Agility is not a new concept; it has trended in the past and especially today has true relevance as organizations mobilize towards a redefined way of work. As companies switch gears, reimagining work performance and execution, Rewards Professionals similarly need to reassess “how we do rewards.”
A primary objective of agility is to adapt swiftly with minimal disruption. The following are just a few integrative approaches organizations can leverage in strengthening alignment between business and rewards.
- Monitoring key developments and changes: Stay abreast on external changes that may affect your annual HR activities and related polices. For many organizations, the pandemic has placed considerable strain on salary budgets. To handle these types of external disruptors companies can seek refuge by deploying scenario-type modeling techniques.
Stress testing against potentially adverse situations equips organisations to manage their reward programs in a more cost-effective way. Being pragmatic allows us to seek alternative solutions in handling merit allocation, managing group health insurance, and deploying cost-sharing or renewed pension design strategies.
- Proactively engaging with employees: Enhance your existing programs, tools, and processes in ways that facilitate more meaningful employee feedback and interaction. Consider additional checkpoints beyond the standard annual engagement survey. This will provide increased access to data and lead time to synthesize the information and formulate ways to respond.
- Reward innovation: Re-evaluate your current incentive programs and ensure recognition is rewarding behaviors that are business-aligned, are measurable (especially with remote work), and most importantly understood by all participants. Implement and re-focus rewards towards ideation, efficiency, and customer service.
- Increase investment in innovative technologies: Rapid technology growth presents a foreseen opportunity to utilize rewards systems and platforms to derive key workforce insights. Capitalizing on human capital data can better equip HR to address issues of turnover, pay gaps, and other lingering inequities.
Thriving in today’s new normal requires an integrative and holistic approach, meaning all components of your business and total rewards model should be part of the organization’s agility plan.
Reena Paul (CCP, GRP) is a Senior Consultant with Morneau Shepell’s Compensation Consulting Team. She is passionate for all things “total rewards” and has experience in dealing with all stakeholders of an organization and strategizing optimum client focused solutions. A lover of data and the story it tells, Reena enjoys the exploration of presenting and discussing compensation with a fresh perspective. Connect with Reena on LinkedIn, or contact her directly at [email protected].
Creative Commons Image "Lightbulb" courtesy of John Head
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