Delivering on employee expectations in 2024
As a global reward leader, your job is not an easy one. Your work is never done because the goalposts are always moving.
To stay competitive and attract the best talent, you need to be continually innovating and evolving your strategy – from aligning your reward strategy with the organisations goals, mission and ESG policies, to adapting to employees’ evolving wellbeing needs, and delivering the seamless experiences employees expect.
It’s clear that the bar has been raised in terms of what constitutes an exceptional employee experience, and the level of support employees expect from organisations. The challenge for employers is to understand what employees want and need, and respond quickly. A priority for 2024 will be for HR and reward leaders to bring reward, benefits and wellbeing into the strategic heart of the organisation – showing the true value of everything they do for employees, and demonstrating the function’s potential as a lever for commercial success. To achieve this, you must be able to clearly demonstrate the impact of your programmes.
The most successful organisations will be those that use the technology, tools and data available to them to unite the employee experience, drive employee engagement, prove ROI, and continue to optimise their strategies. Currently, only a small number of employers feel that they have a clear picture of what their employees want – but that’s starting to change as they invest in the right tech solutions.
As we look to the priorities for the year ahead, it’s clear that greater personalisation, choice, and flexibility within reward and benefits will be high on the agenda. Technology providers will be innovating at pace, and making the most of AI, so that they can better cater to employee expectations. After all, employees are the ultimate consumers and, used to seamless experiences from the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Spotify, they’re impatient for better tech experiences at work. Although still relatively new to some markets, we anticipate that spending accounts will grow in popularity as a means of offering employees the ultimate flexibility and catering to their diverse needs. Watch this space.
