Value of appropriate rewarding of staff

Lots of employees still think that their annual salary is their “worth” to their employer, and only focus on increasing this, seeing it as increasing their value to their employer.

However, organisations are looking wider to provide employees with a total reward package, of which, annual salary is a major factor.

Total reward encompasses all aspects of work that are valued by the employee.

Organisations that are responding to the changing desires of employees and delivering how they want to be compensated for their employment, have higher employee engagement and employee motivation and tend to be a more successful organisation.

Rewards are viewed differently by employees depending upon their differing demographic.

Therefore providing a suite of rewards where employees can select the ones most appropriate for their circumstances seems to be a good way forward. Total reward tends to include the areas of performance and recognition, work/ life balance, organisational culture, and employee development and career opportunities, and is a key part of the business and human resource strategy.

So what options are there for employers? There are the obvious options, company cars, enhanced pension contributions, private medical health, additional holiday entitlement. But as previously mentioned, depending upon the employee demographic, these may not be attractive or seen as a reward. Gym membership, discounts with retailers, a dedicated car parking space, could be the personal reward that an individual employee is looking for. Innovative ideas that meet your employees desires of reward can be tricky as “one size does not fit all”, therefore a range of rewards for employees is a fair way forward.

Also for some additional benefits, employees could have a “value” to spend dependent upon their grade, position, salary and it could be the answer some people are looking for. There are other ideas, such as flexible working, however it is a statutory entitlement for all employees to be able to request this, so how can an employer turn this into a reward? Perhaps employers could move away from the statutory “only one request per 12 months” to “as and when the employees’ circumstances change.”

Discussion with your employees, may help you create a wide and appropriate program of rewards that will not only meet the needs of your existing employees, but will also assist your retainment of them and attraction of new employees.

Well worth the financial investment in a reward strategy in comparison to recruitment costs!