Accreditation follows introduction of new enhanced employee benefits package
Manchester-based QASSS, the UK’s leading resolution services provider to the home improvement and renewable energy sectors, has been accredited as a Living Wage Employer by the Living Wage Foundation.
Its Living Wage commitment will see QASSS’s entry level employees receive at least a minimum hourly wage of £10.90, significantly higher than the government minimum for over 23s, which stands at £9.50 per hour. In the North West, nearly a fifth of all jobs (18.4%) currently pay less than the real Living Wage – around 534,000 jobs.
The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum.
QASSS’s accreditation as a Living Wage Employer is the business’s latest demonstration of its commitment to its employees as it works towards plans of almost triling its revenue in 2023.
In October 2022, the company made a one-off payment to all employees of £1,000 to help with the cost of living crisis. In November 2022, QASSS launched a new benefits package, including access to a private mental wellbeing service, a private financial wellbeing service, private medical insurance, and dental, optical and medical cashback plans.
The company is also scheduled to launch a brand new career pathways programme later this year that will see it future-plan job roles, setting out requirements around experience, skills, competencies and behaviours, supported by a new learning and development programme.
Ciarán Harkin, managing director of QASSS, said: “Our employees are the lifeblood of our business, so we are keen to ensure the financial, physical, emotional and professional wellbeing of everyone who joins us on our journey.
“Becoming an accredited Living Wage employer has helped us to demonstrate that we are a responsible employer, something that we intend to continue building on in the months ahead.”
“We have ambitious growth plans for the coming year, which will require us to double our current headcount. It’s therefore crucial that we look after all our employees if we are to successfully achieve this growth in a healthy, sustainable way.”
Katherine Chapman, director, Living Wage Foundation, said: “We’re delighted that QASSS has joined the movement of almost 11,000 responsible employers across the UK who voluntarily commit to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on.”
