Straight Talking Perks Up Interest in Salary Sacrifice Schemes

Simple face-to-face communication is the key to getting workers more excited about salary sacrifice schemes and increasing take-up. Derby-based salary sacrifice specialist, Fleet Evolution, said removing the “gobbledygook” surrounding what is actually a straightforward way for firms to save money and offer perks to their employees, makes sound sense.

Salary sacrifice schemes involve making deductions from employees’ gross earnings, in return for an otherwise expensive purchase, such as a car. Such initiatives have been well publicised, but many people remain confused. On top of this, the misconception that operating such schemes is a complicated affair is putting some firms off taking part in them, but Fleet Evolution’s Managing Director, Andrew Leech, said this doesn’t have to be the case, provided the firm gets the process and its partner right.

Fleet Evolution specialises in handling salary sacrifice schemes to provide cars for organisations’ employees. After handling a variety of implementation schemes, its experience shows that good communication has improved the take-up of not just vehicles, but all benefits; by as much as 400 per cent. “Where information is just available online and via a quote screen, the typical take-up rate for cars is around 2.5 per cent to 4 per cent. But where we run employee sessions and make our ‘travel portal’ available with other promotion measures, this figure jumps to a take-up of more than 10 per cent”, explained Mr Leech.

Fleet Evolution has found that its UK competitors’ published figures quote a take-up rate of between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent. The firm has also found that where salary sacrifice schemes are actively promoted, the adoption of other benefits, such as pension contributions and cycle-to-work schemes also grows significantly.“We put this down to group launches demystifying what can be a confusing and jargon-rich principle, which many suppliers portray as simply more complicated than it needs to be,” added Mr Leech.

When it comes to cars, deductions towards leasing costs are taken from the employee’s gross salary. The car is treated as a taxable benefit, so the lower its CO2 rating, the greater the saving.

The scheme also creates significant savings in corporation tax and national insurance.