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We’re proud to support homeless charity Only A Pavement Away

We’re proud to support homeless charity Only A Pavement Away 1280 1453 Growth Partners

We’ve chosen Only A Pavement Away as our new company charity, to support people facing or experiencing homelessness into work so they can find stability through employment.

Each year we invite our employees to nominate a charity to benefit from our company fundraising activities – and this year the team voted for Only A Pavement Away.

Katie Taylor, Group HR Manager said:

“Each year we ask our employees to vote for a charity they’d like to fundraise for and this year the team voted for the fantastic homeless charity, Only A Pavement Away. Not only is the team already committing to some of the great fundraising activities, our staff will be giving up their time to help fill a flask at their local shelter, as well as offering their expertise to support people back into work as part of the Hospitality Against Homelessness campaign.”

Our Hospitality Director Greg Maguire said:

“In a country with the fifth largest economy, homelessness is a scandal. The hospitality sector had 112,000 vacancies at the end of 2023 – Only A Pavement Away helps fill these vacancies with people facing or experiencing homelessness giving them long term, stable employment.
It’s a great idea, there are so many fantastic operators signed up to help and we’re all for making peoples’ lives easier, happier, and healthier.”

About Only A Pavement Away

Only A Pavement Away help anyone experiencing or facing homelessness find a new career in hospitality. They connect forward thinking employers with charities working with people facing or experiencing homelessness, prison leavers and veterans to help them into long term, stable employment.

Being ‘homeless’ can take many forms such as rough sleeping, people living in sheds, garages, sofa surfing, hostels and unsuitable temporary accommodation such as B&Bs. And there are so many reasons why people are forced into homelessness…

  • A lack of affordable housing
  • Losing job
  • Mental health
  • Leaving prison or the armed forces with no home to go to
  • Escaping an abusive relationship

The charity connects their network of hospitality employers and charities on their Jobs Board. Once employed, candidates benefit from a 12 month support network put in place for them.

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Big-hearted fundraising team donate more than 200kg of food to food bank charity 

Big-hearted fundraising team donate more than 200kg of food to food bank charity  2560 1920 Growth Partners

Caring staff have dug deep during a year-long effort to ensure those less fortunate than themselves don’t go without a meal.

Each year Leicester-based payroll provider Growth Partners asks staff to nominate a charity to be the beneficiary of its fundraising efforts. During 2023 staff chose to support The Trussell Trust – the UK’s leading anti-poverty charity which expects to hand out over a million food parcels this winter alone.

Katie Taylor, Group HR Manager at Growth Partners said:

“It really does highlight the challenges faced by many people across the country – not just the homeless, but also many working families who are facing hardship during times of economic challenge.

“We pride ourselves on being a good employer, ensuring our staff are supported through all life’s challenges, and encourage support of those less fortunate too.”

Katie added: 

“We’ve been supporting The Trussell Trust since January, and our team has since donated over 200kgs of food – to put this into context 200kg is the equivalent of a large upright piano or a medium-sized motorbike! It’s an impressive amount with all our staff across the UK throwing themselves into a range of fundraising events including a steps challenge, a cake decorating contest and a charity picnic.

Our mission is to make peoples’ lives easier, happier, and healthier so supporting a charity campaigning to end the need for food banks, was a perfect fit for us.  We’re really proud of what the team has achieved and are delighted that it will help support the fabulous work of The Trussell Trust, which makes such a difference to the lives of so many.”

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The Trussel Trust is working to stop hunger UK hunger and poverty. It is a charity supporting a nationwide network of more than 1,300 food banks, providing emergency food and support to people facing hardship.

Growth Partner’s head office is in Colton Square, Leicester but employs staff across the UK who have all been supporting the work of The Trussell Trust. All donations were used to buy essential items needed by food banks such as tinned vegetables, tinned meat, long-life juice and milk, coffee, and puddings which staff dropped off at the regional distribution centre where volunteers sort and redistribute donations to food banks.

Bruce Harrison from Leicester South Food Bank said:

“Staff at Growth Partners have really encouraged us with their efforts throughout the year to raise money and collect food items. They have shown what it means to have corporate social responsibility and to ensure that they allow work time to let staff show how much they really care about the community in which they work and operate. We are just the gateway to enable others to see change happen through the generous and dedicated support of companies and individuals.  Thank you so much and wishing you all a very happy Christmas.”

With a record 2.5 million emergency food parcels given to people in crisis in the past year alone, Trussell Trust is campaigning for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.  You can download their latest research into hunger and destitution here. For a list of food banks and how to donate find out more here.

Menopause webinar
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Free menopause webinar: Let’s Talk Menopause, it affects us all

Free menopause webinar: Let’s Talk Menopause, it affects us all 1920 1080 Growth Partners

October is Menopause Awareness month and 18th October marks World Menopause Day. Menopausal women are the fastest growing demographic in the workplace, and are at significantly higher risk of leaving their job due to the impact symptoms may have on their work.

This is why it’s essential for employers to ensure they have the right services in place to support employees who may experience symptoms of the menopause or who may work or manage someone who does

17 October: Menopause webinar to support menopause in the workplace

To raise awareness of the impact of menopause, we’ve teamed up with menopause specialist Dr Rebecca Lewis MBBS Clinical Director of Newson Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre and Director of balance app. Rebecca will host the menopause webinar, discussing menopause symptoms, common myths and how to approach menopause in the workplace.

Free menopause webinar

Register for your free place here. Can’t make the date or time? Register, and you’ll be sent the recording by email.

Register for Let's Talk Menopause webinar

Survey results from a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development show 45% of women over the age of 45 feel menopausal symptoms have a negative impact on their work and 47% of women who need to take a day off work due to menopause symptoms don’t tell their employer the real reason for their absence.

Interested in benefiting from menopause support services?

Menopause support services

All our clients benefit from:

  • Information and advice for those who are directly impacted by menopause including confidential 24/7 access to counselling and GP services.
  • Advice for managers to help create a supportive, flexible, and comfortable work environment including webinars and a free accredited training course.
  • Support for family, friends, and co-workers with signposting to recommended local and national services and support groups.

If you are a current Growth Partners client, your employees can access menopause support services on their My SMART-e app. If you have any questions regarding the service, please contact your engagement manager. You can email Daniel.duggan@growthpartnersplc.co.uk or call 0116 340 3116

If you are not a current client, arrange a demo of the My SMART-e app and the new services, here or contact our growth experts for a chat.

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24 hour call handlers enjoy boost to their benefits

24 hour call handlers enjoy boost to their benefits 1152 1152 Growth Partners

Based in Cornwall, telephone answering service Phoneta has been handling calls for over 27 years.

The dedicated team partnered with Growth Partners in 2021 and has been benefiting from being a SMART employer since.

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The Growth Partners’ SMART employment model gives companies an all-in-one solution for pay, pension and employee benefits – which frees managers up to focus on their people and culture and ultimately business growth.

Anthony Caddy managing director at Phoneta said:

“We love the peace of mind that Growth Partners provide. They handle everything to do with payroll and pensions – and take on all compliance and full liability. This frees us up to concentrate on business growth, for us and our customers.

Our employees love the discounts. Everyone uses the app to save money at supermarkets, on their holidays, when online shopping… everything!”

Growth Partners offer peace of mind 

Our payroll bureau guarantees people are paid accurately and on time and help field all pay-related queries to take the burden away from in-house teams. And our pension team, led by a qualified pension consultant, manage all pension auto-enrolment. Not only do they maintain records, but they also work with businesses to help improve their employees’ financial wellbeing by offering workshops and support information.

Our CEO of employee services, Scott Read added:

“We pride ourselves on delivering a personal service – we build great relationships with all our clients and our experts become a seamless extension to their business. It’s a partnership.”

Anthony added:

“The service is fantastic, we are so pleased to be working with Growth Partners – the cost-savings are a no-brainer and the benefits our employees get, really help boost morale.”

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Do you need more time and money to focus on business growth?

We provide employers across all sectors with a cost-effective end-to-end service for payroll, pensions and employee engagement services. If your workforce could benefit from their pay, pension and employee benefits all in one place, book your no-obligation demo of My SMART-e here.

Did you know? We provide all our clients with an employee engagement support payment, a dedicated employee engagement manager and ongoing employee engagement consultation. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you to reduce costs, attract and retain employees, increase productivity and ensure compliance.

New menopause support service
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New service launched to support the fastest growing demographic in the workplace

New service launched to support the fastest growing demographic in the workplace 1920 1080 Growth Partners

A new service has been launched to support the fastest growing demographic in the workplace, menopausal women – who are at significantly higher risk of leaving their job due to the impact symptoms may have on their work.

Survey results from a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development show 45% of women over the age of 45 feel menopausal symptoms have a negative impact on their work and 47% of women who need to take a day off work due to menopause symptoms don’t tell their employer the real reason for their absence.

In response to the issues and impact on the emotional wellbeing of employees, Growth Partners has launched a new menopause support service for its clients through the My SMART-e app.

Scott Read, CEO of employee services said:

“It’s our mission to make employers’ and employees’ lives happier, healthier, and easier and providing relevant wellbeing services is a big part of this.

“We’re proud to launch yet another resource to help employers support their employees’ physical and emotional wellbeing – which we know are crucial for decreasing absence rates, improving productivity, and ultimately achieving business growth.”

Scott added:

“It’s so important for employers to feel equipped to provide the support workers need to be happy and healthy at work. The menopause can also have an impact on family members and colleagues – so support services for them is key too.”

Growth Partners’ new menopause service is being added to the My SMART-e app from 17 July 2023 to give all registered users confidential, simple access to menopause support services – for themselves, a colleague, friend or loved one.

The new menopause support package includes:

  • Information and advice for those who are directly impacted by menopause including confidential 24/7 access to counselling and GP services.
  • Advice for managers to help create a supportive, flexible, and comfortable work environment including webinars and a free accredited training course.
  • Support for family, friends, and co-workers with signposting to recommended local and national services and support groups.

Menopause support services

How to access the new service

If you are a current Growth Partners client, your employees can access the menopause support services on their My SMART-e app. If you have any questions regarding the service, please contact your engagement manager. You can email Daniel.duggan@growthpartnersplc.co.uk or call 0116 340 3116

 Interested in benefiting from our services?

You can arrange a demo of the My SMART-e app and the new services, here or contact our growth experts

Growth Partners support package
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New support package launched

New support package launched 800 600 Growth Partners

We’ve launched a new support package to help businesses access support payments and tailored employee engagement advice.

We’re on a mission to make both employers’ and their employees’ lives easier, happier, and healthier and our new support package aims to provide what businesses really need in the current environment.

Register your interest

New support package – what’s included?

The new support package includes the following benefits for businesses:

  • A support payment per employee to invest in your business.
  • A dedicated employee engagement manager to work with leadership team and staff as an extra pair of hands.
  • Free ongoing employee engagement consultation to help businesses develop or improve their attraction and retention strategy.
Support payments 

The package includes payments of up to £4 per employee, per week. Businesses can invest their support payment as they see fit.

The support payments are designed to provide financial assistance to help you navigate challenges and stimulate growth. The payment is made per employee, so the more employees you have the larger the payment.

Some clients to already benefit have used the additional income to add life protection to the list of benefits they provide for their employees, and some have used it to fund more regular off-site team-building exercises to help address retention concerns.

>> Example case: A client with 300 employees is currently benefitting £16,200 per annum in additional income.

Dedicated employee engagement manager 

As part of our new support package, we’ll give you a dedicated employee engagement manager to help drive your employee engagement activities.

We’re a payroll provider and so much more… making sure your employees are paid correctly and on time is a huge part of employee engagement – but work is about much more than their pay.  Your dedicated employee engagement manager will help ensure your employees are aware of, and can access all the benefits available to them.

Improving employee engagement is essential when you’re looking to retain talented employees, enhance customer satisfaction, and ensure operational efficiencies.

Employee engagement ongoing consultation

We also provide free employee engagement consultations to help improve your employees’ level of engagement, motivation, and satisfaction.

We can take on the often-time-consuming task of analysing and understanding the current state of employee engagement within your organisation, to help identify areas for improvement, and develop a strategy to enhance engagement. We can provide surveys, or help facilitate focus groups, interviews, and data analysis to gather information about your employees’ attitudes, perceptions, and experiences. We can also help assess factors such as communication, leadership, organisational culture, work-life balance, career development opportunities, and recognition and rewards systems.

Based on the findings, we can work with you on an action plan to enhance employee engagement. The ultimate goal is to create a positive work environment that fosters employee satisfaction, commitment, productivity, and overall organisational success – so you can attract and retain great talent.

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Why have we launched the package? 

We are a payroll provider and so much more… we provide an end-to-end service for payroll, pensions, and employee engagement; for businesses this means reduced costs, reduced risks, and increased productivity, and for their employees it means access to their pay, pension, and employee benefits all in one place – so they have everything they need to be happy and healthy at work.

But if employers don’t have the cash or time to invest in their employee engagement services, the employee benefits can go to waste.

Interested in finding out more?

If you’d like to be sent more information about the support package and an idea of the support payments you could receive, you can request more information here.

Our payroll cost-saving calculator is designed to give you a free, no-obligation quote to help you understand how our fees compare to other costs you’ve been quoted elsewhere, or what you currently pay for similar services. Our new support package is factored in too – so the calculation is a true reflection of how we can help improve your bottom line and generate additional income for your business while supporting you to attract and retain great staff.

If you’re looking to outsource your payroll or switch your outsourced payroll you can get a no-obligation quote here or get in touch with our experts for a demo of our services.

Promotion for pension professional as growth continues
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Promotion for pension professional as growth continues

Promotion for pension professional as growth continues 1200 630 Growth Partners

Following our continued growth, we have appointed our in-house pensions expert to the role of head of operations to ensure the best possible service for our customers.

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Amrik Birdi, whose previous experience includes consultancy roles for KPMG and Pensions Wise, will help align our core service functions to drive the scalability of our processes.

As head of operations, Amrik will lead our payroll services, pension services, employee engagement services and operations teams ensuring customer experience drives operational improvements as we expand our offering.

Amrik said:

“We have some exciting growth plans – new markets and new product offerings, so I am keen to take on the role of optimising our operations to help steer us through this exciting period. 

Our CEO of Employee Services Scott Read added:

“As one of the first employees to join the company back in 2017, Amrik has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to our product offering and services and has some fantastic ideas to enhance them in line with customer demand. We’re proud to promote Amrik to the senior management team and benefit from his professionalism and experience.”

The promotion comes as we expand our offering to the hospitality sector backed by research into the state of employee engagement services and launch our employee engagement support payments to help businesses invest in their employee engagement strategies.

 

About Growth Partners 

Growth Partners is a payroll provider and so much more.

They provide an end-to-end service for payroll, pensions, and employee engagement – helping employers to reduce costs, increase productivity, and ensure compliance. Through the My SMART-e app employees can access their pay, pensions and employee benefits all in one place – everything they need to be happy and healthy at work.

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New payroll calculator reveals how much businesses can save – or even earn

New payroll calculator reveals how much businesses can save – or even earn 1080 1080 Growth Partners

We’ve launched a campaign to highlight the benefits of regularly checking how much you’re paying suppliers for outsourced services such as payroll, pensions auto-enrolment, employee benefits, employment law support etc. Seven in ten UK businesses outsource services to third parties (YouGov 2019) 

Our new cost-saving calculator

We’ve developed a new cost-saving calculator to help businesses understand if they are overpaying for their outsourced payroll and other outsourced services. Our new online tool also calculates how much businesses will get from us in employee engagement support payments available – giving them a true reflection of how we may be able to help improve their bottom line.

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Amrik Birdi, our Head of Operations said:

“Many payroll providers have variable charges and charge extra for auto-enrolment processing, whereas our £2 per employee per week is a flat rate fee – which is great value for money. And this includes a range of employee engagement services too.

What we offer truly is a full end-to-end service for payroll, pensions, and employee engagement as we’re focused on helping businesses reduce costs and ensure compliance so they can grow.”

Scott Read, CEO of Employee Services added:

“We don’t want to bill our customers every time they ask for help, one fee covers everything. And the employee engagement support payment we give companies can make a big difference to their bottom line. We’re adding new services all the time to ensure our all-in-one solution for payroll, pension and employee engagement services can really help businesses thrive.”

A payroll provider and so much more

The payroll cost-saving calculator is designed to give you a free, no-obligation quote to help you understand how our fees compare to other costs you’ve been quoted. Specialising in providing an end-to-end service for payroll, pensions, and employee engagement, our new employee engagement support payment is factored in too, so the calculator is a true reflection of how we can help improve your bottom line.

Interested in switching payroll providers?

If you’re looking to outsource your payroll or switch your outsourced payroll you can get a no-obligation quote here or get in touch with our experts for a demo of our services.

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We’ve published new employee engagement research paper in partnership with insight experts KAM

We’ve published new employee engagement research paper in partnership with insight experts KAM 1152 1152 Growth Partners

We’ve commissioned a research project with hospitality research consultancy, KAM to gain more insight into the state of employee engagement services in the hospitality sector and help identify a potential link with the continued rates of job vacancies.

149,000 vacancies in the hospitality sector at the end of 2022, that’s a lot – and businesses are not maximising every tool in their armoury to attract and retain staff, according to KAM. The study reveals that hospitality businesses are not effectively communicating what they already offer; 75% of employees couldn’t find information about employee benefits while researching their hospitality job. 20% said they only found out during their interview and 15% had to wait until after they’d started in the role.

Scott Read, our CEO of Employee Services says:

“We’ve been keen to understand the relationship between the awareness and usage of employee engagement services and the number of vacancies in the hospitality sector. The research has really highlighted a potential problem – businesses may have employee benefits in place but if they’re not easy to access or communicated effectively, they’re not having an impact – potentially adding to the problem rather than helping to resolve it.”

Katy Moses, MD at KAM said:

“Hospitality businesses are absolutely missing a trick when it comes to attracting new employees with very few effectively communicating the level of employee benefits. So many companies offer phenomenal employee engagement services but very few are using this to attract potential candidates. Even current employees say they’re not made aware of what is available to them despite the clear impact they can have on staff retention.”

Key findings from the research include: 

  • 76% of people said employee engagement services meant they have stayed in a hospitality role longer

  • 83% of people said the offer of a specific health and wellbeing benefit contributed to them deciding to switch jobs

  • 95% of employees wanted to be made aware of any employee engagement services prior to making a decision to join a company

  • 77% of employees would use employee engagement services more if they were all in one place e.g. an app

The study also looks at happiness levels among current employees and found that 88% of people currently working in hospitality are happy in their role, this decreases to 78% for those working specifically in pubs and bars and is even lower for those working back-of-house (73%.)

→Download the full report here

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About Growth Partners: We’re on a mission to make employers’ and employees’ lives easier, happier and healthier. We provide an end-to-end service for payroll, pensions and employee engagement – giving your employees access to their pay, pension and employee benefits all in one place. We also take on the liability for compliance with all HMRC and Pensions Regulator requirements and provide you with your own dedicated employee engagement manager.

About KAM: Research and insight experts, providing the tools to understand your customer’s journeys. Using consumer and operator research and insights to help identify the ways in which your business can improve. Whether your customer is the end consumer, a hospitality operator or a wholesaler, understanding and influencing the customer journey is vital to any business. Our research and insight tools and services are designed to help you better understand why, where and how to create impactful and engaging customer journeys.

 

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We support food bank charity The Trussell Trust to stop UK hunger

We support food bank charity The Trussell Trust to stop UK hunger 1152 1152 Growth Partners

We’ve chosen The Trussell Trust as our new company charity, committing to raise vital funds for food banks providing emergency food and support to people across the country.

Each year we invite our employees to nominate a charity to benefit from our company fundraising activities – and this year Trussell Trust food bank was chosen as the nominated charity.

Katie Taylor, Executive Business and People Manager said:

“We feel it’s really important for our team to have their say in nominating and voting for the charity we focus on each year as it helps to drive engagement in the charity activities, as well as a chance to do something for a charity that means something to at least one of our team. 

Katie added: 

“As always, the team is taking our latest challenge very seriously… 16 of us have been keeping active throughout March, challenging ourselves to reach a daily 10,000 steps goal. Not only has this encouraged our employees to move more which is great for their wellbeing, but it has already raised enough funds to fill two shopping trolleys of food for donation.

We’ve donated 147kg of food to The Trussell Trust so far this year and are planning to donate much more with the range of fundraising activities we are working on.”

About The Trussell Trust

With a record 2.5 million emergency food parcels given to people in crisis in the past year alone, Trussell Trust is campaigning for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.  You can download their latest research into hunger and destitution here. For a list of food banks and how to donate find out more here.

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