PW staff choose time off over extra money

PW staff choose time off over extra money

A new flexible benefits scheme set up by Price Waterhouse has led to employees opting to take more holiday time instead of boosting their pay packets.

Flex, the first such scheme launched by an accountancy firm, offers staff the opportunity to mix and match benefits from a ‘shopping list’ of 19 choices. Similar options are popular in business and industry, and PW’s scheme will be watched closely by competitors.

The rest of the Big Six defended their current employee benefit arrangements, but admitted that Flex was an interesting development. Ernst & Young said it planned to examine the issue and was aiming to expand its benefits range in the coming year.

Almost two-thirds of PW staff signed up for Flex by the December deadline, choosing personal packages to meet individual needs. Common choices included health insurance, health club membership, childcare and retail vouchers.

But boosting holiday allowance to up to 30 days was the most popular choice by far, a PW spokesman said.

PW’s director of operations, Michael Bishopp, said: ‘It is our policy to recruit the best people, whatever their background and reward them accordingly. We like to feel that we offer our employees the very best range of benefits and this programme recognises both the hard work and the diversity of the people who make up PW.’

Arthur Andersen’s human capital services partner, Carol Woodley, predicted a growth in similar schemes. ‘They are appropriate to firms like ours with staff who see themselves as individuals capable of making sensible choices.’

PW’s Flex scheme runs alongside existing profit-related pay arrangements.

The firm surpassed its PRP forecasts resulting in a bumper end-of-year payout for staff.

Big Six rivals also lodged impressive annual figures for PRP, which will have its tax relief phased out by 2001 if the Government’s Finance Bill is passed. Ernst & Young staff received 6% above target, while KPMG’s PRP sum was ‘higher than expected’. Coopers & Lybrand and Arthur Andersen’s figures were ‘significantly’ higher than anticipated, while Deloitte & Touche met its PRP projections.

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