Employee benefits

As an employee of New forest District Council, you'll enjoy a variety of benefits.

Flexible hybrid working (role dependant)

For the majority of our roles we're adopting a hybrid way of working, mixing both home and office working to help you balance your work and home life.

This will vary depending on individual job roles and there will be some roles which can offer more flexibility than others.

You are welcome to discuss what options might be available at interview.

In addition, we have family friendly policies and (role dependant) there could be flexibility around the hours that you work. 

Annual leave holiday entitlement

We offer a generous annual leave entitlement which includes:

• 23 to 28 days a year depending on the job you do, plus bank holidays and an extra day at Christmas
• additional 5 days annual leave after 5 years' service
• family friendly leave including maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave - did you know you could get up to a year off and that we pay more than the statutory minimum?

Pay

Our roles are graded on salary bands, and subject to good performance, employees have the opportunity to progress through the pay band.

Salaries are paid on 20th of each month for the whole of that month by credit transfer to your bank account. Where the 20th is a weekend or bank holiday the credit transfer will occur on the previous working day. Annual pay awards are determined under the national pay bargaining arrangements.

Pension

The local government pension scheme is an excellent benefit, but pensions can be complicated.

At New Forest, we make it simple, and auto-enrol all our colleagues into the Scheme. 

Employees pay a % based on their salary (between 5.5% and 10.5%).  Did you know that the Council contribute 18.4% of your pensionable pay each month?  This amounts to thousands of pounds annually!

As a member of the scheme, you contribute to the scheme funds which enables you to build up a Defined Benefit (DB) pension pot.  That means the Scheme will give you an income at your normal pension age linked to inflation which is guaranteed for life.

Here are the benefits of the Scheme:

An annual pension on retirement, based on the pension you build up

A choice of tax-free lump sum when you retire

Payable from your normal pension age (usually liked to State Pension Age)

Voluntary retirement from age 55, normally reduced as it's being paid earlier

An ill health pension from any age (subject to qualifying service)

A death in service lump sum of three times your pensionable pay, and a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner's pension, and eligible children's pension in the event of death

There's also a 50/50 section of the LGPS as an alternative to opting out. It is intended to be a temporary measure to assist members who may be suffering from financial hardship but still want their pension to grow.  It allows you to remain in the scheme but pay half your normal contributions and build up half the normal pension.  As a member of the 50/50 section you benefit from full life assurance cover, full ill health retirement cover, full survivor's benefits in the event of your death.

As a member of the scheme, you contribute to the scheme funds which enables you to build up a Defined Benefit (DB) pension pot.  That means the Scheme will give you an income at your normal pension age linked to inflation which is guaranteed for life.

We have partnered with AVC Wise to offer you Shared Cost AVCs which are additional voluntary contributions you can make to your pension.

Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) are a tax-efficient way to save for retirement.  They provide an opportunity to supplement your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and build up an additional retirement fund.

Cycle to work scheme

This offers you a cost-effective way to purchase new cycling equipment.  

The scheme is run by a salary sacrifice, which means that you won't need to pay tax or national insurance on the cost of your new bike and accessories, saving you between 33.25% to 43.25% on the total cost.  

This reduced cost is simply deducted from your pay over 12 - 18 months.  

Visit www.cycle2work.info for more information.

Employee discounts

You will have access to a variety of employee discounts including:

• national discounts from many high street retailers including supermarkets, stores, restaurants and many more
• discounted membership at Freedom Leisure's New Forest Centres

Employee wellbeing

We are an inclusive and supportive work environment that enables everyone to do their job to the best of their ability. 

We have an assistance programme including an employee portal and telephone line which offers free, instant access financial, legal and emotional support. This includes up to 6 counselling sessions a year.

We also have further wellbeing support, including action plans to support mental health, wellbeing walks and wellbeing champions.

We will make workplace adjustments where necessary for health reasons.

Personal development

We actively encourage and promote continuous learning and development for all employees.

We offer a range of eLearning modules for all staff to complete, complemented by classroom learning.  Soon we'll be implementing a dedicated Learning Management System which will complement our learning culture and offer a wide variety of learning material tailored to roles.

We're just about to roll out a bespoke Leadership Development programme for all our Senior Leaders, which we hope to roll out further in the long term.

We provide role specific technical training as well as generic development courses.  We also run a range of in-house courses including wellbeing initiatives and line manager briefings.

We utilise apprenticeship training where appropriate, for new apprentices and trainee roles, as well as a training route for our existing employees.

We will also pay professional subscription fees if they are a required part of your role.

Our culture

We continuously strive to help people do their best by valuing their contributions and listening to what they've got to say about the work they do and by providing a healthy work environment with positive management support and encouragement for all our 780 employees.

We have an Inclusive culture, everyone is welcome and diversity is celebrated.

We are committed to actively supporting good employee relations and have in place collective arrangements for employee consultation and bargaining.

At present we formally recognises three trade unions; UNITE, GMB and UNISON. There are many benefits to joining a trade union and employees are encouraged to discuss this with the appropriate trade union representative upon joining us.

Appraisal, performance reviews

In addition to regular catch ups with your manager through one-to-one meetings or toolbox talks, all employees have a formal annual performance review with their line manager. This process is designed to agree objectives for the coming year, review the previous year and discuss performance and learning and development needs.