The move forms one of The Eden Hotel Collection’s new ‘Eden Extras’ benefit improvements, which includes enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave; increased contributions to eyecare; and a paid volunteering day.
A boutique hotel group has announced a string of enhanced employee benefits including new payments to help with rising costs of childcare in the UK. The Eden Hotel Collection’s new ‘Return to Work Support Scheme’ gives staff an additional £200 per month for the first six months after returning from maternity leave. With nursery costs in the UK among the highest in Europe – putting pressure on family budgets – the £1,200 cash bonus is hoped to ease some of the new-found costs for parents as they adjust to their return to work.
Lisa Redding, Group People Director, said: “We simply couldn’t create memorable experiences for our guests without our dedicated teams, which is why it’s important that we look after our staff and their loved ones. “Our benefits have all been carefully handpicked and developed over time, so we’re pleased to be evolving these once again in line with our ‘money, mind, body and heart’ wellbeing ethos.
“As a private, family-owned business, we are proud to enhance a number of our benefits around family provisions, offering more than statutory pay for maternity, paternity and adoption leave, in addition to progressing our plans to launch a new fertility support policy for families going through fertility treatment later this year. We hope these changes make a difference to staff and their families when, where and how they need it most.”
Mark Chambers, Group Managing Director, added: “We have an incredible workforce who are integral to making our hotels the warm and welcoming places they are. These latest improvements are all about making sure we are supporting them – especially in today’s tough economic climate – in as many ways as possible, on things that matter to them and their families the most.”
The new benefits include increasing pay for jury service to full-pay, support for eye care increasing from £25 to £50 for an eye test and £50 to £125 for eyewear, and a paid day of organised volunteer work to support The Eden Hotel Collection’s sustainability goals. Fertility support has increased to provide paid time off for appointments, while contributions towards paid maternity leave includes an additional six weeks’ pay at 50 per cent salary on top of the existing first six weeks at 90 per cent and remainder at statutory pay.
Paid paternity leave increases from statutory pay for two weeks to 90 per cent for two weeks and an additional 50 per cent for a third week, to help provide staff with more time to spend as a family. The benefits have been rolled out at all hotels within The Eden Hotel Collection, which employs 350 staff across the UK.
The Group includes The Arden Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon, The Greenway Hotel and Spa in Cheltenham, Brockencote Hall Hotel in Kidderminster, Mallory Court Hotel and Spa in Leamington, and Bovey Castle in Devon.
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