A North East marketing group has given its entire workforce a £1,500 payout to help them cope with the rising cost of living.
Newcastle-based marketing, media and PR company N21 Group, which operates the Silverbean, Ortus and North marketing agencies, has given all 110 workers the annual rise after seeing inflation hit its highest level in 30 years in March.
The firm said the issue of rising costs, which has seen the cost of living increase by 7% in the last year, was discussed by staff and fed back to bosses, who then worked out how they could help.
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The cost of living rose by 7% in the 12 months to March, according to the latest Consumer Prices Index data from the ONS, and latest figures show 83% of adults in the UK reported an increase in their cost of living in March – before the energy price increases came in. The hike in energy bills is having a huge impact on workers and businesses, with increases of 54% for the average household at the start of April, when the energy price cap was lifted.
The N21 Group, which has almost trebled its workforce from 40 to 110 over the last 18 months, has most of its staff based at its Hoults Yard offices in Byker, where staff can choose to work from home or in the office. It also has two employees in the US, 10 in Sydney, Australia, around 12 in Stockton covering Teesside customers, and a small number working remotely in Manchester, Sheffield and in the south.
CEO Neil Robbins said: “We’re all aware of what’s going on in the world and it is a challenge for people – and it looks like it’s going to be a semi-permanent challenge too. We’ve always had a focus on how we can make lives better for our staff because they do a fantastic job, so we want to look after our staff and do the best to look after them.
“We had a review of our financial position and decided to give everyone an unconditional salary raise. It’s the right thing to do.
“The group has a couple of methods we use to gather ideas from staff, one of which is the Kaizen group which meets to talk about various issues, and feed back to us once a quarter. They had debated the issues and reported that back to us.
“The payment won’t solve the issue but hopefully it’s a help.”
Later this year all the staff will also jet on holiday together as a reward for hitting its three-year target set back in 2019. Mr Robbins said: “I pitched to everyone in February 2019 the Get On a Plane target, promising that if we hit those targets we would do just that. And in October last year we achieved that target.
“So the team in Australia are having a long weekend in Bali, which they’re very happy about, and the rest of us are going to Prague in the middle of October. We’re there Friday to Sunday with a loose itinerary. Some will want to go drinking, others want some culture, and everyone will have the time to do what they want.”
