What are your engagement challenges in 2010?
62% identified improving employee engagement as their top priority for 2010
43% identified improving employee productivity as a key challenge for 2010
Employee Benefits Magazine Research 2009
2010 is an important year, as we put a tough 2009 behind us, and take actions and lay foundations to ensure we maximise performance through the economic recovery.
Every business will have its unique characteristics and issues, and will have different priority paths mapped out to deliver improvements in engagement & performance.
Research has shown that rewards & benefits, especially when integrated within a strong communication, management & leadership framework can positively impact on employee engagement & productivity.
And reviewing research conducted in 2009 and from our conversations with our thousands of clients, there are a number of common reward & benefit challenges identified for action in 2010. These include:
- To improve employee perception and appreciation of the value of their benefits.
- To deliver a total reward statement to all employees by the end of 2010.
- To harmonise employee benefits locally or across Europe and the world.
- To maximise and demonstrate the performance and engagement returns from rewards and benefits.
- To strengthen employee benefits offerings in the most cost efficient way, for example, through non-salary based benefits and employee savings schemes.
- To integrate reward and recognition programmes across the organisation. For some this includes evaluating the benefits of operating programmes online.
- To improve the performance of incentive & motivation schemes.
- To integrate incentives & benefit programmes into one 'reward' strategy.
- To define an action plan to improve the effectiveness of incentives or benefits programmes.
Of course these are just a few, but many of the challenges are common across many organisations operating in different industries. We observe many examples of great steps taken by companies in our day-to-day involvement working with clients.
Sitting down with an expert to discuss ideas and to find out what similar organisations or industries are doing about rewards and benefits is also a valuable exercise. Even when your reward and benefit scheme has been running for a long time it's good practice to review them. There's no better time to health check how your rewards and benefits contribute to engagement than as this year draws to a close and a new one starts.
2010 is just a few weeks away. It is so easy to lose the first 2-3 weeks in a new year and miss the opportunity to get off to a fast start. This can be a highly effective time for meeting with experts to discuss issues, share best practice and identify specific actions to overcome your challenges for the year ahead. Such meetings can be highly motivational and are often the catalyst for positive steps to success and a good way to ensure that next year’s challenges do not become the challenges for 2011.
