Executive remuneration could soon be linked to commitment to climate change.
Best Companies for Women see increase in egg-freezing employee medical aid benefit, while an open letter from ex-staffers at Scottish brewmaker sees the CEO vowing to do better. Meanwhile, Deloitte UK trusts employees to be productive on a fully flexible basis.
Linking executive remuneration to climate change
Salaries and bonuses paid to Heineken NV managers may soon depend on how committed they are to fighting climate change as the company searches for ways to meet its 2040 net-zero emissions goal.
“We’re investigating how to link this to executive remuneration,” CEO Dolf van den Brink said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
According to Van den Brink, Heineken has noticed a “remarkable acceleration” over the past year in how important climate action has become to the world's second-largest brewer’s stakeholders and that it will be key to attracting and retaining future employees.
Work from anywhere, says Deloitte UK
Deloitte UK has sent an email to its employee base of 20,000 informing them that they can work from anywhere in the country on a permanent basis. It is the first of the Big Four accounting firms in the UK to let all its staff work on a fully flexible basis. The firm is also considering allowing employees to work from abroad in the future.
In the email, CEO Richard Houston Houston said the pandemic has shown the firm that employees can be trusted to work flexibly and balance their personal and professional responsibilities appropriately. Hence, he will no longer require them to work in the office or from mandated locations, even for a few days each week, reports People Matters.
Ex-staffers openly criticise culture of fear at Brewdog
A co-founder of Brewdog has promised to listen and learn from savage criticism of the beer company by 60 ex-staffers.
James Watt told the BBC claims of a culture of fear and “toxic attitude” were tough to hear, but said they would help make him a better chief executive.
In an open letter, signatories said a significant number of former staff had suffered mental illness as a result of working at Brewdog.
The fast-growing Scottish brewer and pub chain employs 2,000 people.
Medical cover for employees can now include egg-freezing
Offering medical cover to employees for egg-freezing has found favour with more companies, with Accenture India and WeWork India being among the latest companies to offer this benefit to their employees. Egg-freezing, or egg-harvesting, is a fairly expensive treatment that involves preservation of a woman’s eggs to be used later for childbearing.
In 2017, only two percent of the Working Mother & Avtar ‘Best Companies for Women’ offered medical cover for egg-freezing. The percentage rose to five percent in 2018 and, in 2020, there were 11 percent companies (roughly 35 in number) offering the benefit, reports ET HRWorld.
