We have not thought about this actually and there is no plan to do anything apart from the Pay Review exercise which we have just concluded in April 2022.

There are some good insights provided in this discussion which are really helpful. Thanks.

Interesting to hear what other businesses are doing. We provided a 3% increase to all employees in May and now we are moving our 1st October appraisals forward to 4th July to allow for increase to be closer to help out the cost of living.
However, we still have employees who are not happy.

In reply to Claire:

It’s great to see so many of you considering how best to support your people through the cost-of-living crisis - one in four readers who responded to a recent poll in CIPD Update have also told us that they have either offered, or are considering offering, a one-off bonus to help with price rises.

Katie makes a really good point about the unintended consequences of offering a one-off bonus: for some low-waged employees in receipt of Universal Credit or Tax credits, a one-off bonus could interfere with their benefits payments. This could make it difficult to budget and potentially leave them temporarily out of pocket.

Those employees may be better off if they were given the option of spreading the payment over several months – more like a temporary pay rise.

Have any of you considered or done this? It’d be useful to hear about how you went about it or any reasons you decided against it. If you gave employees options, what information did you give them to help them make their decision?

It's great to see some of you thinking outside the box too, in terms of other ways to help your workforce if bonuses and pay-rises are simply not feasible. We're curating some info and options for employers in a new cost-of-living hub, which we'll publish very soon on the CIPD website. We've already got lots of ideas in our existing in-work poverty and financial wellbeing resources. Do you have any other suggestions to add?

In reply to Charles:

Thanks for that, Charles. Really pleased CIPD is doing this.

In reply to Charles:

This is a great idea! Looking forward to the new hub on cost-of-living.

In reply to Adham:

Thanks, Adham.

In reply to Charles:

Could you please link to that recent poll? I received an email about it, but the link wasn't working for me. I am very interested in seeing the results.

In reply to Adham:

If you've not spotted it already, here's the link to the new CIPD landing page for our cost-of-living hub www.cipd.co.uk/.../cost-living-crisis. I hope you find it useful and informative and please give us your feedback.

In reply to Stephen:

Stephen - this was the result of the poll ran at the end of June in the CIPD Update. I've broken down the responses below in case the image isn't clear.

Q: In response to the increased cost of living, has your organisation given, or is it planning to give, staff a cash lump sum (a bonus, stipend, allowance, etc) to help offset price rises? (This is in addition to any wage increases you've already provided - or plan to provide - this year)

Nearly a quarter of respondents had either offered additional financial support (in some form - bonus, stipend, allowance, etc) to at least some staff or were currently reviewing to do so. (10% to all staff, 6% to some staff, 8% currently reviewing).

The remaining 76% of respondents had no plans to offer additional support in this way.

wave recently joined EDENRED a benefits platform that gives all employees a 10-20% discount from supermarkets retail restaurants holidays and weekends away children's adventure parks and much much more and most save a minimum of £1500 a year - a bit clunky on line but it deos work and helps families with everyday savings on top sales etc you can use these savings WITH any discounts or sales

So glad this thread has been updated and then shared in the recent newsletter I got today as it peeked my interest and got me to read what people and businesses might be doing to help their employees through a cost of living crisis. Checking out pay at low levels, finding out the impact/ unintended consequences of the universal credit system and providing additional support to staff. It was good to listen.

I recently did an assignment where COLA came into my vocabulary from a US colleague which was a new one on me, I'm sure it's not for others but Cost of Living Allowance seems very relevant and pertinent now more than ever.

In reply to Sharon:

Yes, every day brings another report showing the extent of the challenge facing employees, such as this one www.theguardian.com/.../inflation-will-soar-to-astronomical-levels-over-next-year-thinktank-warns. As if this wasn't bad enough, many employers are also struggling with spiralling costs, which then limits how they can respond.

In reply to Charles:

'Perfect storm'.

In reply to Liban:

Hi Liban
My only concern is that when the organisation stops the one off payments, everyone will be frustrated again and will find it hard to go without the boost they had received. So how do you normally tackle this issue.

In reply to Gaydaa:

These are exceptional times, and these are exceptional payments, Gaydaa. The issue you flag will happen if inflation doesn’t start to fall significantly in 2023. However, it’s unfair to expect employers to tackle the cost-of-living crisis on their own. Other parties have a part to play, most significantly government.