The cycle to work scheme is pretty straightforward for employers and employees alike, but there are differences in how the various providers deliver the service. Providers may use some of those differences to differentiate themselves from other providers, but there are some things that all providers can do to deliver an easy cycle to work scheme for employers.
Calculator
The most obvious benefit of the cycle to work scheme is how much money it can save individuals when buying a bike or cycling equipment (up to 48.25% since you ask). But employers can save money too through paying less in the way of Secondary Class 1 NICs and claiming capital allowances on their purchases.
Despite this, most of the savings calculators that you’ll find online focus only on the savings that employees will make. A simple way for cycle to work scheme providers to make life easier for employers – their potential clients – is to offer a savings calculator for businesses too. That way, there’s a quick way for employers to gauge to what extent signing up to a scheme will be in their financial interest.
Incidentally, did we mention that you can find a cycle to work savings calculator for employers on our website?
Setup support
Signing up to a cycle to work scheme is a quick and simple process, but getting the scheme properly set up in an organisation requires a little more work. It’s nothing too taxing, but employers must consider how to communicate the new scheme to employees and what their employer-employee agreement must look like, among other things.
Scheme providers can help to smooth this process by drawing on their experience and providing support to guide employers through the setup process. This can take the form of welcome packs, template documentation, webinars, videos and other online help resources, as well as phone support, face-to-face support and video conferencing. At Bike2Work Scheme, our Get Set questionnaire gives companies that sign up a way to tell us exactly what they need so we can tailor our support accordingly, such as by offering out-of-hours phone support for companies that operate shift patterns.
Systems integration
Many cycle to work scheme providers offer extranets to companies that sign up. This provides a simple way for both employers and employees to administer their schemes. At Bike2Work Scheme, we also offer an API that will integrate with an organisation’s existing systems. In this way, financial and HR aspects of the scheme can be automated, helping to save both time and money.