Bike Week, an annual celebration of cycling runs from the 10th to the 16th of June. We have some exciting internal initiatives planned for our colleagues and clients and will be doing our bit to champion cycling here at Pluxee UK. Cycling can enhance physical, mental, and financial wellbeing and save your business money. During this blog, we’ll explore how you can get your people and business Bike Week-ready.
It’s easy to understand how cycling improves employees’ physical health – it gets them moving and active, helping them get fitter. This physical health boost links to their mental wellbeing because when people feel good physically, their emotional and mental health improves, too. Physical activity helps us work through our stress, and the endorphins released flood our bodies with happy hormones.
What about employee finances? How does cycling improve financial wellbeing?
In many ways…
It’s cheaper to run a bike than a car – no fuel, no parking charges, tax, or MOT. However, the most significant financial benefit of cycle-to-work schemes is the tax and NIC savings for employees and employers when an employee uses their bike-to-work scheme to purchase a new cycle.
Saving employees and businesses money matters to us, and we’ve written several blogs on how cycle-to-work schemes benefit all parties:
Do you already have a bike-to-work scheme in place? If so, it’s an excellent time to open your application window and encourage your employees to participate in the Bike Week campaign.
If you’re yet to embed a cycle-to-work scheme, there’s time to get this in place for Bike Week… if you act now. A bike-to-work scheme can also help you become a more socially responsible business and employer. Discover how in our blog, Cycle to Work: The Socially Conscious Employer.
There’s one more question to ask… What’s stopping you from offering employees a bike-to-work scheme?
We’re aware of at least one possible hindrance. As a salary sacrifice scheme, you, the employer, pay the initial cost of the cycle-to-work voucher. There’s an element of trust because if an employee leaves your business with repayments outstanding and their final salary doesn’t cover the balance; you could be left out of pocket.
Not with *Scheme Protect! We’re thrilled to offer employers protection with our bike-to-work scheme, giving you peace of mind and assurance that you won’t be left out of pocket should the above situation occur.
A cycle-to-work scheme has many perks, but when it comes to getting partners and families on their bikes, too, we need to explore employee benefits beyond your bike-to-work scheme.
SmartPay… the smart way to pay for bikes for the family
Like cycle-to-work schemes, SmartPay allows employees to stretch the cost of a new bike via monthly salary deductions. Unlike bike-to-work schemes, there are no tax or NIC savings.
Where SmartPay stands out as an alternative to cycle-to-work schemes is down to the fact that employees can purchase bikes for their families as well.
Keeping you in control.
Our SmartPay scheme is versatile and flexible, allowing you to set minimum and maximum voucher limits with repayment windows from six months onwards.
Putting your employees’ financial wellbeing first.
SmartPay helps employees avoid debt, giving them an alternative to interest-charging credit cards. We ensure compliance with the National Minimum Wage, so all salary deductions are done fairly and legally.
Spoilt for choice!
As long as employees stay within your maximum voucher limit, they can purchase more than one bike, helping other family members get active, too. We partner with Currys, Wickes, John Lewis, Argos, Decathlon, B&Q and Ikea to bring your employees the widest range of retailers on any tech and lifestyle salary deduction scheme.
We’re focusing on our Cycle to Work salary sacrifice and SmartPay salary deduct scheme today because if you haven’t yet embedded either of these into your business, there is still time to do so. Your employees could have their bikes ready to roll in time for Bike Week!
Free-to-implement employee benefits
If you already have our Employee Discounts Platform, you can add our SmartPay and cycle-to-work schemes to your platform *free of charge. Your employees repay the initial voucher payment you make on their behalf, making both solutions cost-neutral for your business.
Manage it all with ease!
Our online portals keep your workload to a minimum and are accessible via desktop and mobile so that you can approve applications on the go! Designed to cater for businesses of any size, our SmartPay and bike-to-work schemes are inclusive employee benefits that ensure you’re providing your people with more of what matters.
More ways to save…
While these two solutions spread the cost, other ways to make cycling more affordable include our Employee Discounts Platform and prepaid cashback-earning Pluxee Card. Discover how these employee benefits make cycling more affordable here.
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Get Bike Week-ready today!
Discover how your people and businesses can thrive during Bike Week and beyond with SmartPay and our Cycle to Work schemes. Request a call today.