While many companies are looking to improve their rewards offering to employees, getting it right can be a major challenge.
While more and more companies have the right idea when it comes to introducing effective rewards programs, research by Deloitte shows that currently rewards programs aren’t meeting the needs of employees.
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends survey (2019) found that only 33% of employees feel their company is ready to address the issue of rewards and fewer than half feel their company’s rewards strategy aligns with company goals.
So, what do company’s need to do?
- Use rewards to improve relationships
It’s not just about creating an attractive rewards proposition. Gift vouchers and extra time off are great rewards, but rewards should be used not just in response to good performance but to help create and embed an employee experience that is conducive to what employees are looking for.
By building a reward proposition this way, the employer is building a relationship with employees through reward rather than simply putting a program in place that is one-size-fits-all or simply there to recognise service and effort.
For example, where employers view compensation and benefits primarily as rewards in recognition of service and effort, they should instead reframe rewards as a way to reinforce achievement and motivate high performance.
2. Make your rewards suit everyone in your diverse workplace
According to Deloitte’s research, “Not understanding what’s most important to employees” was highlighted by employees as the biggest barrier to changing their company’s rewards strategy.
Understanding your workforce and designing your rewards accordingly will undoubtedly produce the best results.
Try aligning your rewards with your organisation’s goals, objectives and brand.
For example, if you’re a company that is looking to attract a lot of early-career, highly educated employees then try adapting your rewards to focus on helping with student debt.
Alternatively, if you’re a company that is agile and innovative then highlight how frequently you review and adapt your reward offering compared to other companies that go with a more typical, year-end process.
3. Get creative with how your rewards program works!
Some companies use points-based reward systems or programs where employees can choose the rewards that are most valuable to them.
Say an individual, team or the whole company reaches a milestone or achieves something worthy of recognition, they could be allocated points or a pot which they can use to spend on rewards or benefits of their choice.
Say you’ve got holiday trading or dining out cards on offer to employees, they could use their points or their pot on either of these or another benefit you offer employees!
4. Use data!
The best performing companies use data and analysis to understand what their employees want when it comes to rewards.
This can be done in a number of ways.
For example, if you’ve got a reward point system in place as mentioned, you could use data gathered from this to see which employees prefer which rewards and tailor your rewards strategy and communications to this going forward.
Say your company reaches a milestone and you decide to reward employees with reward points to spend on a benefit or reward of their choice. Holiday trading might prove to be a popular choice among employees, so future benefits communication can be tailored to suit this!
5. Communicate rewards effectively
According to Deloitte’s research, only 18% of respondents said their company has a “very transparent” model to communicate pay information.
It’s one thing having a great reward strategy in place, it’s another communicating those rewards to employees.
Often the rewards available for an employee will change over time, or if they migrate to a different role. As part of this process, it’s important to incorporate rewards communication.
Having a good communications strategy in place that considers company emails, physical handouts and flyers and all the ways employees can be contacted by the company will get the most out of your rewards strategy.
The key to improving retention and recruitment with reward is being different from other employers! Try these and implement a reward program that is highly effective and popular with your staff!