Jenny Davidson (pictured), former director of compensation and benefits at CSC, will speak at Employee Benefits Live on 26 September about proving return on investment (ROI) on reward and benefits spend in the current economic environment.
Employee Benefits asked her a few key questions.
1. What has been your biggest challenge in 2013?
CSC is in the middle of a complete business turnaround with a new chief executive officer (CEO) and management team, and a huge cost take-out programme underway. The challenge for the business has been to reduce the number of levels of management below the CEO from 13 to eight, thus enabling more effective decision-making as well as cost reduction.
The reward team has supported this initiative by leading on defining a new global job framework and aligning market data to the new roles. At the same time, the reward function has been at the forefront of helping CSC to change from having an entitlement culture to more of a pay-for-performance culture, by redesigning all elements of the reward package and equipping managers with the tools to be able to differentiate pay based on the outcome of performance reviews.
2. What issues or challenges is the industry currently facing?
Most organisations are feeling the effects of the economy and are therefore trying to do more with less. Since reward is usually the largest portion of the cost base of a business, we are all faced with the challenge of motivating and engaging employees, and are analysing what reward element has the biggest impact for both employees and the business.
3. What are the most important messages for people to take away from your session?
I hope people will leave my session with some ideas on what they can do to help their own organisation address the issue of ‘how to do more with less’.
4. What’s the next trend or hot topic we can expect to see around your topic?
I believe we are about to see organisations focus much more on what employees really value in their reward package, and how, by segmenting the workforce, an employer can provide the optimal level of pay mix and benefits to improve employee engagement.
5. What do you most enjoy about your job?
I enjoy the fact that I deal[t] with all the stakeholders within [the] organisation: the CEO and compensation committee, local management, employees and trade unions/works councils. It is fascinating to think about the reward package from all perspectives and how this links to the way in which we communicate reward to all these interested parties.
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