Ask ten employees what they value most about their job, and you’ll probably receive ten different answers. One may mention a strong health plan, while another praises the company for its flexibility. Other employees prioritize promotions, managers who notice good work, or wellness perks.
HR leaders and business owners are facing this challenge as total rewards evolve from a pay-and-benefits conversation into a full employee experience strategy. Businesses that keep focusing solely on paying competitively run the risk of falling behind. Here’s what you need to be doing instead.
What’s Driving the Change in Total Rewards?
Total rewards have become harder to deliver. In a recent SHRM profile of a CHRO’s approach, experts offered their insights into the total rewards challenge. The shift is a culmination of multigenerational workforces, regulations, pay transparency, and cost pressures.
Leaders cite the following as top challenges they face when managing and building their workforces:
- Wage inflation
- Demanding candidate expectations
- Rising operating costs
Total rewards used to mean pay, benefits, and retirement packages. Now, it covers recognition, career development, flexibility, and the employee experience as a whole. If you stop calculating salary and insurance, you could be underselling what you offer.
Benchmark Before You Build
Don’t blow up your rewards package and start from scratch, or at least not without measuring first. Benchmark your rewards and see if your offerings are near the market median. How you frame your benefits and educate employees about the resources available to them play a huge role in the rewards experience.
Your benchmarking process should cover the following:
- Base pay
- Incentives
- Retirement contributions
- PTO
- Flexibility
- Development support
Compare your business to similar employers in your industry and region. Next, factor in turnover, engagement, and exit interview data.
Add Professional Development and More to the Mix
Improving your total rewards does not have to lead to runaway cost increases. Here are some ways to make your business a more appealing landing spot for talented applicants while also reframing your messaging:
- Highlight professional development opportunities, such as tuition assistance, certifications, conferences, and mentorship
- Offer clear advancement criteria so employees can see a future with you
- Provide schedule or location flexibility where possible
- Recognize employees for the hard work they do
- Provide financial planning support, which adds value without hitting your budget hard
- Promote employee well-being with mental health resources and wellness programs
Many of these cost less than ATB raises, and they send a signal that you are invested in your team members.
Execution Is Where You’ll Succeed or Fail
You can build a package that looks strong on paper, but it can still fail if employees don’t understand it. You need to address that sentiment by making perks clear, accessible, and easy to use. Educate your employees on total reward offerings at onboarding and periodically remind them of what’s available through internal communications.
Use analytics tools to identify which resources employees are accessing and which are being underused. If a benefit isn’t being utilized adequately, determine whether it’s an access issue, a lack of knowledge, or a lack of interest among your workforce. Replace unpopular perks with in-demand ones that require a similar amount of time and resources to implement.
Where to Start
If you want to reassess your total rewards offerings and make meaningful changes, you need to:
- Audit everything
- Benchmark against your market
- Identify gaps that matter to the talent you want to keep
- Add selectively, with a focus on professional development
- Communicate clearly and consistently
Talk to your workforce and find out what perks they would like to see. While you can’t implement every idea, adding a few of the more practical solutions to your rewards mix shows you are listening.
Let’s Look at Your Total Rewards Together
Total rewards, along with what matters to your workforce, keep changing. Companies that thrive will measure themselves honestly and deliver value to workers in ways that matter. AssetHR offers comprehensive consulting and HR management solutions. Our team can help you see how your offerings stack up.
Contact us to get the conversation started.