Pensions provisions have long since been a worry for organizations who have seen over the last 10 years a large fall in investment returns in their pension funds together with an ever rising life expectancy and therefore burgeoning pension liabilities for these depleted funds to cover.

We have seen companies try to tackle these issues by re defining benefits and asking their staff to accept the suggested changes. However a lot of the staff are displeased with the proposed changes and see any decrease in their pension availability (and other benefits) as unreasonable. Indeed in the UK at the moment there are huge problems with our postal workers, currently striking in order to defend the long time postal workers benefits. Royal Mail obviously saw problems looming a considerable amount of time ago. The employment contracts issued over the last five years allow employees with much less entitlement to benefits (including pensions) than workers who have been with the organization for a longer period of time. So we have an odd situation within the organization at the moment, some workers out on strike to defend benefits they themselves are not actually entitled to.

We have just come through the worst phase of job losses that the UK has witnessed for decades and following this down turn we will see the initial stages of a recovery over the next few months. However the companies looking for new employees over the coming months will not be just replacing like for like in the job offer and benefits stakes. They will be looking to increase employee numbers, but keep a firm check on the benefits that they are tied into for the long term. Pensions offers will be much less attractive, to stop the growth of the current issues and employment contracts may well be for shorter periods.

There may be some positive results from the alterations too. As more and more companies harness the power of Internet Business we will see some inventive organizations start to develop and offer a large amount of flexibility to the employee in terms of hours of work and place of work. This is particularly possible when looking at online companies. These have generally fared well throughout the slump as they have generally a lower amount of overhead. Indeed a good number of them have actually sprung up within the slump plugging holes that the closure of more conventional businesses have left.

Opportunities to work whenever suits the individual are rising with these new business models and even the ability to Work From Home is on offer, not only giving excellent opportunities for people who have other responsibilities but also keeping the business overheads down at the same time. This kind of flexibility will also make sure that the businesses keep hold of as many of their female staff as possible. Those who opt to have children are often in a difficult position when trying to return to work and these new, much more flexible contracts and Online Jobs will at least be a positive thing for these employees even though some of the other conditions may be inferior to post downturn job offers.

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