Looking at the bigger picture of reward

When asked to consider reward in the context of our job, many of us will immediately think of money. However, as an HR director, I find the most value in thinking about the non-financial aspects of reward, especially when businesses are experiencing pressure to keep staff costs down.

Whether you are cash poor or cash rich as an employer, keeping your people on-side and engaged is unlikely to happen by simply throwing money at them. Their whole experience of work is what will determine whether they stay with you, and whether they are motivated to do their best work for you and your clients.

Keeping a promise

At Hymans Robertson we call this our employee “promise”. We “promise” to do all that we can to make your role with us the best job you ever have. Yes, of course we pay competitive salaries and bonuses, but in my view they are the hygiene factors that pay the bills and allow people to have holidays and provide for their families, etc.

The non-financial rewards can be both tangible and non-tangible and even the less easy ones to define, for example culture, are highly valuable and worth highlighting as a benefit - just as we would highlight traditional benefits like pension contributions and holidays.

Our “promise” is therefore a collection of financial and non-financial rewards, colourfully illustrated in an infographic that paints a picture of what working for Hymans Robertson will feel like.

Having made this promise, we work very hard to keep it. That is no small commitment in itself, but one we feel comfortable we can keep and which pays dividends for everyone in our firm.

How do employees feel?

How people feel about their employer is probably the most important aspect to consider in non-financial reward terms. The “how we do things around here” factor. Park for a moment the “head led” aspects like career and skills development and consider what leads your heart.

If you skip into work every day you are a lucky person, but why should we have to be lucky to feel that way? Wouldn’t it be great if all employers tried their best to make their employees feel good about their work? It would then be less of a random roll of the dice as to whether you are going to find an employer that makes you feel like skipping into work, or one that simply pays you a monthly salary but offers no shared emotional connection.

Of course, it would be naïve to think all employers and employees are going to have this meeting of minds, but the act of caring, and demonstrating that, is a great step towards delivering on such a goal.

The importance of caring

Caring means committing effort and thought into things like your reward systems, how you bring people into your business and how you engage and communicate with your people. It means taking a longer-term perspective, considering how you foster a values-based culture and how you follow through to ensure its continuance by standing firm when other pressures push you in the opposite direction.

We may not be successful all the time for all employees, but by taking this considered approach we are much more likely to create a workforce that is happy, engaged and committed - and that won’t jump ship the first time someone offers a few more pounds on their salary.

There are some who would say this approach to reward is all a bit soft and fluffy; I say it is the most powerful commercial approach you can apply.

Gill Tait is HR director and partner at Hymans Robertson.

This article was provided by Hymans Robertson.