How organizations are redefining rewards

Rewards are essentially about the employee-employer relation and how external and internal factors play on motivation and engagement of the employees. From aspects like compensation, benefits, professional & personal development, flexibility and achieving work-life balance, organizations are leaving no stone unturned in trying to achieve workforce engagement and motivation. From knowing what is meaningful to the talent to developing sophisticated reward approaches in tune with employee expectations, employers are rethinking their strategies to align rewards with business objectives and employee requirements. Increasing planned investments on wellness, coaching/mentoring, culture and recognition, organizations have started to calibrate and realize the importance of implementing and communicating rewards policies to the employees.

The total rewards landscape has been transformed and disrupted by changes within the business and economic ecosystem. Rewards are now looked at holistically and are integrated with key elements of business functioning.Also, although companies agree that compensation still remains an important factor, other aspects like health and wellness and flexible benefits are rising as important components of the total rewards structure. The trend of associating rewards programs and employee value proposition with the employer brand is gaining momentum. Today, along with the tangible awards, organizations are also realizing the importance of intangible rewards like recognition, appreciation and empowerment. Organizations are increasingly allowing employees to innovate and collaborate. “Make sure that your intangible rewards speak the same language of performance and success as your tangible rewards” according to Bhavna Sud, Director, Hay Group India. Lipika Verma, Director Rewards, India and Pacific, Schneider states that “Our main challenge has been on the recognition side were we found that not enough was being done by the managers to recognize the efforts of the employees. We came up with a social recognition platform.”  

Rewards and benefits are now treated as more of strategic options for the HR and the organizations.The idea is to enable and ensure that the employee is able to achieve their potential. Combining compensation and benefits with performance is a key factor to motivate and retain talent, especially millennials. Along with this, enabling employees to leverage what the organization offers forms an important aspect that assures long-term benefits. According to SV Nathan, Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte, “With more millennials coming in, they require a different set of benefits from what has been traditionally offered.  This also needs an investment in the required tools to make the system transparent and accessible.  Our young employees also look for ways to have access to money that they can spend on their own learning. So my aim is to see whether we can facilitate such efforts.  Looking at our older partners, the focus is more on the long term benefits.  The way to look at these initiatives is to make them customizable rather than brushing the entire segment with one kind of compensation or benefits plan.”

Rewards system has now become an extension of the human capital management framework that seeks to increase organizational development along with providing employees with a conducive social environment.  This feature looks at how organizations are revisiting their total rewards framework.

We will publish 2 articles from the below list eveyday. 

• Bharti Airtel board’s eye view of Total Rewards - Srikant Balachandran, CHRO, Bharti Airtel
  
  
• Facts and trends in compensation globally - Anandorup Ghose, Partner - Talent and Rewards, Aon Hewitt
  
  
• What rewards would look like in the workplace of the future? - Padmaja Alaganandan, Partner and Leader - People & Organization Consulting, PWC
  
  
• How to incorporate ESOPs as a reward strategy? - Sonu Iyer, Partner and Leader - India Region, People Advisory Services, Ernst &Young
  
  
• A guide to a Total Reward strategy - Kulin Patel, Director Client Account Management, Willis Tower Watson & Sambhav Rakyan, Global Data Services Practice Leader - Asia Pacific, Willis Tower Watson
  
  
• How to align your rewards and business strategy - Bhavna Sud, Director, Hay Group India
  
  
• People-focused & mission-driven - Facebook's Reward Strategy - Genevieve Lim, APAC Head of Total Rewards, Facebook