Over three-quarters (77%), some 8,680,000, of employees who took a pay cut during the recession, in order to avoid redundancy, have still not had their pay re-instated, according to a report released by recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark. This is despite the UK now being officially out of recession.
Employees have remained optimistic with 76% of those who took a pay cut still hopeful that their full pay will be re-instated over the coming months. However, only a handful, (15%) have been assured that this is definitely the case.
In the absence of pay incentives, the Badenoch & Clark study also revealed that employers are utilising additional benefits in order to keep their staff. Flexible working hours was deemed the most influential benefit in encouraging employees to stay with their organisation. This was particularly the case amongst female employees.
Over a third (38%) of employees were being offered flexible working hours, whilst almost a fifth had access to remote working facilities (16.1%) or additional annual leave (16.7%).
The study also revealed access to training to be high on the employees’ agenda, with a third (31.8%) stating that it would encourage them to stay with their current employer.
Lynne Hardman, Managing Director at Badenoch & Clark comments: “There is no disputing that the job market in the UK has been tough, particularly in certain sectors, over the past couple of years. Some organisations were able to reduce expenditure by asking employees to accept pay cuts. This, of course, enabled these organisations to maintain labour capacity within their workforce, avoid redundancies, and ensure they have the right resources in place once the upturn arrived.
“In reality, most employees had little choice but to accept a pay cut in order to keep their jobs. Now the UK is emerging out of recession we could see employees being given more work for a lower remuneration package then pre-recession, which in turn could lead to many UK employees embarking on a search for new employment.
“Our report clearly highlighted that, outside of financial rewards, flexible working and access to relevant training are integral parts of employment packages. Where budgets are tight, employers need to find other ways to incentivise staff to keep them engaged and to prevent them from looking for new opportunities.”
