ITV News - Business that has increased wages

As the CEO of home me, a mortgage brokerage, we increased our incentives for existing staff. We increased commission rates for existing advisers by 3x the original structure and we also introduced an incentive scheme for our admin staff so they can earn extra income, which they are. We knew the staff needed extra funds during this climate and we decided quickly to implement them. This benefits both the business and more importantly, the staff. We won’t be going back to the old structure and this has also been well received by new talent we are searching for. The overall income being earned by the employees is the highest it has been and is certainly keeping them happy.

We have increased salaries 5-7% and gave additional bonuses to ensure overall remuneration at least kept pace with inflation. As it wasn’t all salary led it meant it was sustainable for the business (since our turnover isn’t inflation linked). Office line is 0330 333 2373 or mobile 07775 756676

We gave all our staff (20 people) a 5% pay rise in January 2022 because we knew that the recession was coming. By midway in 2022, we have several staff asking for additional wage increases as a result of increased rents in Manchester.

We've never turned anyone down when they ask for a pay rise, we might help give them a roadmap to achieve it in a few months. But ultimately, our profitability as a business has been hit by increased salaries and overheads - we have to then raise our costs which will have an upstream effect.

We continue to give our team pay rises to remain competitive because we want to retain the best talent, this also means sometimes we have to pay above market rates in order to attract it as well.

During 2022 Daktela UK recognized the problems faced by our employees in respect of the cost of living crisis and chose to do several things that helped them. These included a one-off payment to each employee in June paid directly into their wages, salary increases for several employees who had been with us longer than six months with a promise to review all employee's salaries after six months and a performance bonus paid in July and January 2023 relative to their own and the company performance. There were strong business reasons for doing this as finding new staff is increasingly difficult from what seems a dwindling pool of available resources. Retaining staff is a key strategy for the business as although we are a relatively SME small business and staff costs by far and away our biggest expense keeping them is vital to our business.