Ways to use technology to break down product silos and deliver a joined-up reward programme
A reward programme can cover areas such as compensation, benefits, personal growth and the work environment. However, for this article we are concentrating on the delivery of compensation and benefits in a joined-up way.
Remember the days when there was a limited range of employee benefits and reward was not even a thing? Employees were told about a couple of benefits when they started that did not seem linked in any way and were probably not really understood or appreciated. High levels of employee communication and engagement had not yet become the norm.
Now there is a vast range of employee benefits, providers and new-fangled initiatives coming to the market all the time. So much so that it does make you wonder if the consumer (i.e. the employee) can make sense of the whole thing and join up the dots. Clear communication is crucial in helping employees appreciate the value being offered.
The use of technology makes life a whole lot easier for you, the employer, as it means you can deliver a vision and reward strategy to your employees in a joined-up way. You can highlight the links between the different parts of the reward programme and how the options complement each other, rather than them standing alone or in product silos.
Below are some tips on how to make the most of your technology to help with this.
- Present the information in a way that highlights similar characteristics between benefits and perhaps group them into themes that will resonate with employees and ones that they can relate to. Create zones; for example, ‘keeping fit and healthy’ or ‘Taking care of your family’ or ‘Shopping and saving.’ Within these zones include relevant parts of your reward strategy, making sure they are cross referenced so you don’t just create larger silos.You therefore might show gym membership under ’Keeping fit and healthy’ with a separate discounted gym membership under the ‘Shopping and saving’ category. You could signpost to both rewards from within each zone.
- Provide modelling tools that take account of the various parts of your reward programmes so, for example, employees can see the impact of choices on compensation. Technology means employees can see a personalised statement and how opting for one thing over another may affect their salary and take home pay. It’s about employees choosing cash vs benefits vs a mix of in-between. This means they can see in real time the impact of various scenarios.
- Adopt a more retail experience, which helps deliver an interactive and engaging experience. This will help overcome silos by suggesting other similar products or alternatives. Maybe even highlight where one option can interact with another. For example, using a cash plan benefit to cover the excess on a private medical insurance policy, or looking at dental insurance and flagging the user to learn more about the cash plan as well.
- Make the experience personal; use personas to get the message across. These could include a range of examples on how the overall reward strategy can benefit different types of people and different personal circumstances. For example, this might include signposting the use of an employee assistance programme for initial stress management, before moving on to the counselling sessions on offer. Then perhaps move onto the different types of help available through the private medical scheme and finally what an employee may be entitled to if they were off long term and needed to take advantage of any income protection scheme.
- It’s about using technology to tell the reward story and making it relevant and engaging for your employees; for example getting the right message across to the right people at the right time.
Hopefully these ideas provide you with a flavour of how using technology can enable you to deliver a more joined-up reward strategy and help overcome any barriers that may exist.
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