Workplace Statistics 2008

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The following information is extracted from the data collected in the 2008 HR Benchmark™ survey among UK companies. The survey covered a range of industry sectors and underpins the latest Britain’s Top Employers™ 2008 project.

Around 84% of new graduates at UK companies start on a gross annual salary of £20-30,000. 7.59% start on more than £30,000.
Over 46% of graduates with five years’ experience can expect to receive a gross annual salary in excess of £36,000.
70.89% of companies reported that the maximum achievable total remuneration of their executive group was in excess of £200,000.
27% of companies contribute 4-6% to retirement funds (pension schemes) while 29% contribute 7-9%
UK companies say that the most important factors that share option programmes are based upon are: level of responsibility; used as a reward; individual and company performance; and as a mechanism for staff to buy shares under favourable conditions.
On benefits, 91.14% of organisations offer flexible hours; 94.94% have a pension scheme; 92.41% offer study assistance or study leave; and 81.01% offer extended maternity leave.
Company cars are now offered by only 59% of companies.
More than 74% of UK companies say that mentoring or coaching is made available to all staff.
Nearly 13% of companies hold individual performance reviews more than six times a year.
56% of companies say that 70% or more of key leadership positions are filled internally.
One-third of companies spend more than £1,000 per employee on training.
Lack of time is cited by UK companies (61%) as being a main obstacle to creating a knowledge-based organisation
78% of companies hold formal input sessions for employees to contribute to company affairs.
Posters on walls to communicate to employees are used by 72% of companies.
The most frequently offered forms of flexible working are (in order): part-time working (96%), home working/teleworking (86%), career sabbaticals (83%), time off in lieu (81%), and job sharing (73%).
73% of companies offer stress management as part of their Employee Assistance Programme.
72% have a ‘whistle blowing’ mechanism in place to report unethical behaviour.
14% report an absenteeism rate above 6% per annum.
72% had an annual staff turnover of more than 8%. 13% had less than 5%
More than 80% of UK companies say that base pay is not or is only occasionally an issue in staff turnover. Personal reasons, career aspirations, or better opportunities are the most frequently given reasons.
78% of UK companies say that more than 30% or more of their total employees are women; but only 29% have the same proportion as part of their executive management team.
34% of companies report that 25% or more of their total employees are from ethnic minorities; 5.4% said that 25% of executive management comes from these groups.
The most commonly provided measures for disabled groups include: disabled toilets (91%); ramps and wheelchair access (78%); disability awareness training (74%); disabled parking (72%); and special computer equipment (72%).
Not a single UK company disagreed with the statement “the leadership team is a cohesive, focused group that lives up to and promotes the vision of the firm”!
The most popular method used by UK companies to evaluate the effectiveness of executives is employee engagement surveys (77%).
68% of UK companies use eLearning and 56% use eRecruitment.
15.8% of UK companies spend more than 5% of annual turnover on CSR activities.
45% of companies either ‘adopt’ a school or make donations to schools.
28% of companies say that their employees support CSR activities through direct contributions from their salaries.
40% of companies recycle more than 50% of their waste.