Permanent Staff Benefits

You are entitled to the following leave on an annual basis (pro-rated for part-time employees):

• 22 days contractual annual leave per annum.
• For every complete year of service an additional day’s leave will be accrued, to a maximum of 27 days annual leave per annum.
• 8 bank/public holidays

Additional leave purchase scheme

If you would like more leave to achieve a better work/life balance, we offer you the option to buy additional leave (up to a maximum of 10 days) on top of your contractual leave.

This would be taken from your monthly pay via a salary sacrifice scheme – meaning that you would not pay tax or national insurance on the salary you sacrifice and the reduction to your pay would be spread across the year.

Please see the Additional Leave Purchase Scheme Procedure for more detail or speak to a member of the HR team.

Discretionary leave

Most staff are entitled to an additional 7 discretionary days off work when the Students’ Union is closed during the Christmas period (pro-rated for part-time employees). These close down periods will be determined by the organisation several months in advance to allow individuals to make holiday arrangements.

There are exceptions in place depending on the nature of business operation and this will be made clear in your offer and contract of employment.

Every permanent member of staff is entitled to an additional day’s holiday if your birthday falls on a work day.

Please note that this cannot be swapped for any other day and if untaken will be lost.

For parents with primary school age children we provide you with the morning off work (at full pay) on your child’s first day back at school in September to help them settle in.

You will need to arrange this with your line manager in advance.

Where operationally feasible, every year, in advance of the Christmas break, all permanent staff will be treated to a Christmas meal off-site as a thank you for your hard work in term 1 and to celebrate the festivities.

On production of your staff card, you will be eligible for free soft drinks from Tommy’s Bar during office hours. This includes soft drinks on tap, juices, teas and filter coffees. It does not include bottles, cans or syrups.

For any hot drinks you should provide a reusable cup otherwise you will be charged the cost of the paper cup.

You will have access to our Employee Assistance Programme with Worklife Solutions.

This programme gives you unlimited, free, 24 hour support to a qualified counsellor via phone who can provide support for emotional and practical problems, bereavement assistance, immediate crisis intervention, legal information (including debt management, consumer disputes, property or neighbour legalities), and medical information (while this service doesn’t offer a diagnosis, qualified nurses are on hand to offer advice on a range of medical or health-related issues).

To find out more, and to access a whole heap of online support including fact sheets and webinars, please visit the following website: healthassuredeap.co.uk.

To access the benefits both the user name and password is worklife You can also download the app called Health E-Hub using the user name and password as above.

If you want to contact the phone service, which is entirely confidential, please call 0800 316 9337.

In line with HSE guidelines, if you use display screen equipment (DSE) on a regular basis you will be entitled to claim back the cost of an eye test each year.

Those who receive a prescription for use with DSE equipment are also entitled to claim a maximum of £50 towards glasses or contact lenses.

Please retain all receipts and speak to HR for more details.

The organisation recognises the pressures of today’s society and the difficulty in striking a good work / life balance.

The organisation and its senior managers are fully supportive of flexible working arrangements and we have a variety of different arrangements in place across the organisation.

Although we operate a formal Flexible Working Policy we would encourage individuals to speak informally with your line managers in the first instance regarding any arrangements you may seek (i.e. job sharing, part-time working annualised hours, compressed hours, working from home).

Learning & development is vitally important to the organisation, to ensure the personal and professional continued growth and development of individuals but also to ensure the development of teams and the organisation as a whole.

You are ultimately responsible for your own learning and development. Whilst opportunities may be identified in conjunction with your line manager at regular 1-2-1 meetings and annual appraisal meetings, you will need to be responsible for your own development plan and seek opportunities for growth through conferences, workshops, networking events, webinars, Ted talks, project management and job shadowing, in addition to the more traditional face to face training courses.

All staff also have access to the staff development courses provided by the College’s Organisational Development team and should keep informed of the courses that are coming up on a regular basis on by accessing their webpage.

Please speak with your line manager in the first instance regarding any learning & development opportunities that are of interest to you and then please speak with HR who will consider the budget and book you on to the relevant course.

Following completion of your probationary period, we will enrol you in our Group Life Assurance scheme with Legal & General. The cost of this is covered by the organisation.

The benefit is a sum equal to four times your annual salary which will be paid to your nearest or nominated relation.

You will be eligible to join the scheme if:

1. You are an employee of the Students’ Union Royal Holloway University of London or any associated company that participates in the Scheme.
2. You are aged at least 16 and no more than 64 and have completed three months’ continuous service.
3. Your annual salary/earnings will exceed £6,500 per annum or you have completed 10 years continuous service.
4. You will be first eligible on either the date of commencement of the Scheme if you fulfil the conditions in [1], [2] and [3] above or, if not on the date on which you do fulfil those conditions.

In addition to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), the organisation offers enhanced maternity pay to individuals who meet the eligibility criteria. This includes:

• Your first 18 weeks of ordinary maternity leave at full pay.
• Your next 21 weeks will be payable at the statutory maternity pay rate set by the government for the relevant tax year, or at 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).
• Your remaining 13 weeks (if you choose to take them) will be unpaid.

Please see our Maternity Policy for more detail or speak to a member of the HR team.

All staff can park in any of the campus car parks free of charge, providing that your car details are registered on commencement of employment.

To register your details please go to the Royal Holloway website.

Please note that permits will need to be renewed annually.

The organisation offers enhanced partners leave in relation to pay and time off for a new child. Where the eligibility criteria is met, partners will be entitled to the following:

• Four weeks’ paternity leave at full pay to be taken consecutively, immediately following the child’s birth or placement with you.
• Two weeks’ paternity leave at 50% of your normal weekly pay. These additional weeks may be taken at any point within the 12 month period of the child’s birth or placement with you.

Please see our Partners’ Leave Policy for more detail or speak to a member of the HR team.

Where you meet the eligibility criteria the organisation will automatically enrol you with NEST (National Employment Savings Trust).

Under this scheme the Students’ Union will contribute 3% to the pension scheme and the employee will also contribute 5%.

You may choose to opt out of this scheme but must do so directly with NEST. More information will be provided by HR following the commencement of your employment.

The organisation has a Relocation Policy which enables the organisation to help with out-of-pocket expenses incurred when an employee relocates as a result of commencement of their employment with us.

Relocation expenses will be judged on a case-by-case basis and each employee's situation and circumstances will be unique. The organisation therefore retains discretion to tailor the relocation package to suit the particular circumstances and needs of each employee.

To be eligible for relocation assistance, the employee must be living more than 100 miles away from the campus at Egham and must be moving to within 30 miles of the campus.

The employee must be moving to a residence that will be their main residence which is either purchased or rented.

For further information please see our Relocation Policy.

Employees who travel by train to work are able to apply for a season ticket loan to contribute towards the cost of a travel card.

The maximum loan available is £1,000 and will need to be repaid over a period of 12 months. Repayments will be deducted from your monthly pay.

Please speak to the Finance team for further information.

At the commencement of employment you will be issued with an SU staff discount card which entitles you to 10% discount off food and drinks in Tommy’s Kitchen and The Packhorse.

You and up to three guests will receive complimentary tickets to enjoy the annual student Summer Ball hosted in June.

Every year you will be given a free one year Totum card (worth £12 per annum) which gives you access to over 200 student discounts in places such as the Co-op, ASOS, Odeon and lots more. When your card expires, we will give you a new one free of charge but it’s up to you to let us know via the Helpdesk when you need a renewal.

You can view the whole range of discounts available on the TOTUM website.

As part of our values driven culture, we offer Values Awards as a thank you and acknowledgement of behaviour and/or performance that goes over and above to embody any of our five values.

These awards have a monetary value of £5 to spend in any SU venue.

Periodically, and at senior managers’ discretion, permanent staff may be awarded with vouchers in recognition of hard work (e.g. Amazon vouchers). Such awards would generally be given out to all permanent staff to ensure fairness and transparency across the whole organisation.