Employee Reward Structures
Author: Aidan Langley and Alison Haynes
Price: £95
Pages: 446
Publisher: Spiramus
ISBN: 1904905048
This is a practical guide for accountants, lawyers and other advisers to unquoted businesses on employee compensation. This is not a book for the HR generalist.
The main author, Aidan Langley, is a qualified solicitor and works for one of the accountancy giants, so he is clearly an expert in this field. The book contains enormous amounts of technical information, all of which is likely to be needed to determine the most appropriate employment package for key personnel. It also helps in setting the ground rules for whole company schemes available to all staff.
The opening section, on employment status, is well-written and easily understood. The following sections – on new reward plans, pension schemes, investment in employer securities and taxation of options – are obviously aimed at those with some basic knowledge of the taxation rules surrounding employee reward packages.
As with any other volume of this sort, there is the real risk that the information changes rapidly. Case law affects the employment status section quite dramatically, apart from changes that may follow from the age discrimination and pensions legislation currently under consultation. The taxation section will change each year as the National Insurance and tax thresholds alter.
There is no indication that there will be an annual update, but it will be needed. Consequently, the book will be of use to accountants and solicitors in small practices who advise small- to medium-sized and unquoted companies on reward strategies. It will have to sit alongside other ‘loose-leaf’ publications, but it is reasonably priced to allow for this.
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Useful? Four stars
Well-written? Three stars
Practical? Four stars
Inspirational? Two stars
Value for money? Four stars
Overall Four stars
Reviewed by Ron Hancock, bursar and clerk to the governors, Bradford Grammar School
