Reward management; is it about the policies and processes, or the purpose and the people? Duncan Brown, Principal Reward and Engagement, Aon Hewitt

I was fascinated by the session at HRD week recently on the Next Generation HR research, and particularly Louise Wallwork from BAE Systems' 'lightbulb moment' that the research induced:

"Not many of us went into HR to run processes…they must be connected to an ultimate sense of purpose and an end goal…in some case it felt like the process itself had become the point".

I have had a few of my own equivalent epiphanies lately, having returned recently to my core technical 'home' of reward management. When judging a series of employee benefits awards, the lack of clear rationale for some entries and absence of definable outcomes was too-often evident. It seemed to be enough to say, in effect, 'employees like choice, we have put in a flash flexible benefits programme, so we should win'. Oh, and they all looked the same.

And when pitching for work, clients often seem to be heavily focused on the process too. What factors are in your job evaluation scheme? Will it link in with our global HR information system? Can you provide market data at the 66%ile globally? Ask them why they are doing it, what they hope to achieve, how will it help engage and motivate employees, and you often receive a blank, quizzical stare, and nil points on the consultant assessment sheets.

Totally-standardised, global, technology-driven polices and processes now dominate the practice of reward, performance and talent management in our major corporations. Even employee engagement itself is often 'delivered' ie administered through a standard annual global survey process. Ask employees what HR 'is' and 'does' and they will tell you that they administer and police these processes.

But in administering these processes have we, as Louise realised, lost sight of our purpose and the people on the receiving end, in our drive for global efficiency are we sacrificing organisational and employee effectiveness?

Certainly a glance at some key human capital statistics makes salutary reading. Though chief executives in my experience have generally totally bought into the concept of employee engagement as the critical underpin of sustained high performance, across Aon Hewitt's European engagement database, just 34% of employees think their pay is fair, barely more perceive any links between their performance and their pay, and few understand how their pay level is determined or appreciate the full value of their rewards package.

The imposition of a 'normal distribution curse' on performance appraisal ratings and fixed pay increase matrices, along with the direct emailing of pay outcomes to employees, leaves managers frustrated and rebellious, and missing major opportunities to reward and recognise their staff. Two-thirds of HR professionals remain unhappy with their performance management process, despite frequent design and process changes in recent years. As one medical secretary told me about the NHS process, she didn't enjoy or felt she benefited from the experience as 'my manager looks at the screen, not at me'. Another light-bulb moment in our re-design of that particular process.

The much-missed professor Sumantra Ghoshal reminded us that great leadership was all about purpose and people, not systems and structures.  If reward management means anything it has to be about the creation of a totally rewarding environment at work, where people want to commit voluntarily to doing their absolute best for their customers and their business.

Reward professionals need to get back to their own core purpose. Are you pursuing the purpose or enslaved by the process?