What we learned at the Autumn Update 2019

1. A reward strategy does not have to be tailored to specific demographics.

The panel session on segmenting rewards included speakers: Elly Murphy, benefits partner at LV, Suzanne Foody, benefits and reward Manager at Senior Sunrise Living UK, and Megan O’Shaughnessy, senior consumer reward at BT.

Murphy highlighted the above point because although people may differ in age and demographic, it’s not to say they want different things. She said it may be better to have a one-size-fits all approach that is available to everyone and then let people handpick and tailor their own benefits.

Foody added that it’s not about tailoring individual packages to different demographics, but by communicating relevant benefits at different life stages.

O’Shaughnessy said it’s important not to implement certain rewards because that’s what you assume the workforce wants, you need to ask them.

2. The questions you need to ask when choosing a global payroll provider.

During a session on overcoming challenges to create a successful global payroll, it was discussed that choosing to outsource has to be right for the business. Some organisations don’t have the time to gather the correct data and outsource, but for those that want to the key questions to ask possible providers are:

• Where is your data?
• Where are your outputs?
• How much control do you want?
• What language do you want to communicate in?
• What support model do you want?
• Can I choose my own organisational model?
• What are the analytics for reporting?

3. Gender pay gap reporting won’t be sufficient in the future.

Pay gaps are changing and it’s not just enough report on gender anymore, especially when more people are identifying differently, such as non-binary or agender.

Some companies have even been advised of removing people from their pay gap reporting data that don’t identify as male or female, so the panel session on tackling pay gaps called for a change in reporting going forward.

The session which featured speakers from Lush, Addison Lee, Marks & Spencers and the CIPD, also spoke about pay transparency.

Aaron Mudd, European pay and benefits manager at Lush, explained that his organisation gathers a group of employees who volunteer to take part and talk about how much they are paid and what they think about it to increase transparency.

The conference was also sponsored by SD Worx, EQ Global, the CIPP, The Payroll Centre and Chronomics.

Learn more about the content that was presented at the Autumn Update Conference 2019, in Issue 220 of Reward Strategy in the new year.