Working at Durham comes with some fantastic benefits, but do you know what they are?
Our Reward Hub for staff includes a wide range of employee benefits and a section on local discounts available to you. From discounts at your local supermarket, holidays, travel, and high street retailers, to discounts on electrical goods and our Cycle to Work scheme.
What’s not to like?
Dialogue has spoken to a couple of colleagues, who have taken advantage of the benefits available to all of us.
Claire Clarke is a Reward Specialist in Human Resources and Organisation Development, and she joined the University in June 2019. It is part of her role to manage and promote the rewards and benefits, so she started using these from day one.
Claire uses the MyDurham employee benefits platform at least once a month if not more. We asked Claire, why she chose that reward and she responded:
I can save money on everyday shopping such as my Tesco grocery shopping and on bigger purchases from IKEA. I bought the furniture for my new baby’s nursery there.
Having a baby is an expensive time and therefore it was great for Claire to be able to save money on the day-to-day things she needed and the bigger items too. Over time using MyDurham Claire was able to save over £1,000.
The list of rewards didn’t end there. Claire was able to save on a new television from Currys PC World, a holiday booked with Hoseasons and she took advantage of the Cycle to Work scheme to save on buying a bike for commuting to work.
Claire told us:
"Particularly during a cost-of-living crisis, it is important that employers can offer money-saving benefits such as these. It’s also a huge perk of the job to gain all these benefits."
Her advice to anyone who hasn’t used the rewards yet is to start with one retailer that you use often, perhaps a supermarket and start saving that way and then check the platform for discounts before buying any big items.
Thanks for that Claire!
Adam Brown is a Scientific Glassblowing Technician in our Department of Chemistry and has worked at the University for 17 years. He first became aware of the rewards through Dialogue Magazine when we talked to Robin Donald Assistant Director - Reward and Recognition.
Adam has purchased additional annual leave, which allows him to have more time off to look after his children and extend their family holidays. Although this reward doesn’t give him any financial savings, Adam told us that the additional leave has a positive impact on his mental health and that it is useful to have the option of purchasing extra annual leave.
In addition to this Adam also takes advantage of the salary sacrifice scheme for the USS pension each month. He told us that it is easy to do through Oracle once you know the process. The information is easier to access now compared to when the scheme first launched.
When asked how important / attractive he thinks it is to staff and prospective staff to have such rewards and why, Adam said:
I think it’s a very important aspect of working for the University. When comparing working for a university vs a private business/industry, the side-perks are often an advantage of university employment. It’s more important now than ever for Durham to offer good holiday entitlement and staff benefits to try and retain skilled staff and attract prospective employees.
Adam continued: "Definitely investigate what is available, as you could be missing out on something you’d find useful."
Thanks Adam!
With the rising prices and the cost of living affecting us all, the Reward Hub also includes a section on Financial Wellbeing where you can find lots of useful information to support your financial wellbeing and ways that might help manage your cost of living, including a checklist of saving ideas and organisations that can offer help.
If you are unsure about the wide range of employee benefits available to you, visit the Reward Hub and check out what’s on offer. You can also access information on pay and recognition at the hub.