Swapping benefits is up by 20%
15 June 2009
More people are selling their holiday allowance to boost salaries during the recession, according to research from risk and benefits consultants Aon Consulting.
Aon’s 2009 Flex Tracker found that holiday trading, where employees buy or sell days off, has become more popular with take-up increasing by 21 per cent from 2008 levels. The proportion of staff selling holiday has nearly doubled from 20 per cent in 2008 to 35 per cent in 2009.
Despite the increase in holiday selling, Aon found there were still significantly more people buying holiday than selling it.
Head of flexible benefits at Aon Consulting, Gareth Ashley-Jones, explained: “Although more people are selling holiday to boost their income, buying additional holiday is still more popular, demonstrating that leisure time is priceless to some extent.”
The research also revealed a significant reduction in staff take-up of well being initiatives. Pensions remain the most popular benefit with 78 per cent of flex scheme members selecting it, followed by private medical insurance at 45 per cent and then holiday trading at 21 per cent.
But other benefits such as the government’s cycle-to-work scheme had only a 1 per cent take-up despite rising travel costs. There was also a reduction in the take-up of initiatives such as wellness/learning accounts, which have fallen out of the top 15 benefits since 2008. Take-up of the tax free mobile phones benefit had fallen to 0.02 per cent, which resulted in a major provider pulling out of the marketplace in 2008.
Ashley-Jones said: “It is very noticeable that the balance that companies face between containing costs through robust benefits management and providing subsidised employee benefits to help aid recruitment and retention is entering a new phase.
"Cost control is paramount and this has resulted in companies scaling back provision of softer benefits. Employees now really value benefits that can save them money by utilising group rates or minimising national insurance contributions.”