When I was a young reward manager – longer ago than I’d care to remember – life seemed a bit simpler. You got your market data sorted out; you managed the pay review; and tinkered with the bonus plans.
But now I think life is about to get more interesting for us reward folk …
Just take a look at the last CIPD reward survey and the key reward priorities. “Ensuring reward is internally fair” comes in at joint second place. “Ensuring reward engages employees” is also high in the rankings.
I would suggest that the reward professional has a big part in ensuring we maximise employee commitment in our organisations. There are a number of ways we can impact on the engagement area.
Firstly, reward programmes should support your employer brand as set out in the CIPD’s recent research report Employer Branding and Total Reward. If your company has well defined values and behaviours – but there is zero link to how you are rewarded – people will quickly see the brand as empty marketing. Your total reward offering needs to be equally well communicated and marketed as your recruitment brochures and websites.
Secondly, I wonder whether we overestimate employee’s interest in “market data”. Often, people are more interested in whether their pay is internally fair, than whether they are paid at the 62nd percentile. That’s not to say that effective market data is not essential. I’m just saying we need also to build trust that we apply reward in a consistent way. Equipping line managers with the skill to communicate reward effectively can be the key that unlocks this issue. Having clear, well designed and calibrated bonus plans also helps.
Finally total rewards – not just flexible benefits – are important in engagement. In my organisation we recently introduced a new management development programme for the first time. At the same time we introduced a Long Term Incentive Plan. It was clear to me that the level of goodwill and engagement created by the leadership programme was at least as high – if not higher – that the LTIP. Career development, flexible working and recognition can be some of the most compelling parts of the total reward offering, especially if well communicated.
So exciting times ahead for the reward professional (maybe we should call ourselves total reward professionals …!)
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