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29 Mar 2023
by Gemma Carroll

Lee Cortez looks at how to build resilient organisations through reward and benefits

Micro-crises are happening all the time, but can we use these economic shifts as an opportunity to build organisational resilience? Global benefits expert, Lee Cortez, certainly thinks so.

Okta’s Lee Cortez looks at how to build resilient organisations through reward and benefits.jpg

 

During REBA’s recent webinar: Pay in a high inflation economy, run with strategic partner Personal Group/Innecto, Lee Cortez, who has extensive experience working in global benefits with multinationals including Google and Okta, provided some insights as to how you can be responsive and create resilient practices.

Communication considerations

“First and foremost,” said Cortez, “Check and track the real-time lessons that you’re learning.” He went on to explain that, in terms of economic recessions, crises tend to occur in a cyclical manner. As a result, the communication material and type of data you’re using,  as well as the manner in which you’re problem solving to combat a specific crisis today, can all be reused and repurposed another time to help make informed decisions. It’s definitely something to be mindful of while navigating the current cost of living crisis.

Communication can be tricky, though, especially in cases where employees aren’t accessing technology or computers. In these instances, Cortez suggested finding a person that employees consider as a trusted local partner, and building a partnership with them. Equally, creating a communications committee that could help relay messages on your behalf is a viable way to communicate with diverse and distributed workforces. You could also consider how different channels will resonate with different generations.

“TikTok has been quite notable” as a social media platform that fosters engagement. He also referenced the power of nudges in helping drive behavioural outcomes.

Beyond benefits

“It’s also important to be discerning of what’s already there,” Cortez pointed out. As an example, he shared his experience of working with a private medical insurance scheme in the UK where, upon reading the fine print, he discovered that relationships were already in place with discount programmes – for gyms and other perks. 

“It’s revisiting, for a second or third time, your existing portfolio of benefits,” he explained. “Looking for where you could actually further connect employees to benefits (potentially) beyond what that benefit is designed for.”

These challenging times could be seen as an opportunity to look at your benefits to discover if any are underused. If that is the case, he believes there is an opportunity to sunset those programmes and reallocate the budget towards more fitting benefits or initiatives that resonate better with your workforce.

Employee engagement

For Cortez, the final piece of the resilience puzzle is employee engagement. How do you create engaging materials to ensure employees are paying attention to your messages and initiatives relating to rewards and benefits. 

“One way to do this,” he said, “is to connect the dots for employees.” Using financial wellbeing as an example, he argued that it’s important to position benefits offerings in an engaging way. 

To help employees’ financial resilience, “you can say, ‘enjoy the cashback through this programme or cashback scheme, and when you receive  that money you can potentially stash it away as savings, rather than putting it in your checking account or spending it right away’.

“It’s activating pathways for employees,” he concluded. “You’re not necessarily doing anything more, you’re just doing things a bit more creatively.”