Corporate travel firm Rosenbluth has asked its employees to take a voluntary
10 per cent pay cut because of the drop in business following the terrorist
attacks in the US. Rosenbluth introduced the initiative, which is being
operated for a three-month period, to try to avoid having to make redundancies.
So far 65 per cent of staff who have responded to the request have agreed to
have their salaries docked. Of its 5,000 employees, 400 work in the UK.
Paul Kennedy, director of HR for Western Europe at Rosenbluth, told
Personnel Today that the vice-president and 10 board directors spent seven days
personally talking to employees in seven countries and covered about 90 per
cent of the workforce in that time.
He said, "It was important, when asking them to make such a personal
sacrifice, that they heard about it personally, not through email or the press.
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"We see it as a time to invest in our people and commit to them and ask
them to commit to us. And take-up has been good, which indicates how committed
people are to the company."
He said the company recognises that there will be people who cannot afford
the pay cut so for that reason the scheme is voluntary and confidential.
