Foreword
Just how many hats are you wearing?
As well as being responsible for a reward and benefits strategy that works hard to attract, engage and retain amazing people, you’re tasked to help the organisation achieve its ESG and DEI goals, support employee wellbeing, build a positive culture, as well as implement new systems. And you’re expected to do all this with limited resources. Tired much?
The output expected from the reward function has obviously increased, but hopefully so has its perceived value. Reward has become an increasingly important way to set your organisation apart; to create an Employee Value Proposition that makes people want to join, and stay with, your mission. Indeed, our 2023 market-defining Evolution research found that benefits are a ‘very important’ factor for 61% of employees when choosing an employer. Some (15%) would even change employer for better benefits. Benefits are universally seen as the main way organisations can support the physical, emotional and financial wellbeing of their people.
However, with 85% of employees saying that their employee experience at work is more important now than a year ago (up from 79% in 2022), and 50% saying their expectations for wellbeing support have increased in the last 12 months, it can be difficult to adapt your strategy fast enough to keep ahead of (or let’s be honest, even keep up with) changing employee expectations. As well as tackling the most pressing challenges today, you’ve got to have one eye on the future – to anticipate where employee needs will go next.
To help you continue to grow, innovate, and stretch your reward budget further, we’ve put together a guide that explores the five questions we think your CPO will ask you as you set your 2024 Strategy. Informed by our experience working with some of the largest global brands to deliver award-winning reward strategies, and data from our 2023 Evolution research, here’s what we reckon is going to be dominating your interactions with the CPO in 2024:
What should we be doing with AI (and what shouldn’t we be doing)?
How can we actually improve employee wellbeing?
How can we do more with less?
What can we do to make our benefits more sustainable?
Is our benefits scheme successful?
These five questions highlight just how much is on your to-do list! There’s always pressure to do more. By being ready with your responses we hope you can take the opportunities that come with new technology developments and AI to spend less time on administration and manual processes, and more time on strategy. And start to prove the real value the reward function brings.
