Establishing a documented reward strategy and obtaining a budget for reward provision are still outside the reach of a number of employers.

Just 29% say that they have a documented reward strategy in place, while 45% have difficulty in obtaining a reward budget, according to Employee rewards watch by Thomsons Online Benefits.

Just over a third (35%), meanwhile, claim they lack the ability to measure the success of new reward initiatives, and more than four-in-ten companies claim they can't report on their total reward costs or don't know whether they can. A further 38.58% don't know how much their organisation spends on employee benefits, although this is a 7% improvement year-on-year.

Michael Whitfield, chief executive officer of Thomsons Online Benefits, said: "Reward is one of the largest costs in any business and in the increasingly difficult economic climate HR professionals can expect to be put under increasing pressure to demonstrate that this spend is being properly directed."