If you plan to continue competing for and retaining top talent, you must realize that the paradigm has changed: the pandemic is wreaking havoc on tried-and-true workplace models. For example, employees increasingly want more than a fat pay and benefits package. More and more, they’re reevaluating where they want to work and why they want to work there. Then you have remote work, which doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. So, reinventing your total rewards strategy is paramount. Read on for more.
What is a Total Rewards Strategy?
A total rewards strategy is essentially a system put in place by an organization that provides monetary, beneficial, and developmental rewards to employees who meet certain business objectives. The strategy melds pay and benefits with personal growth opportunities.
What Are Key Elements of a Total Rewards Strategy?
Such strategies typically include compensation, benefits, recognition, professional development, and work-life balance. Let’s look closer:
- Compensation. This traditionally refers to an employee’s base salary or hourly wage, but profit-sharing and bonuses also count. Meanwhile, benefits include pension programs and vacation time.
- Professional development and recognition. This refers to a wide range of learning and advancement opportunities like mentoring and tuition reimbursement. For instance, an employer might pay for a workshop that may lead to personal advancement. In terms of recognition, that can be casual acknowledgement or something more formal, like an employee-of-the-month program.
- Work-life balance. You want your staffers to be able to meet personal goals as well as personal obligations. Perhaps you’ll allow some employees to work a day a week from home to accommodate their child’s or spouse’s schedule. Maybe an employer will provide a childcare subsidy or offer help with stress management.
What Are the Best Kinds of Reward Strategies?
Simply put, the most effective rewards strategies are those that are derived from data and analytics. This is where Mercer can help. The longtime, reputable consultant can help you attract, retain, engage, and motivate your workforce. Here’s how:
- Through establishment of a total rewards strategy. Removing all guesswork or subconscious biases, Mercer uses analytics for total rewards to figure out your workforce, shutter skills gaps, and improves staffer engagement and retention.
- By building agility. In today’s work world, you simply must be nimble. You must be able to pivot. Mercer facilitates this by putting together a skills-enabled career framework that connects crucial human resources processes. If you have a job architecture that matches pay and benefits with positions, career paths, and labor markets, you can shift gears as needed.
- Through optimizing ROI. With the various models that are, as we speak, redefining work – remote, flexible, and digital – you can promote flexibility and inclusion. You can improve your workforce adaptability and performance, all while making the most of allocation and return on incentive investments.
How Does Mercer Approach Total Rewards?
For one thing, the firm considers multiple perspectives, including yours and your employees, plus market dictates and cost. Mercer also uses data to gauge employee sentiment and behavior and uncovers workforce segments that have unique needs and values.
Reinventing your total rewards strategy is no longer an option. It’s an imperative for employers who want to lure, motivate, and keep talent. And isn’t that every organization? Employee needs and expectations are expanding, so you must be equipped with the right rewards and incentives and be agile at the same time. After all, the current climate is fluid, and you never know what awaits. Do your level best to be prepared.