HR REWARD AND BENEFITS | WELCOME Reward fuels strategy T


he title of this supplement is ‘reward on the board’, but given the climate, it could quite easily have been ‘bored of reward’. A sweeping generalisation, but with cuts within the public sector


showing no sign of let-up and with the private sector perpetually braced itself for a much- anticipated double-dip recession, this is not the year to be flaunting bumper pay rises, gold-plated pensions, jumbo bonuses and luxury company car schemes. In the ‘new normal for business’, cash is short, cost savings have to be made and in lieu of redundancies, the obvious place to batten down the hatches is in the field of reward and employee benefits, isn’t it? But, in saying that, if you take any


typical conversation in a pub after work on a Friday night, over drinks, friends will not be talking about new client wins for their employer, a training course they are being sent on or the fact they have been placed in a ‘talent pipeline’ – but their plans for getting a mortgage, saving for their children’s future university degrees or even their retirement. None of these aspirations would be


possible without reward from their employer. Be honest, would you do your job – no matter how much satisfaction you take from it – without the awaited pay cheque at the end of every calendar month? I imagine most people would give the same answer. And when you consider reward and


benefits in that context, it is not difficult to appreciate why pay – frozen, cut or ‘excessive’ – makes national headlines at least once every week, why as many as 400,000 public sector staff took to the streets to protest against pension changes earlier this year and indeed why HR professionals spend months of the year, every year, embroiled in the pay review process. As our overview (page 4) suggests, reward is the fuel that drives people strategy;


high achievers, if a competitor flashes a pay rise their way, especially if they have been disengaged by pay freezes, or levelling down of employee benefits. It is easy for HR magazine to say, as


budgets are cut and pensions costs in the private sector look set to increase as auto-enrolment begins to claw its way into businesses next month, that it is time for HR directors to be more innovative in devising a solution to this mounting problem. Given that our reward gurus argue that HR can’t ‘ring-fence’ this strategy any more and finance and even the CEO are moving to take responsibility for it themselves, there is a threat HR directors could see any responsibility for benefits slipping away from them as the present economic turbulence continues. But as it happens, I don’t


accept this argument. Our interview with the University of Lincoln’s HRD


Jane Billam (p8) shows a strategic people director, ready


to look at how a tailored reward scheme can fit into her


organisation, take the plan to the CEO personally – and then prove it to be successful. Fortune favours the brave, they


say, and while discussions about reward can be both delicate and difficult for senior management and employees, HRDs have to push their agenda to board level and take personal ownership for reward on the board. Maybe I am too optimistic about the ‘power of HR’, but what


talent


management, recruitment, retention, absence management, even growth, depend on staff being incentivised in monetary terms. Even the best workplaces will struggle to retain ambitious


hrmagazine.co.uk


better department is there to take cold, hard cash and align it with culture, values, engagement and productivity? If other board members want to get their fingers into the reward pie, the HR director might as well be the one serving it.


David Woods, supplement editor david.woods@markallengroup.com


CONTENTS


04 Overview: reward on board


08 Profile: two University of Lincoln winners


12 Benchmarks: benefits – good for business too


16 Share power: deciding exec pay


22 Auto-enrol... ...yes, but who bears the cost?


26 Communicate: if you don’t tell, staff won’t know


29 Legal update: laws HRDs should be aware of


33 The numbers: leader board


34 Board buy-in: Darren Hockaday


Supplement editor David Woods


020 7501 6776 Sub-editor


Peter Bradley Design


Laura Hawkins


Senior sales executive Paul Barron


020 7501 6706


Sales executive Lydia Hopkins 020 7501 6774


Publisher Siân Harrington


Email first.surname@ markallengroup.com


HR Supplement September 2012 3


Cover: Fernando Volken Togni; illustration this page, Ben Tallon


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