Businesses can attract the highest calibre of new employees by offering benefits and allowances in their recruitment package.

Recent research by Xpert HR revealed that the majority of British business will continue to provide the same package of employee benefits when attempting to recruit and retain staff despite the current tough economic climate.

In 2008 the UK government published its Pensions Act setting out in law the pension reforms designed to address a pensions crisis threatening to cause financial hardship to a generation of workers.  The pensions crisis is the result of an ageing population, longer life expectancy, inadequate saving for retirement and decreased pension fund value following a period of financial instability.

Europeans are taking an increasingly long-term view, with nearly 50% of workers stating that they would sacrifice pay for a higher pension contribution by their employer, compared to only 13% who would give up some of their salary for a extra vacation days, according to Aon Hewitt, the world's leading pensions, benefits and human capital consultant.

Automatic enrolment into pensions should not include micro firms

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is extremely disappointed that the Government will not make micro firms exempt from automatic enrolment into pension schemes, due to come into force in 2012.