On 26th January the annual post-survey event for the QCG Heritage and Visitor Attractions Pay and Benefits Survey took place. This event provides a space for survey participants to interact and discuss topical issues, as well as exploring key findings from the survey and year-on-year trends.

This document provides an overview of key discussion points.

Base pay - tight budgets and uncertainty

Survey data analyses indicated that pay budgets and estimates have decreased since last year, with median estimates for 2021 increases sitting at 1.75%. In addition, same incumbent base pay movements currently sit at 1.7%, down from 3.5% a year ago.

There was agreement among attendees about the (unsurprising) reason for tighter budgets and reduced pay movements being the financial impact the pandemic has had on the sector. This is supported by survey data analyses showing an 18% increase in the percentage of organisations indicating economic factors has a strong impact on pay budgets when compared to 2020.

Comments from the group showed some organisations have prioritised pay for certain employee groups (e.g. front-of-house staff) to recognise their contribution in the summer when organisations were able to open and their adjustments to being placed on furlough.

Further analyses showed 14% of organisations plan to implement a pay freeze for 20/21 and a further 19% do not yet know their estimated increase. This highlights the uncertainty within the sector. Participants discussed delaying decisions around pay awards for 20/21 to wait for more clarity around further support from government and other developments.

All this raised the importance of having open and ‘grown up’ conversations with employees around pay awards. Employees are aware of the financial impact COVID-19 has had on the sector and understand restrictions on pay are imminent, which makes it even more important to remain fair and consistent when decision making on pay awards.

There's more to recognition than bonuses

Whilst some participants discussed how bonuses (and other incentives) will not be paid this year due to the financial impact of COVID-19, others indicated alternative reasons for removing such awards.

At a senior level there is concern with the potential reputational impact of bonus awards and the likely negative impact on employee morale arising from the disconnect between these awards and tough measures being taken across the organisation.

For the past year, participants indicated dividing employees into those that have been furloughed and those that are working from home.

For those employees that have been working, the most common form of recognition identified at the event was additional annual leave (typically 2 days). This acknowledged their hard work by recognising the need for a break. In order to recognise the difficult year employees have had, some organisations provided an additional two days annual leave for all employee over the festive period.

Other forms of recognition highlighted by attendees over the festive period included personalised letters to employees, a voucher to purchase festive treats or a small gift.

In light of current – and potentially lasting – restrictions on pay, recognition offers a big opportunity to support employee engagement in a highly cost-effective way.

Wellbeing in the pandemic

From the discussion at the event it is clear that employee wellbeing has been front and centre of the reward and wider people agenda in the sector.

Event attendees noted the shift in focus of benefits – specifically Employee Assistance Programmes – to play a more prominent role in the wellbeing of employees. The two main forms of wellbeing discussed were mental and financial wellbeing.

Mental wellbeing

Some organisations have increased the number of employees trained as mental first aiders and focused on intranet posts, blogs and webinars teaching employees techniques to help others if they are struggling – especially in dealing with stress and burnout.

Promoting openness and encouraging employees to talk about their struggles was suggested to be an important part in improving mental wellbeing. We found it positive to see active support for and engagement with these initiatives from senior leaders, setting the tone for the whole organisation.

There was clear acknowledgment of the negative impact working remotely may have on employees. In order to try and reduce its impact, organisations discussed a variety of interventions they have adopted:

• Coffee roulette - randomly selecting pairs to have a virtual chat over a coffee to replicate bumping into a colleague on a coffee run in the office;
• Virtual coffee mornings and scheduled coffee breaks to allocate a time where colleagues can talk about things not work related; and
• Online quizzes and raffles.

Organisations have found such methods have had a very positive response among employees and when senior management are on board, such initiatives cascade down the organisation better.

Financial wellbeing

Organisations are exploring ways in which they can support employees’ financial wellbeing. Measures discussed at the event include activities around education and offering access to funds using mechanisms such as early wage withdrawal, hardship loans, rental deposit loans and more generic loan schemes.

However, the common view was that such support should be coupled with financial advice and controls (e.g. prompts on the purpose, caps or an approval process) to ensure organisations are not supporting unhealthy habits but instead, providing support for unexpected financial challenges employees may face. 

Outside of mental and financial wellbeing, the survey results show that there have been very few changes to the types of benefits offered to employees. The biggest change has been a 10% increase in the prevalence of Cycle to Work Schemes, with uptake showing a mix picture among organisations represented at the event.

Location based pay differentials

Whilst the general trend shows the London ‘premium’ stabilising at around 10% to 15%, the survey results showed a jump of 5% to 10% in the premium being paid to more junior roles in London, i.e. levels 6 and 7 in the survey, when compared to similar roles in other regions.

Input from attendees suggested that this is likely to be driven primarily by commitments to match Real Living Wage rates and agreement to prioritise investment in pay on lower-paid roles.

We have produced an article reviewing the location based pay differentials across the UK and how this compares to a decade ago – click here to read the article.

The QCG Heritage and Visitor Attractions Pay and Benefits Survey is the most reliable source of specialist reward data in the sector, including policy, salary and benefits data from leading organisations in the sector. For additional information about QCG or the survey please contact Juan Novoa on ku/oc/gcq//nauj or Beth Willrich on ku/oc/gcq//hteb.