The New Reward Director’s priority list

HR and reward leaders have seen their workload increase dramatically during the pandemic.

The expanding remit of HR and reward teams is evident in the sheer number and scale of priorities they point to over the next two years. As you would expect in the current circumstances, employee wellbeing is the most pressing priority for HR and reward leaders today. But alongside this, there are also urgent objectives around enhancing the employee experience (91% cite this as a priority), communications (89%), improving diversity, equality and inclusion (87%) and recognition (86%).

Top priorities for reward directors

Source: Benefex, The New Reward Director

Greater use of data and analytics is also set to be an important area of focus over the next two years. And while overall budgets for benefits programmes may be increasing in many organisations, HR and reward leaders report that business leaders are still looking to them to deliver cost efficiencies across the board, and within benefits broking in particular.

Evidently, the New Reward Director is facing an almost impossible task, with an ever-expanding to-do list and a finite amount of time and resource at their disposal. They’re being asked to drive through massive workforce transformation programmes at high speed, while at the same time being expected to successfully deliver market-leading employee engagement and wellbeing programmes to ensure employees are supported.

The challenge for the New Reward Director is to cut through the noise to identify the key strategic initiatives which will deliver most impact, both to employees and to the business HR and reward leaders within global companies have an even broader list of key priorities than their UK peers. Global HR and reward leaders report a bigger focus on employee benefits – in particular, on benefits technology platforms. They are also more likely to be prioritising employee wellbeing, communications, recognition and enhanced use of data and analytics. When it comes to employee recognition, the research reveals that many global organisations are lacking the processes and platforms to manage and coordinate recognition in a consistent way across countries.

The pandemic and the shift to remote working means employers have to find new ways of making employees feel connected to the organisation and its values. There’s a strong link between effective recognition programmes and employee wellbeing, productivity and retention; we’ve seen this first-hand at Benefex through our work with customers. The challenge for people professionals is how do you empower your managers to bring your values to life, measure the impact, and keep engagement high? How do you ensure the right behaviours get recognised, alongside the already expanded remit of the New Reward Director? Technology plays a key role in this. Beyond that, consideration needs to be given to how recognition forms part of, and complements, the wider reward and EVP strategy.

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