Untangling Rewards to Enable

For most rewards professionals we can recognize that a compensation program that considers intention in its design will be a package consisting of a myriad of pieces, extending beyond the traditional pie chart we are accustomed to seeing on annual reward statements.  Employees are instead seeking a rewarding career, one that creates a sense of emotion tied to value, purpose, and fulfillment.

Stepping beyond base pay, there is an increased need for workplace cultures and environments to redefine themselves and put in focus their value proposition, centered on today's working construct.  Investing in our employees is much more dynamic and all-encompassing.  Our pay programs traditionally have been designed with a primary objective to attract and retain key talent, but once talent has been acquired it is within our best interest to set our workforce up for success.  Motivation and engagement is a two-way street, partially influenced by the employer, while the rest is impacted by the individual’s sense of the call to action or desire to execute the task at hand.

Establishing a workplace foundation that enables versus constricts is as valuable as providing a competitive wage.  For many working professionals, particularly top performers, having the autonomy, flexibility, and latitude to innovate and generate is a necessary stimulant to produce great work.  Subsequently, most incentive or pay-for-performance mechanisms are linked to an individual’s output.  Hence, all the more reason for employers to define the ultimate pay mix as being a compilation of tangible and intangible pay-related ingredients.

For many, we live in a workplace dynamic which includes an expectation of remote work capability.  Our ability to quickly transition, mobilize and accept this way of work demonstrated that, as employers, we do have it within us to respond and adapt to new working norms.  This is exactly why our response to the raging war on talent will require another rapid paradigm shift to overcome this hurdle.  Meaning again, the need to go beyond the pay quotient.  Consider, for a moment, if you are truly investing in your employees.  Are they equipped and enabled with the right tools, systems, and process improvement abilities to get work done?  More importantly, do they have the access they need and as few obstacles in their way?  

If the answer is no or if you are unsure, then best to investigate.  The simplest starting point is to consider your own work.  What is limiting you from moving on to the next task?  Upon whom are you reliant for decisions?  What potential system is your Achilles heel, and simply working against you instead of with you?

Employees seek to have a clear line of sight.  Granted, challenges will come, but the frequency and extent of how much they drag progression down can present an exhausting battle to contend with.  When the majority of staff have the desire to provide a meaningful contribution, it is in the best interest of employers and leaders alike to lay the foundation by investing in a total rewards package that provides versus prohibits.  Doing so will impact your ability to not only retain but can be the specific ingredient for facilitating high performance and seeing a real return on investment.

Reena Paul (CCP, GRP) works as a Senior Compensation Consultant.  She is passionate about 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 directly on  LinkedIn. 

Image source: Unsplash image with credit to Alistair MacRobert

Comments

[E James (jim) Brennan]

Correct, Lena, but untangling interrelated total reward programs is extremely difficult and often impossible. Folks cling to their assumed rights.

Bureaucrats protect their rice bowls. Managers are reluctant to abandon the compensation tools they have found useful for both power and control. Beneficiaries of rewards assigned by legacy programs are also quite unwilling to passively permit the abandonment of old schemes they liked. They prefer perpetual continuation of their prior bennies and want new ones as well. All past remuneration becomes an entitlement, justified as a foundation for future enhancements... without take-aways.

Since rewards deal with human nature, it is difficult to persuade workers to forget past reinforcement schemes and to focus instead on new, hopefully more effective ones. Determining the value of the new "pie pieces" for any particular workforce will become another tremendous challenge, as well.