Employee benefits

The Council prides itself on having a competitive pay and reward package.  Our local pay arrangements mean we are not tied to national pay negotiations and this over the years, together with being a financially stable authority, has meant generous and fair annual pay awards.  In fact, over the last 10 years, our cumulative pay awards have exceeded inflationary increases, at some grades by more than 10%.

The council has a generous relocation scheme which will be offered to eligible, successful candidates.  The scheme offers a lodging allowance as well as support with the purchase or sale and purchase of a property.  For sale and purchase of a property relocation support offered is up to a value of £8,000.

The council prides itself on being a learning organisation and is proactive in helping people to develop their skills, knowledge, experience and professional qualifications to do their role to the best of their ability. 

Learning is provided in a variety of ways and will start with a supportive induction when you first joint the council. You will have your own personal development plan and will work closely with your manager through personal development discussions to identify areas for development and opportunities to embed your learning.

Effective leadership and management is crucial to the success of the council.  We actively provide opportunities for leaders and managers to share best practice and develop together as part of action learning sets and learning forums with a focus on leading in line with our values and behaviours.  A range of management and leadership development opportunities are available in roles where strong leadership skills are needed.

We aim to be a modern and progressive employer, one which supports its people to optimise their time and balance work with supporting their well-being and other aspects of their lives. 

We offer a range of flexible working options, where roles allow, such as part-time working and agile working.  Agile working enables people who work in office roles to work in a flexible way, mixing their time working in the office with working at home or another agreed location.  In some roles there may also be some flexibility on when you work your contracted hours.  The needs of the business and customers comes first and the ability to work in a flexible and/or agile way is dependent on your job role and the needs of customers, the wider team and the service you work in.  Arrangements for agile working are flexible and may change over time as the needs of the role or service change.  

We try to be as flexible as possible, where service needs allow, to offer different ways of working to meet the work-life needs of our employees and to support those with other priorities or caring responsibilities. We employ people on a range of full time and part time contracts and make flexible working hours available where possible.

We’re all aware of how important it is to save for retirement and all TVBC employees aged between 16 and 75 who work for us for three months or more are automatically enrolled into the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Monthly deductions are taken based on employee salaries and we also make a monthly contribution to the Scheme.

We offer generous annual leave allowances which are based on an employee’s grade and their length of service in Local Government.  In addition to bank holidays, holiday entitlements are:

Free parking is available for all of our staff whilst at work and this is on-site at most of our locations.

All our employees can use the council-managed ‘Places Leisure’ centres at a discounted rate of £29 per month for the full premium membership on a 12 month contract. You can also receive 50% off pay as you go swim, gym and classes.

This scheme allows employees to sacrifice a proportion of their gross salary to pay for a bicycle and any associated safety equipment.. Salary sacrifice is made after any pension contribution but before tax and NI deductions are made so a saving is made on purchase.

Where a job requires membership of a professional body, TVBC will reimburse the annual subscription fee paid by employees in that role.

We know that it’s impossible to go through life without facing problems from time to time. The Council recognises that there may be occasions when employees need some additional help. That’s why we provide a comprehensive package of support to our employees, including:

• Access to independent trained counsellors to talk to, face to face
• An Employee Assistance Programme, offering access to telephone counselling and a wellbeing App/ website, containing lots of helpful advice and tools to promote your wellbeing.  
• A team of internal Mental Health First Aiders, who are trained to simply provide a confidential-listening ear, or to signpost to specialist services, where that’s needed.

We have an arrangement with Simply Health which allows our employees to pay for a health cash-plan directly from salary to help budget for the costs of dentist, optician, physiotherapy, etc.

KAARP offer a range of discounts to our employees on a variety of products and services including entertainment, shopping, holidays, insurance and motoring.

The Council provide a free Life Assurance Scheme for all employees under 75 from your first day of employment. Further details are available from HR.