The need to think beyond just compensation
With the IT industry having an optimistic outlook for the year ahead, the competition between organizations for attracting and retaining talent is going to be high. Hence apart from just direct compensation, programs like work-life balance, career development and performance management are crucial business responses for the ever changing workplace. Organizations that are interested in maintaining a diverse workforce, retain experienced and knowledgeable employees and attract new talent cannot afford to overlook the value such programs bring to balance the concerns of today’s workforce. In fact many organizations have already started using initiatives like flexi-timings, extended maternity/paternity leaves, Management development programs, job enrichment etc. to help recruit and retain employees.
Senior Management and HR practitioners can affect employee engagement and retention by first understanding the other things an employee values, apart from compensation, in today’s workplace and then championing strategies that maximize the effectiveness of those initiatives. Introducing such programs can help in improving employee morale and retention, reduce unscheduled time off, and increase overall organizational performance.
Current trends in employee rewards and benefits opportunity in India
With India becoming fast integrated to the global workforce, the basic themes of various employee rewards and benefits are starting to look similar. Most organization while benchmarking themselves against the best practices of the leading companies in the industry are quickly adapting themselves to offer the same value proposition which most employees look for. Some of these are stated below:
• Incentives – linked to both individual and organizational performance, which gives employee an upside to their basic (fixed) compensation and benefits.
• Insurance - health cover for self and dependents
• Child care (extended Maternity/Paternity leave) – caring for a newborn, especially for the mother, which often takes priority mostly during the first year.
• Sabbatical - for pursuing higher education or personal projects that a person wants to go in for at a given time or phase in one’s career.
• Early (phased) retirement – for people typically over 50 who want to disengage from work, due to health or other personal reasons, without waiting for the mandatory retirement age.
• Career planning – where the entire career for a recognized talent is planned right at the time of induction and ensure that the person progresses smoothly into their desired role in the organisation.
The importance of creating a Total Rewards strategies
A Total Rewards strategy is aimed to cover all aspects of EVP (Employee Value Proposition) so that based on each individual’s specific needs or aspirations, compensation benefits, recognition, career-planning etc. can be done. A good Total Rewards strategy aligns the needs of an individual with the expectation of the organization to create a win-win situation in the following ways:
• Addresses the employees immediate and future concerns – they have time to manage the issues better that seem either more important at a particular point in their career.
• Reduction of mental stress – arising due to a mismatch of work expectations and anticipated reward/recognition, especially when there is a conflict in prioritizing work-life issues.
• Better Delegation of work to the right candidate – as the person taking up higher responsibilities gets rewarded accordingly.
• Improved Planning and execution of activities – helps the employee to be more driven to accomplish what he/she wants to accomplish in a given time frame.
• Reduction of Unnecessary or Low-Value work – helps an employee decide whether his/her presence in a meeting or training program adds value or not.
• Requires Less Reporting – as the employee becomes more independent, supervision time and related costs are likely to be reduced.
• Higher Work Satisfaction and Productivity – having flexibility at workplace makes an employee more productive as they are engaged in their roles and openly discuss with their manager on their performance related issues.
Using Total Rewards to improve performance and reduce attrition
Most organisations have adapted various Total Rewards program to address their workforce’s expectations and ensure high levels of employee engagement and reduce attrition. Our organization has put the following programs to address our employees’ special needs:
Compensation & Benefits:
• Incentives and Esops – based on individual and company’s performance.
• Group Health Insurance – extended up to 5 dependents
Work-Life Balance:
• Alternate work timings – For the general shift, instead of having a fixed login time we have split the login times into blocks of half an hour. Hence instead of a start time of 9 am, an employee can come anytime between 9am to 10 am as per his or her commuting time. The logout time (work-hours) for the employee is calculated based on his/her preferred login time.
• Part-time work - For some employees with ongoing family obligations, a permanent part-time schedule is sometime considered. This is however typically restricted to non-critical and support staff only.
• Extended Maternity leave – above the legal minimum often allowed to staff based on their requests.
• Special (concierge) services – assisting in investment/tax planning’s, health checkups, handling insurance (health) claims and settling bills, making dinner reservations with good discount for group outings etc.
Rewards & Recognition:
• Star of the Quarter Award – certificate and gift voucher to the best performers in each team.
• Internal Certifications – for technology and/or domain experts.
Career Planning:
• Job Enrichment – increasing or modifying the scope of work and making a person cross-trained in more than one product or technology. Ensuring the organizational skill is cumulatively increasing year on year.
• Coaching & Mentoring – checking the aspirations of each employee and matching them against their current and future job profiles. Highlighting the areas of improvements and ensuring that focused training, formal and on-the-job, is done to improve performance.
• Talent Management Program (TMP) – where a group of Sr. Managers, forming the TMP committee, plan the various developmental and career management programs to ensure proper succession planning.
With the IT industry having an optimistic outlook for the year ahead, the competition between organizations for attracting and retaining talent is going to be high. Hence apart from just direct compensation, programs like work-life balance, career development and performance management are crucial business responses for the ever changing workplace. Organizations that are interested in maintaining a diverse workforce, retain experienced and knowledgeable employees and attract new talent cannot afford to overlook the value such programs bring to balance the concerns of today’s workforce. In fact many organizations have already started using initiatives like flexi-timings, extended maternity/paternity leaves, Management development programs, job enrichment etc. to help recruit and retain employees.
Senior Management and HR practitioners can affect employee engagement and retention by first understanding the other things an employee values, apart from compensation, in today’s workplace and then championing strategies that maximize the effectiveness of those initiatives. Introducing such programs can help in improving employee morale and retention, reduce unscheduled time off, and increase overall organizational performance.
Current trends in employee rewards and benefits opportunity in India
With India becoming fast integrated to the global workforce, the basic themes of various employee rewards and benefits are starting to look similar. Most organization while benchmarking themselves against the best practices of the leading companies in the industry are quickly adapting themselves to offer the same value proposition which most employees look for. Some of these are stated below:
• Incentives – linked to both individual and organizational performance, which gives employee an upside to their basic (fixed) compensation and benefits.
• Insurance - health cover for self and dependents
• Child care (extended Maternity/Paternity leave) – caring for a newborn, especially for the mother, which often takes priority mostly during the first year.
• Sabbatical - for pursuing higher education or personal projects that a person wants to go in for at a given time or phase in one’s career.
• Early (phased) retirement – for people typically over 50 who want to disengage from work, due to health or other personal reasons, without waiting for the mandatory retirement age.
• Career planning – where the entire career for a recognized talent is planned right at the time of induction and ensure that the person progresses smoothly into their desired role in the organisation.
The importance of creating a Total Rewards strategies
A Total Rewards strategy is aimed to cover all aspects of EVP (Employee Value Proposition) so that based on each individual’s specific needs or aspirations, compensation benefits, recognition, career-planning etc. can be done. A good Total Rewards strategy aligns the needs of an individual with the expectation of the organization to create a win-win situation in the following ways:
• Addresses the employees immediate and future concerns – they have time to manage the issues better that seem either more important at a particular point in their career.
• Reduction of mental stress – arising due to a mismatch of work expectations and anticipated reward/recognition, especially when there is a conflict in prioritizing work-life issues.
• Better Delegation of work to the right candidate – as the person taking up higher responsibilities gets rewarded accordingly.
• Improved Planning and execution of activities – helps the employee to be more driven to accomplish what he/she wants to accomplish in a given time frame.
• Reduction of Unnecessary or Low-Value work – helps an employee decide whether his/her presence in a meeting or training program adds value or not.
• Requires Less Reporting – as the employee becomes more independent, supervision time and related costs are likely to be reduced.
• Higher Work Satisfaction and Productivity – having flexibility at workplace makes an employee more productive as they are engaged in their roles and openly discuss with their manager on their performance related issues.
Using Total Rewards to improve performance and reduce attrition
Most organisations have adapted various Total Rewards program to address their workforce’s expectations and ensure high levels of employee engagement and reduce attrition. Our organization has put the following programs to address our employees’ special needs:
Compensation & Benefits:
• Incentives and Esops – based on individual and company’s performance.
• Group Health Insurance – extended up to 5 dependents
Work-Life Balance:
• Alternate work timings – For the general shift, instead of having a fixed login time we have split the login times into blocks of half an hour. Hence instead of a start time of 9 am, an employee can come anytime between 9am to 10 am as per his or her commuting time. The logout time (work-hours) for the employee is calculated based on his/her preferred login time.
• Part-time work - For some employees with ongoing family obligations, a permanent part-time schedule is sometime considered. This is however typically restricted to non-critical and support staff only.
• Extended Maternity leave – above the legal minimum often allowed to staff based on their requests.
• Special (concierge) services – assisting in investment/tax planning’s, health checkups, handling insurance (health) claims and settling bills, making dinner reservations with good discount for group outings etc.
Rewards & Recognition:
• Star of the Quarter Award – certificate and gift voucher to the best performers in each team.
• Internal Certifications – for technology and/or domain experts.
Career Planning:
• Job Enrichment – increasing or modifying the scope of work and making a person cross-trained in more than one product or technology. Ensuring the organizational skill is cumulatively increasing year on year.
• Coaching & Mentoring – checking the aspirations of each employee and matching them against their current and future job profiles. Highlighting the areas of improvements and ensuring that focused training, formal and on-the-job, is done to improve performance.
• Talent Management Program (TMP) – where a group of Sr. Managers, forming the TMP committee, plan the various developmental and career management programs to ensure proper succession planning.
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