[Closed] Cycle to work scheme, reluctant employer?

Mad, most companies wouldn't be able to cover the cost of the bikes if that many people took the scheme up!

Go to Cyclescheme's website and run through the "faqs". I deal with employers who only have a dozen or so employees and perhaps 2 or 3 take up the scheme. There's no reason i know of to need vast numbers. If push comes to shove, phone Cyclescheme and ask for persuasive literature for your company. The CS boys are excellent and helpful people.

We "needed" 4 or 5 people to take it up to make it viable. In the end we just told HR to get on with it, I think 2 have so far (neither of them is me sadly).

I'm guessing whoever it was in HR who said that, doesn't understand the scheme - as said previously that would need upwards of £250k 'investment'.

You have to find a way that promotes the benefit to the employer, not that the employees can get a new bike for 1/2-3/4 price.

I've tried it with 2 former employers and the excuses that HR come up with so they don't have to do the work are unbelievable.
It'll cost too much, it's not viable, there's only you interested, we don't have storage for bikes, we don't think people will be interested, the roads are too dangerous to allow employees to take the risk etc etc.

The company knows full well that you'll never get 300 people to sign up for it so they've "shown interest" but basically fobbed you off.
I had the same when trying to get a bike shed installed they told me to "look into it". So I did and promptly got told off by my boss for doing work outside what he'd told me to do. 🙄

Do they do the childcare voucher scheme? No more admin than that from a HR/payroll point of view.

yes they clearly do nto understand the scheme - if they think it would need 40-50% uptake they could be hit with a invoice for £400-£500k

i work for a company of 40k bods, uptake for that first intake for less than 1%.

Companies can also lease the equipment instead of buyig - this defers the cost, but adds admin and fees.

Here are some other point i posted from one of the other c2w threads

# You need to have a PAYE Payroll
# Under 18 year olds are excluded as the scheme is regulated by Consumer Credit Act
# There is an alternative possible for under 18yr olds if required
# Need to check after salary sacrifice an employee is still above national minimium wage
# Consider running a 'window of opportunity' once or twice a year - so you let employees know in advance that they will have one month in which to get their quotes and submit one for approval- that way the employer gets all the applications in together and then can get one invoice from Cyclescheme (other C2W provider) to pay, can adjust everyone salary at the same time, etc etc so as to reduce the admin burden
# As employers are in effect paying those on the scheme less, they will also have to pay less NI, this can be used to cover the admin costs, or go towards cycle facilites
# It can be seen as an incentive to retain staff, as saving are only made each month - if you leave you have to give the bike and equipment back to the employer or pay a higher rate to keep the items
# There is a credit exemption from the OFT upto a limit of £1000 for companies to sort out tax/ credit issues
# As a staff benefit it is one of the cheaper benefot items for an employer to impliment
# If you are a small company, nothing stopping you just buying bikes direct from a local shop, C2W providers make it easier for larger companies reduce admin etc

As for getting an employer to take note, make a register of staff that woudl be interested, particulary those that do niot current cycle, but would if they could use the scheme etc.

Will post some more stuff up

My employer has run the scheme for the last 3 years, we are a company of approx 1500 spread across various sites and dept’s in the UK, our uptake was probably less than 60 people I think HR claimed they needed “Sufficient interest” across the company but never put a figure on it, we had a window each time of a couple of months, they did limit us to one supplier (Halfords) and did ignore requests to broaden the scheme to include other shops, claiming they wanted to use a shop that everyone could find in their local high street…

I’m not sure if they’ll run it this year they could well use the cost excuse as the company has a hardon for “overhead reduction” at the minute… but to be fair to them I don’t think many employees will be that keen on salary sacrifice and I’m gonna wait till next year to see if there are any reasonable Alfine 11spd, of the peg bikes about (Genesis, Charge?) for ~ £1K…

companies do themselves save NI costs against the employees on the scheme and these savings should offset admin costs.

granny ring - YGM

Thanks for the replies.
I don't know all the facts at the moment, I'll try and find out what's been said so far then have a read up and pass the info to the union rep.