Employee Benefits Live 2015: Equinix is moving away from a centralised reward approach to a more locally-focused structure.
The data centre operator previously managed all reward from its head office in the United States, but has put in place a project to structure a regional reward approach.
Addressing delegates at Employee Benefits Live 2015 in Olympia London, Rob Cross (pictured), senior reward manager, explained that prior to the project, all reward expertise sat with the global reward director, who worked with human resources (HR) colleagues. Previous reward was managed by HR business partners in regions such as Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), but the restructure has seen the introduction of regional reward responsibility, explained Cross.
The organisation has created an EMEA reward centre of excellence, linked to the global reward strategy in order to drive the right behaviours among employees and encourage managers to make reward decisions.
Cross gathered reward feedback from around the business in order to establish priorities in EMEA. This found that annual reward processes were rushed, communications were vague, and grade audits were required. The new priorities included improved clarity around annual incentive plans and harmonisation of the fixed cash allowance.
Cross explained that although reward is moving towards a regional focus, there is recognition that each country is different and that there is not necessarily one solution for all.
