Employee benefits

Aberdeenshire Council employees have access to an Employee Benefits Platform.

The platform provides access to exclusive discounts on from hundreds of high-street and online retailers and local offers to help you save money. The lists of savings is massive but there are discounts from 4%, 52% and even more available at various supermarkets, food, drink and food delivery companies, days out and experiences, cinema and theatre, health and beauty, fashion and beauty, home, garden and pets, car and motoring, mobile, broadband and utilities, travel and fitness.

See below a few of the retailers that offer discounts:

• Adidas UK
• American Golf
• Argos
• Asda
• ASK Italian
• ASOS Online
• B&Q
• BMI Healthcare
• Boohoo
• Boots
• Cafe Rouge
• Clarks
• Costa Coffee
• Currys
• Dorothy Perkins
• Easyjet Holidays
• Eurostar
• Farmfoods
• Foot Asylum
• Foot Locker
• Go Ape
• Green King
• H.Samual
• H&M
• Iceland
• Ikea
• Jet2Holidays
• Laithwaite’s
• Lastminute.com
• Les Mills on Demand
• Madame Tussauds
• Marks & Spencer
• Miller & Carter
• Morrisons
• MyProtein
• Naked Wines
• Nando’s
• National Trust
• New Look
• Nike UK
• P&O
• Pizza Express
• Plusnet
• Prezzo
• Primark
• River Islands
• Sainsburys
• Screwfix
• Sky
• Sports Direct UK   
• Swarovski
• Tesco
• The Body Shop
• The Fragrance Shop
• The Gym King – online
• Ticketmaster
• Toby Carvery
• TUI
• WHSmiths   
• Zizzi

A Live life Aberdeenshire Membership for Aberdeenshire Council staff has been introduced, these are designed to elevate the wellbeing journey of our employees. With more value, flexibility, no joining fees and the convenience of multi-venue access, these discounted memberships support a healthier and more active lifestyle. We believe in making wellbeing accessible and convenient for all who contribute to the organisation.

Employee financial wellbeing is very important to us and we believe in paying our employees fairly and ensuring that our salaries are competitive in the marketplace.

Most employees are paid an incremental progression salary with an increase in rate of pay following 12 and 24 months service.  Many positions offer the opportunity of following a career development scheme where further salary progression is achieved by meeting set development criteria.

Incremental progression for teaching staff follows the national terms laid down by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).  For the majority this will mean an annual increase in pay for up to a period of six years depending on initial placement on the pay scale.

Aberdeenshire Council is committed to paying all employees no less than the Scottish Government Living Wage.

We are a member of Grampian Credit Union and our employees can save securely and access affordable loans repaid through salary.

You can support your favourite charity tax-free with regular donations taken directly from your salary.

• Up to 5 years continuous service – 29 days
• After 5 years continuous service – 34 days

Finding a suitable balance between work and daily living is a challenge that we all face. Families are particularly affected.

We want to support all our employees to have a positive work-life balance and we offer a range of flexible and family friendly initiatives and working arrangements to our employees.

The council has various flexible working options such as Flexi Time, Mobile Working, Home Working, Annualised Hours, part time or term time working that you may be able to request depending on the service delivery your job requires.

A career break is an opportunity for employees to take a period of extended unpaid leave with the option of returning to work in the same or similar post.

We offer maternity and paternity enhancement on top of the government statutory rates of pay.  We also provide adoption leave provision and adoption pay.

There may be times where you are faced with family illness or urgent family situations.  We have paid and unpaid Special leave provisions in place to support our employees.

Unfortunately, there are times when our employees are not feeling great or have health conditions that mean they need to take some of work. As a local government employee, you will receive the added benefit of the Sickness Scheme which is designed to supplement the Statutory Sick pay and Employment and Support Allowance.

We also offer supportive measures to phase employees back to work once they have recuperated sufficiently to return to work.

Phased Return to Work Where an employee has been off sick and appears to have recuperated sufficiently to return to work, the Occupational Health Provider or a Medical Professional may recommend a phased return to work. The purpose of a phased return is to rehabilitate the member of staff to their full duties and build back up to undertaking their normal working hours within the earliest agreed timescale.

Where appropriate, we also allow for reasonable adjustments is to remove or minimise, as far as reasonable, any disadvantages created by an employee’s disability or sickness to perform their day to day duty.

Employees can claim cash back for everyday health care appointments, such as dental check-ups through the Simply Health Cash Plan.

For those regularly using a screen as part of their job, we offer a contribution towards glasses if they are needed for screen use.

We provide an independent, impartial and confidential service designed to make your life easier, as well as providing a service that is available to assist managers.

This service can be accessed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The council’s Occupational Health Provider, work with and to the benefit of both the employer and employee to address the medical needs and occupational health issues of employees whilst at work.

Our provider works closely with employees to ensure the control of potential health risk at work after injury, medical condition or ill health.

They will also support absent employees to return to work and where appropriate can offer physiotherapy to employees who have physical injuries which interfere with their normal working activities.