We saw how the evolution of the Total Rewards philosophy has enabled organisations to create a bespoke suite of rewards and incentives that will be attractive to employees at different times and career stages. There is a wide range of alternative strategies and methodologies that Top Employers are using to implement their philosophies.One of the key strategies we have seen is the increasing emphasis on recognition, and the way that recognition programmes can combine monetary and non-monetary elements as parts of the Total Reward framework. We have seen recognition included in overall compensation strategy to reward unique business contributions which are not recognised elsewhere. One participant implemented a recognition platform enabling employees to recognise each other’s contributions and achievements in a variety of quick and convenient ways, irrespective of countries, functions or sites. This included accomplishments and the exhibiting of behaviours aligned with the organisation’s
core competencies.
Nominated employees gained points that were redeemable for gifts or vouchers, or could be used towards charitable donations. For talent attraction and retention, rewards have to be an integral part of a compelling Employer Value Proposition.
With social and digital platforms enabling transparency around the employment experience, the communication of such a culture through employees’ online conversations or reviews can only help with the attraction of new talent. Another participant’s programme talks of embedding a culture of recognition at all levels to help motivate staff and recognise employee contributions. We have also seen examples of Excellence Award schemes based on employee recognition of colleagues who make a noteworthy or exceptional contribution to the business.
In the last trend (see full report) we saw how Total Reward Statements can make the monetary value of rewards more transparent, but in some cases (eg training) no real measure of the benefit gained. With non-monetary rewards, the real value is in how the employee feels and performs, with the resulting improvement in motivation, engagement and productivity. This means that finding ways to measure the effectiveness of compensation strategies becomes increasingly important.
The most popular measurements amongst our participants are external benchmarking (89%) employee surveys (82%) and results from exit interviews (75%). One interesting development is the use of the acceptance rate of job offers as a way of evaluating effectiveness, which 53% do. This is a good way to assess the impact of reward strategies on talent attraction. Only 3% of participants do not measure the effectiveness of their Compensation & Benefits strategies at all.
Four key trends
‘Strategic use of total rewards for talent management’ is one of the four key trends we have identified in the Compensation & Benefits report. These four trends are shaping the way Compensation & Benefits can be used strategically to deal with talent attraction and retention issues.
Each one recognises the variety of ways in which employees now find job satisfaction, be it how performance is rewarded or acknowledging the need for healthier work patterns.
Download the full Compensation & Benefits report to learn all about the current trends in Compensation & Benefits and how organisations deal with these trends in their business processes.
