to the employee’s take-home pay. There’s ways to mitigate that and we are helping a lot of employers with that.

“It is quite frightening the number of employers out there who have no appreciation of the ability to save this money, both from their point of view and the employees' just by changing the pension deduction basis.”

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He added: “It is effectively giving up earnings in lieu of non-cash earnings.”

Acumen Employee Benefits is part of the Acumen Financial Planning group, which was established around 20 years ago.

Mr Eason joined to set up the employee benefits business around three years ago. He brought with him a highly experienced team that he had worked with previously, and the division now employs about 50 people.

While Acumen works with businesses in a broad range of sectors, a high number are connected to the oil and gas sector. Mr Eason said small and medium-sized enterprises are its particular “sweet-spot”.

“It is probably where we can add the most value, and where we stand a little bit apart from the main employee benefit consultancies, ” he said. “That’s where we see our position in the market. We are very much bespoke.

“We are not a transactional organisation.”

Q&A

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?
Whilst my career has not afforded me much opportunity for international travel, earlier I spent five consecutive weeks supporting a client with employee presentations and one-to-ones following an acquisition – the location was multiple oil rigs in the North Sea. To an office-based land lover that was a fantastic experience. For leisure it’s a toss-up between the Maldives and the Florida Disney experience – incomparable but equally amazing. 
 
When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal? 
A digger driver – I think my love of Tonka Toys had a lot to do with this.
 
What was your biggest break in business?
Very early in my career 
I was offered the chance of a trainee consultant role in Aberdeen, which meant uprooting and moving north. It gave me the career I have 
had and it is also where I met my wife.
 
What was your worst moment in business? 
The loss of one of the individuals who gave me my biggest break in business, Mike Reid. He gave me the opportunity and over many years whilst remaining colleagues we became 
a very good friends. 
It left a big hole professionally and personally.  
 
Who do you most admire and why?
Sir Alex Ferguson. Anyone who has the success that they have and are so revered by those they manage deserves the utmost admiration.
What book are you reading and what music are you listening to?
Sir Billy Connolly’s autobiography Windswept And Interesting. I usually gravitate to fiction but it is a worthwhile exception.
My music play lists are eclectic but my go to list is my 90s list full of Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Charlatans, Carter USM, etc.