Reward Risk Blog

Times are Changing! - What can AI do for you?

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:12:15 GMT

Are you working smarter, not just faster?

AI is no longer a buzzword—it’s a browser tab.

And for those of us in reward, that’s both exciting and a little daunting. The good news? AI can help us with our reward work; from benchmarking and job descriptions to policy drafting and market scans; tasks that once took hours can now be done in minutes—with the right tools. Need to compare salary data across sources? AI can spot patterns. Drafting a pay policy? It can give you a first pass. Want a market snapshot? AI can summarise the latest reports while you grab a coffee. Used well, AI isn’t just fast—it’s insightful. It can spot trends, challenge assumptions, and offer fresh perspectives. Think of it as the intern who never sleeps—the extra pair of hands you wish you had during budget season.

But… Garbage In, Garbage Out

AI is only as good as the data you feed it. If the sources are outdated or inconsistent, the outputs will be too. This means you need to be careful what you ask it for. Before trusting an AI-generated insight, ask:

Is the data credible and anonymised?
Is it relevant to your sector and structure?
Are you benchmarking against last month—or last year?

AI won’t flag these issues. That’s your job. Read it, check it, test it.

Beware the Illusion of Precision

AI sounds confident—even when it’s confidently wrong. I’ve seen slick salary benchmarks and job matches that fall apart on closer inspection of the data. Why? Because AI is trained to sound authoritative, not to admit uncertainty. It wants to be helpful, so it will find and use out of date data or make assumptions based on what it can find.

So challenge the outputs. Ask where they came from. Check the assumptions. Make sure they are fit within acceptable parameters.

Be the Human in the Loop

AI can crunch numbers, but it can’t read the room. It doesn’t know your culture, budget, or how a policy will land with your exec team.

That’s where you come in. Reward decisions aren’t just technical—they’re relational. AI can help you get to the options faster, but it can’t choose the right one. Don't blindly follow where it leads you. Interrogate it, sense check the responses, impose your expectations

Don't Forget Compliance Over Code

AI in reward isn’t just a tech issue—it’s a compliance one. Before using AI to benchmark pay or analyse equity, ask:

Is the model trained on diverse data? (so many issues around developed bias in AI)
Can you explain how it reached its conclusions?
Are you sharing personal data with third-party tools?

Regulators are watching. So are your employees. Do your due diligence. Document your decisions. Keep human accountability front and centre.

Prompt IT Check IT Remind IT

Tell it everything you want, explain in detail, right down to the style and nature of the output. Give it access to your public persona if you want to it write in your/the company voice. Check the output and identify any issues. Where it has missed an action tell it to go back and do it. You cannot hurt its feelings, be blunt/clear/precise.

Your AI Reward Readiness Checklist

Thinking of using AI in your reward work? Start here:

Do you know what tasks you want AI to support? (Start with an easy one and build from there)
Do you have comprehensive prompts? (We have a suite of these)
Have you vetted the data sources? (Prompt it to name and date them)
Can you explain the tool’s logic?
Do the outputs align with your strategy?
Have you considered legal and ethical risks?
Is your team trained to challenge the results?

If you answered “no” to any of these, don’t panic. Start small. Build confidence. AI is here to help—not to take over.

Still wary - I'm happy to talk it through. I have some more in-depth guidance - I will even share my favourite prompts.

Why do you publish CEO pay ratios

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:45:00 GMT

Apart from the obvious reason?

Publishing pay ratios is undoubtedly linked to pay equality, there is no getting away from it. Where corporate governance requires it of course you are going to publish your CEO pay ratio, but there are better reasons than that for getting your numbers out there:

Promotes Transparency - If you expressly aim for an open and honest culture then this is an additional way to promote transparency. Be clear about your ratio, what it means and how it has changed over time. It should align with your values.

Enhances Accountability - Remind people of the decisions that were made that led to your ratio, and explain the rationale for those decisions if necessary. This will help build trust and credibility.

Improves Morale - It shows that you value fairness and are committed to addressing income inequality - monitoring and comparing pay in this way shows that there is an awareness that these issues need to be transparent to be addressed. This in turn can improve morale.

Reflects Social Responsibility - It shows the the company is mindful of the broader societal issues and this can enhance your reputation.

Informs Stakeholder Decisions - It will help them understand how the company values its leadership relative to its workforce. They can make informed decision about their involvement with your company.

So, in a nutshell, publishing CEO pay ratios is a step towards greater transparency, fairness, and accountability in executive compensation. It can help build trust, improve morale, and ensure that pay practices align with your values and goals.

Common mistakes with Exec Pay

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 16:00:02 GMT

Here are the things you really should avoid....

Here are some of the common pitfalls we have encountered when talking to organisations about Executive Pay decisions.

Misalignment with company strategy

Focussing on the wrong targets can drive the wrong behaviours. If you are using short term performance measures this will potentially drive short term behaviours. For instance, if an increase or bonus is dependent on a short term increase in financial targets, that might encourage financial decisions that achieve the target and get the increase but are not sustainable in the longer term.

Too much focus on financial metrics

Financial performance is undoubtedly important, but other factors should also be considered. Financial performance wont be maintained if there is no employee engagement (high turnover and related costs), or innovation is stifled (inability to build and grow the business). Have metrics that look across the business from alternative perspectives.

Targets are not stretching enough

Just because they are the most senior team, does not mean that your Execs are not at risk from demotivational reward packages. Poorly designed targets that are not stretching enough can be demotivating. Once the target is achieved, what is there to aim for? Likewise, targets that are unachievable are also demotivating, what's the point of even trying?

Complexity

Overly complicated pay packages can be difficult to understand and manage, resulting in Execs not knowing what they have to achieve or how they will be rewarded for it. Simplicity and clarity are key here.

Ignoring market benchmarks

If you don't test the market from time to time your reward package can come adrift of the expected market ranges. Paying too much is as risky in its own way as paying too little and both can cause reputational damage, disaffected stakeholders, disillusioned Execs, and more.

Failure to recognise performance and/or address performance issues

If the Execs aren't delivering and the reason is related to their performance or something they can directly affect, then you need to be clear about expectations, just as you would with everyone else. Underperforming Execs can only hide for so long before other stakeholders, like staff, begin to notice. And, of course, failure to recognise that your Execs are achieving/meeting expectations will be demotivational for them.

Failure to understand what motivates your Execs

This is quite an issue. We've attended meetings before when RemCo have awarded significant pay increases that their Execs had expressly stated they did not want. We have also been asked to help put in bonus schemes that the Chair thought were necessary but the Execs were not interested in and so would not engage with. Find out first hand what their thoughts are before the meeting. That way you can manage expectations all round.

These are just a few of the pitfalls we have encountered over time. Hope they prove helpful.

Getting Exec bonuses right

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 10:26:00 GMT

What makes your bonus "A good thing"?

We've posted before about Exec bonuses and the issues that they can create. We have all seen the headlines where Execs get massive bonus payments while everyone else is seeing pay freezes, or there the bonus is given even as the Exec heads out the door. These stories can leave a bad taste in the mouths of your stakeholders and make staff feel totally disrespected.

So how do you get it right? You want or need to pay bonuses in order to remain competitive, but somehow you have the feeling that it carries a huge risk.

Our advice would be think carefully and ensure your bonus scheme is constructed with the following in mind:

Short term bonuses will support short term goals and probably drive short term behaviour. Long term schemes (eg. LTIPS) should be exactly that and should aim to tie your Exec in to the long term plan activities.

It doesn't matter if it's an annual bonus or an LTIP - ensure that it ties in very closely to your strategic goals. Whatever your targets are, they should be set with the strategy in mind - clear line of sight to the strategy and small (or large steps) on the way to achievement of these goals.

Make sure your targets (especially financial and other ratios) are clearly defined and understood by both recipients and Remco/the Board.

Put in achievement hurdles - be clear about the minimum that has to be achieved before a bonus will pay out at all. Make it clear that if these hurdles are not achieved there will be no payout, partial or otherwise.
Make the payout proportionate - how would you feel if the company you worked for saw a 5% increase in profit, you got a 3% pay award and your CEO got a 50% bonus? Check the sums. If it feels extortionate to you, it probably looks extortionate to every one else.

Make it clear, if you can, that the bonus will not pay out if the Exec brings the business into disrepute.

Take legal advice to ensure that your bonus is watertight and has no hidden pitfalls.

You do need to be brave in the current climate, but be brave with good back up.

Tips for Remco on Exec Pay

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 14:41:33 GMT

Key questions Remco should be asking themselves

Setting executive pay is a huge responsibility and no one knows this better than a remuneration committee (Remco). We often get asked to help companies benchmarking their pay, and get called into discussions about what the new rates should be. So here are our tips on what Remco should be thinking about:

What information do we need to support our decision?

We recommend that you at least think about the following:

benchmarking data to show
where the current salaries (and other benefits) sit compared to your competitors
what trends are occurring in your sector/generally
where the risks lie (organisational and individual)
performance information - both company and individuals - are they achieving what they are mean to?
long term objectives - what are the long terms goals, are they progressing?
internal relativities - what internal comparisons could be made and how will they be impacted by your decisions?

Does the salary demonstrate value for money?
Can you justify the rate of pay you are proposing in terms of what the organisation gets in return? This means that you need to be satisfied that you are setting salaries that align to the value your exec team is delivering into the business. It's not just about effort, it's also about results.

Is it in the best interest of the organisation?

This is crucial because this is one time when no matter what type of organisation you are, you really do have to be balancing what is right for the company and it's purpose with fiscal responsibility.

Is your decision making process based on evidence?

Ensure you have gathered enough information in the pay review process to help you make an informed decision. A robust process should guide decisions, considering the jobholder's role, responsibilities and market benchmarks.

Is your process transparent and justifiable?

Transparency really matters. Make sure that your process is well-documented and your approach is clear and your decisions are proportionate.

We really believe it's all about having a good rationale for your decisions and these tips will help you ensure you come to the right conclusions for your business.

What makes up the Executive reward package

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 14:32:44 GMT

5 key elements to think about in your Execs reward package

We often get asked about what elements should be included in an Executive reward package. Not always because there are concerns about what is missing, sometimes it’s because it may be considered too much. In our experience Executive pay typically consists of several key elements, each designed to reward different aspects of an executive’s role and performance:

1. Base Salary: This is the fixed annual salary paid to the executive. It is usually determined based on the individual’s role, experience, and market benchmarks (check these regularly to ensure that you are offering a competitive rate or you could have a major flight risk).

2. Annual Bonuses: These are performance-based incentives awarded annually. They are often tied to short-term performance metrics such as revenue targets, profit margins, or other key performance indicators (KPIs) . They may be part of a company-wide scheme or individually set.

3. Long-Term Incentives (LTIPs): These incentives are designed to align the executive’s focus with the long-term success of the company. They usually take the form of stock options, or shares (or even faux shares). There are restrictions around how much the Exec will get (usually based on organisation goals), when they will get them and how they can be converted to cash. The aim, is of course to tie the individual to your company for the longer term. (The jury is out on how successful this is because for the right offer your Exec may abandon the long term view).

Stock Options: The right to purchase company stock at a predetermined price, usually lower than the market value. This component encourages your Executives to focus on increasing the company’s stock price .
Performance Shares: These are shares awarded based on the achievement of specific long-term performance goals. They are often tied to metrics like total shareholder return or financial performance over several years . (There are 100s of metrics to chose from so make sure you get the right ones for your organisation).

4. Benefits: Executives typically receive a range of benefits, including health insurance, life insurance, pensions and retirement plans, and sometimes perks like company cars. We have noted a trend to include Execs in general benefits schemes (single status benefits) but there is still a general focus currently on “what do we need to offer to get the person in the door?”.

5. Severance Packages (the so-called Golden Goodbye): These are payments and benefits provided to Execs upon termination of employment. They can include lump-sum payments, continuation of benefits, and stock option vesting . Watch out for this one though, no one wants to hit the press because an underperforming Exec has received a massive payout on termination.

By combining these components you can create a comprehensive compensation package that attracts, retains, and motivates your Execs while aligning their interests with the company’s long-term goals.

If there is a specific component of executive pay you’d like to explore further message me below.

When do you review Executive Pay

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:35:04 GMT

5 reasons to review Executive pay

We've frequently found that our activities trend and once we have started a major review for one client, we soon have 3 or 4 others needing the same. This time it is Executive pay reviews.

Every one of the clients looking for this support has a different reason for doing so. Reviewing Executive pay is a crucial aspect of maintaining fair and competitive reward practices. Conducting an annual review is standard practice for all other staff – why should your Execs be treated any differently? It is an ideal opportunity to track and celebrate progress and discuss any performance issues and concerns (although I would still argue performance is a year round issue, not annual). It can also help focus individual efforts on corporate goals.

However, there are some key times when Executive pay should be reviewed outside of the annual process:

1. When Setting New Strategic Goals: If you set new strategic goals or shifts your focus, reviewing executive pay can help align salaries and engage Execs with these new priorities .

2. Following Major Organisation Changes: Events like mergers, acquisitions, or significant restructuring will generally impact the roles and responsibilities of your Execs. Reviewing pay during these times ensures that salaries reflect the new scope of work and help you identify any potential flight risks.

3. When Market Conditions Change: If there are significant changes in the market, such as economic downturns or industry shifts, then you should consider a review of Executive pay to ensure it remains competitive and appropriate .

4. In Response to Stakeholder Feedback: Feedback from shareholders, employees, or other stakeholders can prompt a review of Executive pay to address concerns and maintain trust .

5. Periodically for Pay Equity Audits: Regular pay equity audits help ensure that Executive reward package is fair and free from biases related to gender, race, or other factors .

By regularly reviewing executive pay at these key times, you can ensure that you reward practices remain fair, competitive, and aligned with your strategic objectives.

Of course, salary isn't the only element in the reward package for Execs and my next blog will look at the key elements in a little more detail.

Reward vs. Compensation

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:27:09 GMT

When did we change the meaning of pay?

So I've said this before but I think it is worth saying it over and over. I will never get over how language defines our messages. If you want your reward strategy to give the right messages, think carefully about how you communicate it.

Here is a great illustration for reward that really emphasises what I mean:

Reward: a thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement

Sometimes we call it compensation:

Compensation: something, typically money, awarded to someone in recognition of loss, suffering, or injury

If I’m being picky (let’s be honest here I absolutely am) - I somehow think they may have hit the nail right on the head. I wonder at which point does our employment mindset go from wanting to reward our staff for giving us their services, to wanting to compensate them for the fact they have to turn up every day. More worryingly, how did work get so bad that they have to be compensated for doing it?

If your staff don’t love their work, if they don’t love getting up in the morning to do it, if they don’t love it when they are there – then the engagement has gone. This is where you need to start talking again. Engage with your staff and reward them for the efforts they put in on your behalf. Change the message from compensation to reward. There’s plenty of evidence out there to suggest it works. I guess the problem is knowing how to do that.

Communicating your reward strategy in an engaging way has to be a good start! I talk a lot about communication and engaging with staff by talking to them. Pay is not necessarily something that we like to discuss in the UK and some managers are particularly lairy of it preferring to refer staff to HR instead. Maybe then, when we’re busy communicating to staff about pay and reward, we should also make sure that our managers are comfortable to have these conversations by ensuring they are briefed and supported as they engage with their teams. Easier said than done I know, because there will always be the manager who doesn’t want to, or the times when both parties are speaking English, just not in the same way. I still think it is essential to try.

I am just reviewing a set of salary policy guidelines for a client. They’re really clear and give guidance on what happens in specific circumstances. I thrilled I don’t have much to add. But I can absolutely say, once they share their policy and allow their managers to use the document to support conversations, not only will these managers have better conversations, but they will also be giving more consistent messages. Hopefully then they will also be moving away from compensation and back to reward.

8 Years

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 08:35:35 GMT

Another milestone reached

I cannot believe how quickly the past 8 years has gone! It seems just like yesterday when in June 2016 I was scrabbling around frantically pulling together the basics for my new business - business cards, flyers, website, ICO and survey data subscriptions All the things I didn't know I would need when I took the decision to go it alone.

I had the best start thanks to Luke Menzies at Menzies Law, Anne Monnington (now taking a completely difference career path), Geraldine Buckland (now at Elexxon) and clients like Longleat. I was hitting the ground running and knew how lucky I was that this was the case.

I can't even begin to list all the people who have supported me along the way. But I have to admit, the best thing I ever did was bring Andrew Carter into my business. Employing a family member can be fraught with difficulties - I've worked with enough family businesses to see that - but Andrew and I have the best of relationships and he is a rock for me as we wend our way down the hilly road of business ownership.

From my neighbour who handed me £1 and told me to invest it and get on with it, to the the clients who have engaged with us, from the coaches and network colleagues were kind and patient in the difficult times to the co-working colleagues I look forward to seeing in the CW office - I cannot thank you enough.

As an SME owner I would heartily recommend if you are starting out you need to get out there and build your network. I have met people I can help, people who can help me, people who have referred me just from one meeting and people who have become clients or even friends through networking. Its tough, it feels awkward sometimes, but just do it!

Now that we are over the hump year and into year 8, we have many plans. Watch this space for more about online job evaluation, online training schemes and capability management. We have plans, we have fabulous support and advice, now we have to implement them.

Here's to the next 8 years.

Pay Reviews - Remembering to write it down

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 11:22:21 GMT

The things we ought to record during a pay review

I learned the hard way that you will never be able to remember this time next year, the reasons for the pay review decisions that were made this year. It's just not possible. I read somewhere that a daily to-do list is usually 6-12 items long. So even in a month you will have done something like 120-240 things that will get in the way of you remembering the pay review decisions. In my view, the best thing to do, is record the decisions that were made so that you can find them next year.

The difficult thing is deciding what is important. I work on the basis that the standard stuff should already be recorded

who the review applies to
when the review takes place
who owns the decision making (board, leadership team, managers etc)
how much the budget is
how the budget will be distributed
the rules for pay progression
the principles that apply

That leaves the non-standard stuff. Here is what I would record and why:

Exclusions - those groups/individuals who are excluded from the pay review, and why. This is fairly easy if, for instance, you have groups of staff that are reviewed at different times in the year, or if those people who started within a certain timeframe are excluded. Be careful though that decisions for exclusion fit within your principles, are objective and are relevant. For instance, if you don't explicitly have performance related pay, there may be an issue with excluding someone because the manager thinks they perform badly and so shouldn't get an increase - What evidence is there for withholding the increase? Does that fit with your policies and procedures? Other exclusions might be TUPE staff where their pay is set by a different process, or groups of new starters who were brought in on pay above the usual starting rate.

Partial Awards - those who are not getting the full increase because.....(?) Again - be sure you have an objective reason. If you have market-related pay you might be giving those paid above market less of an increase but you will need to make sure you have uptodate evidence to support that decision. Or, someone is already paid outside their pay scale and so is getting a reduced increase to bring them back in line. (Don't forget the dratted performance issue!).

Be very aware that unless you have sound, objective reasons, for your exclusions and partial awards, you could be heading down the unlawful withholding of pay route, without realising.

Additional Awards - those who are getting more than the standard, which could be for many reasons:

market/recruitment allowance - those people whose pay sits outside the pay band for recruitment reasons (again, make sure you have uptodate and relevant market data to support this), and make sure the principle is applied fairly to everyone doing those roles
additional duties allowance - those who are taking on additional work (not related to their current role) and therefore are being paid more
secondment allowances - those who are seconded to another role and receive an additional allowance to take them to the relevant pay level for the seconded role
other allowances - e.g. first aid / tools / cars etc - what is the allowance for, how much is it, when is it reviewed.

Be aware here that additional pay, if not applied consistently, will probably cause other issues.

In general, I would record who (is affected), how (much is the salary impact), what (is the unusual situation), why (have we made the decision we have), when (did it start/should it stop/will it be reviewed again), where (does the decision sit).

Honestly, whilst it all seems like a bit of a pfaff, doing it now (and as you go along in future) will save you loads of time later. When I worked in-house I used to fairly regularly refer back to the pay review spreadsheet to find out why someone was paid differently

One other thing - all of these need communicating to the affected employees and you will probably want to get managers involved in that. Look out for my next post on that specific topic.

Pay Review - Key Stages

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 09:10:33 GMT

Or.... don't forget to do these things

I'm all for a good process, I love ticking things off a list, and knowing what the next step will be. It kills me when I don't know or understand what's involved in a process. I absolutely hate it when consultants tell me "not to worry about the detail" when they're doing things for me. I'll admit that for some people this would be seen as needing to be in control (maybe I am a control freak!) and for others it might be seen as just good practice. Whatever, I have a process for pretty much everything my business does. I've even got the processes written down in many cases. There's still a few things that would benefit from being tried and tested, but we're getting there.

Here are the headlines of my pay review process:

Source the market stats and benchmarking data
Run a report of those affected by the review (exclude and document why for those not affected)
Model the impact and get approvals
Communicate the headline outcomes, timescales and process
Send out spreadsheets and guidance to managers for their input and decisions
Ensure IT/payroll are geared up ready for the change
Collate managers decisions and sense check outcomes
Communicate individual outcomes and timescales
Support managers with additional queries and issues
Implement the outcomes and publicise new pay scales
Review the whole process for improvements, document it, have it ready for next time

That's the nutshell version, the major process document runs to 2 pages. Why? Because someone somewhere needs to know what the history is, or have checked past reviews for anomalies and know what policy decisions were made, or what went wrong, so that these can be take into account for the future. This will probably be the person everyone goes to with the "can you remember why......" queries and issues.

Of course I know that not all of these steps apply in every organisation, and some will not be applied even if they should, but that's just reality in practice.

Hopefully I've helped someone with these thoughts. My next blog will be on the decisions you really should document, and the one after that will be about supporting managers with the process.

If there was one piece of advice you could give someone undertaking a pay review for the first time, what would it be?

Pay Review Communications

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 12:30:00 GMT

How are you going to tell your staff what is happening?

The best pay review decisions in the world can be totally derailed by your communication. A badly timed email, messages that should be delivered personally and letters that go astray, can all affect the perception of your pay review. Chose the right method and ensure that you are consistent. Make sure you communicate the purpose and criteria when planning pay reviews and the outcomes when giving the results:

In-person meeting: Always the preferred option, and if you have a small team, schedule a meeting with each employee to discuss the pay review in person. This allows for a more personal and interactive experience, and it gives the employee an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. It is also particularly important if the message is not particularly positive. Be aware though that the messages given may not always be consistent.

Email: This method is useful if the employee is not available for an in-person meeting or if you need to document the review for future reference. this is a good way to ensure that the message is consistent. Be wary of sending emails as an alternative to difficult discussions. That only annoys the people involved and makes you look uncaring.

Letter: This method is useful if you have a large group of people or if you need to document the review for future reference and if you want to provide a more formal communication. Again this gives a consistent message but can be seen as avoidance tactics or impersonal.

Phone call: This method is useful if the employee is not available for an in-person meeting and if you want to provide a more personal touch than an email or letter.

Video call: This method is also useful if the employee is not available for an in-person meeting and if you want to provide a more personal touch than an email or letter. Remember though that some people still find this approach uncomfortable.

Overall, the key to effective communication is to be transparent, clear, and consistent. Choose the method that works best for you and your employee, and which will help avoid any confusion or disappointment.

Commit to making communication a fundamental part of your review. If possible, delegate communications to line managers and give them as much support as you can to make sure that they give consistent messages and adopt a positive approach.

Look out for my next posts on the key stages in the pay review itself, and advice to managers who need to have difficult conversations.

How do you decide your pay review?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 08:30:00 GMT

What are the key factors to consider?

Deciding how to go about reviewing your salaries depends on what is important to you right now. Timing of course is everything, ensuring you can attract and retain staff is important, but you need to determine how best to approach it. Most organisations have a preferred approach and it will usually be documented in your salary policy/guidelines (if you have them), or in any agreement with trades unions etc. Factors to consider include:

Affordability: What budget have you got? You will need to ensure your finance team have been involved in setting the budget, and HR are involved/aware of budget pressures that will apply. I put this one first for a reason - it does not really matter what else you look at, if you haven't got the budget you will need to be clear about what is and what is not affordable.

Cost of Living: Cost of living increases are usually about ensuring that pay keeps up with cost of living and staff are no worse off as a result of increases in CPI (CPIH). Earnings growth is another factor that is frequently taken into account. It goes without saying that this is often the over-riding argument from staff representatives who are looking to ensure that pay keeps pace with the cost of living at least.

Earnings Growth: The ONS publish earnings growth figures regularly so that you can see how much pay is increasing in the overall economy. You can also get settlement and forecast increases data from the ONS and other sources. Knowing how much salaries in general have grown by, what settlements have been made in your sector and what your competitors are forecasting is absolutely a must if you want to make a robust decision about your pay award.

Market rates: This is where you test the market to see what rates are like in your sector(s)/industry. It is important if you are to remain competitive with other employers in your sector, that you know what is happening with market rates. This is used by almost half of organisations to support decision making. You can benchmark specific jobs, all your jobs or your sector in general.

Some organisations prefer to undertake a fundamental review of the market every two or three years. This can be beneficial at times of low growth as it is easy to plan for the next few years, and staff turnover is unlikely to be high. However, it is less popular when earnings growth or COL is high. The cumulative increases can be significant, and even at 2% each year a three-year review could cause salaries to fall behind market by more than 6%, which in turn can affect retention.

We have found that many of our clients prefer to adopt a hybrid approach and fundamentally review base pay using an in-depth market review at least every two years, whilst allowing for an interim, average annual increase related to CPI or average earnings and, usually, applied across the board. This allows them to keep up with the market without having to undertake a fundamental review. We have found that many of our clients prefer to fundamentally review base pay using an in-depth market review at least every two years, whilst allowing for an interim, average annual increase related to CPI or average earnings and, usually, applied across the board. This allows them to keep up with the market without having to undertake a fundamental review.

Collective Bargaining: Some of you will be entering into discussions with employee representatives about your pay review. Remember to ensure you get all your information on the above factors so that you can have those conversations with confidence.

Whatever your approach, communication is key. That's what my next blog will be about. Follow my posts for more information about pay reviews that will help you make good decisions.

What are the gains?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:27:59 GMT

How will your organisation benefit from a pay review?

We've established that timing is everything, and you already know that most organisations at least review (if not increase) their pay every year. In this blog post, I will discuss why a pay review is so important:

Attract Talent - To attract the talent you need, you must stay competitive. When potential employees see you advertising competitive pay rates (not just the word “competitive”, which honestly can mean anything) they can tell that you are committed to fair pay and they are more likely to choose your company over others.

Retain Top Talent - In today's competitive job market, regular, predictable salary reviews might just be your secret weapon in retaining your best people. When employees see a commitment to fair pay and know when and how it's going to be reviewed, they’re more likely to stick around. On top of this, turnover costs often outweigh the cost of salary increases, which means there's a cost saving in keeping your people. And, of course, keeping the same dedicated people in your business ensures continuity for both you and your clients.

Boost Motivation - Beyond the obvious financial boost, salary reviews help reinforce that hard work and dedication don’t go unnoticed. Logically, we know the connection between pay and motivation, but a recent study at Glassdoor found that as many as 45% of employees were motivated to work harder when they received a higher salary. This is because salary reviews done well generally leave employees feeling valued, recognized, and engaged. It's a positive hit to both heart and pocket that motivates people to work harder.

Increase Productivity - Happy employees are productive employees, and when your team feels their efforts are valued, they’re more likely to feel connected to their role, boosting their job satisfaction and contentment at work. The positive environment this creates can drive productivity and contribute to your team’s and your business’s overall success. Don’t just think about salaries as money spent; a well-thought out salary review can help your company show its appreciation to your top performers, which can generate much more than profit.

My next blog is going to be about different approaches to increasing pay. If you want to know more then follow me, or reply in the comments and I’ll take you through some of the key things that make it easier for you.

Time for a pay review

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:08:33 GMT

Timing is everything

As everyone settles down for the Christmas break, thoughts are on money and the cost of Christmas. It’s all so much more expensive and there are endless reports in the media about it. Add to this the cost of living crisis and we have a perfect storm for staff looking at their finances and wondering if they can earn more somewhere else.

The festive break is also one of the most popular jobhunting seasons. People start thinking seriously about the next year and what they hope to gain from it. For some it will be to take that step on the career ladder, or change their career altogether. For others though, it will be all about the money and how they can maximise their income - issues like pay reviews, overtime and bonuses are on their minds and planning to increase earning capability is key, even if it means moving on.

If you are at risk of losing your key staff and you haven’t increased pay or looked at doing a pay review recently, you might want to get started on it as soon as you can in the New Year. Telling staff you are looking at it might just get the jobhunters to hold fire a little longer. Honestly, if money is the only driver, it is an easier option to stay where you are if you know that the money situation might improve soon.

My next few blogs are all going to be about undertaking pay reviews and hopefully providing some hints and tips to make your life easier. If you want to know more then follow me, or reply in the comments and I’ll take you through some of the key things that make it easier for you.

Embracing the AI Concept

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:59:27 GMT

Is it as scarey as it seems?

The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Reminding us why Job Evaluation is so important

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 07:33:33 GMT

Jus to reiterate

I'll be absolutely honest. I'm cheating a little by reiterating the post Why is job evaluation important? Having put my thoughts together on the subject over the past few weeks, I felt this one was worth saying again.

To me, the main reason job evaluation is important is because it provides an objective and systematic way to determine the relative value of different jobs within an organization. When you evaluate jobs, you assess factors like skills, responsibilities, effort, and working conditions to create a fair and consistent basis for comparing jobs and determining their worth.

That to me is why its so important.

Here's a link to the blog with the detail:

Why is job evaluation important (rewardrisk.co.uk)

And why am I cheating today? This morning I am wfh, waiting for a delivery and baking cakes for tomorrow's Macmillan Coffee Morning at the Exchange in Tewkesbury. This will be our third one and each time we have increased our donations by at least £100. And every year some of the fabulous businesses nearby give us some super donations for the tombola. So if you're over this way tomorrow pop in about 10.30 and grab some cake.

Making Job Evaluation Work for you

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 09:46:28 GMT

What to do if your scheme is losing traction

How to make your Job Evaluation Scheme work for you

Getting job evaluation to work well often means getting your managers more engaged with the scheme, and ensuring the process remains effective means you need their buy-in. The process also needs to be consistently applied, and you need to sense check your outcomes. Here are our 10 steps to making your job evaluation scheme work for you.

Item Link

What are the pros and cons of Job Evaluation?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 08:16:26 GMT

Weighing up the implications

Using job evaluation has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's explore the pros and cons:

Pros of Using Job Evaluation:

Fair Pay decisions: this is undoubtedly one of the biggest selling points. Job evaluation helps ensure that employees are paid fairly based on the relative value of their jobs within your organisation. It reduces the chances of pay disparities and perceived inequities.
Improved Communication: A transparent job evaluation system allows you to communicate openly with employees about the factors that determine their pay.
Internal Equity: A well-designed job evaluation system underpins and reinforces a clear and consistent pay structure, ensuring that similar jobs paid the same and promoting a sense of fairness among employees.
Legal Compliance: Using a well managed job evaluation process can help you comply with equal pay laws and regulations, reducing the risk of pay related claims and tribunals.
Motivated Workforce: When employees feel that their efforts are recognised and rewarded fairly, they are more likely to be motivated, engaged, and committed to their work.
Objective Decision-Making: Job evaluation relies on objective criteria and standardised factors, reducing the influence of personal bias and subjectivity in pay decisions.
Talent Attraction and Retention: A fair and structured job evaluation system can attract and retain talented individuals, as potential employees will have confidence in your pay practices.

Cons of Using Job Evaluation:

Complexity: Some job evaluation methods can be complex and challenging to understand, leading to potential confusion and resistance from managers and employees who don’t understand it.
External Market Variability: While job evaluation focuses on internal factors, external market conditions also affect how competitive your pay rates are; which means that unless you use it alongside salary benchmarking your pay rates may not be competitive.
Job Changes and Evaluation Updates: As job roles evolve over time, regular updates to the job evaluation system are necessary to ensure its accuracy and relevance, for instance, if you measure a factor like budget size then this needs to be increased over time, or it will not be reflective of the real value.
Potential Inflexibility: Job evaluation needs careful management to handle unique job roles or dynamic changes in your roles, or else you may lose the flexibility you need.
Subjectivity in Scoring: Despite efforts to be objective, job evaluation is undertaken by people and so still involves some subjectivity in assigning scores to certain job factors, which could lead to disagreements.
Time and Resources: Implementing a job evaluation system can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, requiring data collection, training, and analysis. Managing the process in-house will require more resources or using external assessors will be more expensive.

Overall, the pros of using job evaluation, such as fair pay practices and a more objective approach to decision-making, will outweigh the cons. However, you need to carefully mange and communicate the process to maximise its benefits and address potential challenges.

If you are not sure how it will work for you, give me a call and I will happily talk you through it.

What are the common job evaluation factors?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 12:13:28 GMT

What do I need to measure?

When determining which job evaluation scheme is best for you, one of the elements I suggested you consider is the factors that are measured by the scheme. Most schemes measure pretty much the same thing with one or two exceptions, but not always in the same way. The trick is to be absolutely sure about what is important to be measured in your organisation.

The factors commonly measured include:

Skills Requirements: The level of skills and expertise needed to perform the job effectively. This may include technical skills, specialist knowledge, problem-solving abilities, qualifications and experience. This is about performing the job effectively so the skill requirements needs to be relevant to the job role.

Complexity: The complexity and intricacy of job duties and challenges. Jobs involving complex problem-solving or decision-making may receive higher evaluations. For instance, a specialist may also manage a team – which adds complexity to the role. In smaller organisations it is common to see job roles responsible for more than one area of the business – this is added complexity.

Responsibilities: Will cover things like the responsibility the role has for resources (budgets, people and equipment) and may also cover the extent of accountability and decision-making authority associated with the job. Jobs with higher responsibilities are usually evaluated as more valuable.

Autonomy: The level of independence and authority the jobholder has in making decisions and managing their work. Some roles are expected to work independently but are governed by internal frameworks and legislation, others may have more flexibility to make decisions or adopt alternative approaches. This point is often measured by the level at which the decision has to be escalated.

Impact: The influence of the job on the organisation's goals and outcomes. Jobs that have a significant impact on the organisation's success may be assessed as more valuable. So highly visible or highly strategic roles often receive higher evaluations.

Interaction: The degree of interaction and communication required with others in the organisation, customers, or external stakeholders. This factor may also consider the type of interaction – does the role communicate in terms of giving information like facts and figures, or is it influencing decisions and changing how others think.

Supervisory/Management Responsibilities: Whether the job involves supervising and managing other employees, departments, or projects may have an impact. If your organisation is filled with highly skilled specialists then you will need a scheme that balances managerial and specialist capabilities.

Effort: The physical and mental effort required to carry out the job tasks. Jobs that demand greater effort may receive higher evaluations.

Working Conditions: The nature of the work environment, including physical demands, safety risks, and working hours. Jobs with challenging or hazardous conditions may be rated differently. This can often been combined with effort, which the nature of the role puts the individual at risk in some way.

You'll notice that some of these factors have some cross-over and that's quite normal. It just means that sometimes the level at which you have measured one factor, will affect the level at which you measure another. For instance, you want the level of influence to balance with the level of authority. Or the skills to balance with the decision making.

If you’re struggling to work out what’s important for your organisation, give me a call and I’ll talk you through it.

How do I know which JE scheme is best for us?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:05:40 GMT

What should I be looking for?

When choosing a job evaluation scheme, there are several factors to consider if you want to ensure the scheme you chose aligns well with your organisation's needs and objectives. In no particular order (because your priorities will vary), these include:

Your Goals and Objectives: Understand your primary objectives for using job evaluation. Whether it's to establish internal equity, comply with legal requirements, support salary benchmarking, support change management, or a combination of these, your goals will influence your choice of scheme:

Complexity of Jobs: Assess the complexity and diversity of job roles you have. If you have a wide range of jobs with varying responsibilities and skills levels, you might need to consider a more detailed and nuanced job evaluation scheme.

Resources: Think about the resources you have available to implement and maintain the job evaluation process. Some schemes require extensive data collection, training, and analysis, while others may be simpler to manage with limited resources. Think about how involved do you want/need your business colleagues and team resources to be.

Organisation Size: The size of your organisation can impact the practicality of certain job evaluation methods. Smaller organisations may prefer more straightforward approaches but complexity might drive them towards a more comprehensive scheme. Or, if you are growing, then you need to think about what you will need for the future, not just right now.

Acceptance and Transparency: Choose a job evaluation scheme that is transparent and easily understandable for employees. If they understand how their jobs are evaluated, it can lead to greater acceptance and trust in the process. Think also about ways to involve them. Could you have panel members from across the employee base. Could they give a brief or other information about their jobs. Being involved often leads to greater understanding, trust in, and acceptance of the process.

Market Alignment You don’t always have to have market data just to get a handle on your core jobs and how they align, or the impact of changes. Likewise you don’t always need job evaluation to get market data (but it is more robust if you do). If you are concerned about market data some job evaluation schemes integrate with market databases to ensure competitive benchmarking.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Whatever your choice, ensure that your chosen job evaluation scheme complies with relevant legislation and regulations related to equal pay and non-discrimination.

Alignment with your culture: Think about how well the job evaluation scheme aligns with your culture and values. A scheme that reflects and reinforces your company's principles may be more easily accepted in the business, particularly if it reflects your .

Evaluation Factors: Consider the factors utilised in the scheme and how flexible they are. If you have a workforce that is out and about you might want to consider a scheme that recognises the implications of that, or if your jobs are specialist does the scheme recognise that as well as management skills.

Cost: Let's be honest, costs vary significantly. Some charge more because their schemes are global, complex, specialised etc etc. Some schemes are on-line and charge license fees per users, others are manual. If you don't need a big all singing and dancing scheme there are plenty others to chose from.

Ultimately, the best job evaluation scheme for you will depend on a combination of the things above. Take the time to carefully assess your specific situation and goals to make an informed decision that supports them.

If you need to talk to someone about your job evaluation needs, give me a call and I’ll help you work it through.

What types of job evaluation scheme are there?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 15:45:16 GMT

You may be surprised to learn that there are different types of job evaluation scheme (and there are numerous different providers), each with its own approach and methodology. Some are paper based, some are on-line/portal led, some are simple, some are complex.

The choice of scheme you will prefer will depend on the needs, size, complexity, and the level of detail required for your organisation.

Common types of job evaluation scheme we regularly encounter include:

1. Points Factor Method: This method is probably the most detailed approach. It breaks down jobs into various factors, such as skills, responsibilities, working conditions, decisions, influence and effort. Each factor is assigned a certain number of points, and the total points for a job determine its overall value. This method allows for a more granular evaluation of job differences. This is generally recognised as being the most consistent, objective, and therefore robust methodology.

2. Classification or Grading Method: This method involves grouping jobs into predefined grades or classes based on factors such as skills/capabilities, responsibilities, and complexity. This is commonly adopted in organisations who prefer a less detailed methodology. That said, this approach is probably more structured/objective than the ranking method below.

3. Ranking Method: In the ranking method, jobs are listed in order of their importance or value to the organization. Jobs are compared based on overall worth, and ranked from highest to lowest. This approach is relatively simple and quick but may not provide a precise measurement of job differences and may be perceived to be quite subjective, especially if specific skills are considered disproportionately more valuable.

4. Paired Comparison: This approach is a variation of the ranking method where evaluators compare jobs in pairs and determine which job is more important. In more sophisticated schemes a points system can be used to assign scores based on the number of times each job is chosen as more critical, resulting in a final ranking. However, this is another methodology that is often accused of being too subjective.

There are other methods of course and they are often a based on a combination of the approaches above.

Most businesses start out using some form of informal paired comparison or ranking method. It’s often not a conscious decision, just the most pragmatic approach when a business starts growing needs to bring in more roles, and build a hierarchy.

Each job evaluation scheme has its advantages and limitations, and you should choose a scheme that aligns best with your needs and resources. The goal is to implement a fair and consistent system to determine the relative worth of different jobs within your organisation. My next blog will focus on what you will need to consider when choosing a scheme. In the meantime, if you want to know more, get in touch.

If you already have a scheme I would be interested to hear about your favourite approach; especially if you are using a bespoke or in-house designed scheme. What made you decide to do that?

Why is job evaluation important

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 08:00:38 GMT

How job evaluation makes the difference

To me, the main reason job evaluation is important is because it provides an objective and systematic way to determine the relative value of different jobs within an organization. When companies evaluate jobs, they assess factors like skills, responsibilities, effort, and working conditions to create a fair and consistent basis for comparing jobs and determining their worth. Here's more about why job evaluation is so essential:

Eliminating Bias: Job evaluation helps reduce the influence of personal biases and prejudices that could affect pay decisions. It focuses on the job's characteristics rather than jobholder, ensuring that pay decisions are based on objective criteria.
Ensuring Fairness: When jobs are evaluated fairly, employees in similar roles or with similar responsibilities are more likely to receive similar pay. This sense of internal equity reduces pay disparities and promotes a sense of fairness for employees.
Compliance with Laws and Regulations: The UK, like many countries, has laws and regulations that require equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender, race, or other protected characteristics. Job evaluation provides a transparent and defensible approach to demonstrate compliance with these laws.
Motivating Employees: A transparent and fair pay system based on job evaluation can boost employee morale and motivation. When employees understand how their pay is determined and see that it's based on objective criteria, they are more likely to feel valued and motivated to perform well.
Attracting and Retaining Talent: Companies with a reputation for fair pay practices are more likely to attract and retain talented individuals. Job evaluation helps build confidence among employees that they will be compensated fairly for their contributions. In addition, job evaluation linked to market salaries means that these companies are more likely to know the current worth of a job.
Supporting Pay Structure: A well-designed job evaluation system forms the foundation for establishing a clear and structured pay hierarchy within the organization. This pay structure ensures that pay is commensurate with job responsibilities and supports career progression

If you need to understand more about how job evaluation works, you could try our Introduction to Job Evaluation training.

What is job evaluation?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 07:40:38 GMT

And how does it link to equal pay?

Job evaluation (JE) is something we frequently hear mentioned when talking about equal pay claims. It is a tool that is often used in the claims process to identify if two job roles are similar enough to make a good case for a claim. But what is it really all about? The next series of blogs will explain more.

From a user perspective JE is a tool we use to understand how important and complex different jobs are within an organisation. It's a way for to decide how each job compares to others in your organisation and ultimately how much it should be paid compared to its colleagues.

Each job requires different skills, responsibilities, and effort. With the most popular types of scheme, we give each job a score or rating based on factors like the skills needed, how much decision-making is involved, how physically demanding it is, and the level of responsibility. This is known as factor based evaluation and we will look at other types in later blogs. It is important to note that training and guidance is provided to ensure that the person undertaking the JE process makes consistent decisions about the level of each role.

Generally, to undertake the evaluation we use data that most organisations already hold:

· job descriptions

· task lists

· organisation structures/organograms

Although we also can use questionnaires or interviews with jobholders to get any information that is not already available.

By using JE and following an objective process, the company can make fair decisions about salaries and benefits. Jobs that are more challenging or crucial to the company's success might get paid more than jobs that are simpler or less essential.

But it can also be used for other reasons:

· to identify and articulate the skills gaps in your organisation

· to specify and manage training requirements for each job role

· to support performance management and discussions with jobholders

· to support organisation design and change, and (of course),

· to support and defend against equal pay claims.

So, in simple terms, job evaluation is a tool we can use to consistently measure and compare different jobs in order to determine how they align within the structure, and ultimately how much they should be paid and benefits they get. It's a way to ensure fairness in pay decisions and make sure staff are rewarded appropriately for the work they do.

If you have questions about job evaluation, feel free to put them here.

Feel Good Friday?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 08:26:19 GMT

Or is it?

Because in my experience, Friday's are not always that great....

Working in HR for as long as I have, I've noticed that Fridays are often far from the often mooted concept of nipping off to the pub early because it's Friday. There's no sneaking off early, putting your feet up or browsing through LinkedIn, just because its Friday. It is more likely that we will spend the day dealing with whatever can of worms our working week has opened up for us. And I've encountered a fair few over the years.

My least favourite was being called in to deal with the guy who identified as a Jedi, but in reality was behaving more like a Sith. After a discussion with his now very wary boss, about his lack of 5-day per week performance he took umbrage and attached him. Very amusing in the re-telling many years later, but not half as funny when you're on the receiving end of a sharp tap round the ear with a plastic toy (ask any parent!). Of course, dealing with the instant dismissal paperwork for a numpty who couldn't handle his temper was not my favourite way to end the week.

My most favourite was the calculating the pay increase for 8 Filipino carers who were being transferred into the business I worked for. They'd been underpaid for a number of years on the basis that they weren't English, didn't speak good English, didn't know the law - and simply because the organisation they had transferred from thought they could get away with it. My last message that day was from their manager thanking me for dealing with it so quickly and informing me that they had all booked time off to go home for a couple of weeks (but not all at the same time).

Somewhere in between there was the cleaner who kept unplugging the vending machine to do her hoovering, the pensions contributions reports that excluded the Exec team, the pay review spreadsheet that showed that some staff had had their pay rounded up and some had it rounded down, the payroll manager in hospitality who decided to repeat last month instead of running a new month, the admin assistant who left and took all the passwords with them and

I'd love to hear about your can of worms Fridays - it's good to share.

One good reason you need to do an EPA

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:21:51 GMT

How big is your risk?

It was a timely email reminder that dropped the following article from Employee Benefits Magazine right into my lap, just as I was getting ready to publish our EPA white paper.

Birmingham City Council unable to pay £760 million equal pay bill - (employeebenefits.co.uk)

It makes for scary reading, but in this case I am all for scare tactics if it helps you get the organisation you work for more compliant. That said, I am more than aware that asking the Board if they want to be the next Birmingham City Council is quite possibly political suicide. However, including references to the ongoing implications of not getting equal pay right is just business casing the need to get it done.

If you're not sure where to start, or what an EPA entails, have a look at our white paper and give us a call. We'll happily talk you through it and give you a realistic view of the resources needed - imagine the relief of knowing what you need to do.

Reward Strategy - what are you telling your staff?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 07:23:33 GMT

Are you sending the right message?

So I've used this before and I will never get over how language defines our messages. If you want your reward strategy to give the right messages, think carefully about how you communicate it.

Here is a great illustration for reward that really emphasises what I mean:

Reward: a thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement

Some organisations call it compensation:

Compensation: something, typically money, awarded to someone in recognition of loss, suffering, or injury

If I’m being picky and let’s be honest here I am - I somehow think they may have hit the nail right on the head. I often wonder at which point does our employment mindset go from wanting to reward our staff for giving us their services, to wanting to compensate them for the fact they have to turn up every day. More worryingly, how did work get so bad that they have to be compensated for doing it?

If your staff don’t love their work, if they don’t love getting up in the morning to do it, if they don’t love it when they are there – then the engagement has gone. This is where you need to start talking again. Engage with your staff and reward them for the efforts they put in on your behalf. There’s plenty of evidence out there to suggest it works. I guess the problem is knowing how to do that.

Communicating your reward strategy has to be a good start! There is a reason why we use speech bubbles in our logo - it's because done right communication not only solves problems, it engages people. Talk to them, not just tell them. Let them talk back, give you feedback. Don't be afraid of getting it wrong, honest messages put badly are 100x better than no message at all. And remember, you can tell them a 1000 times, but until they actually hear and understand you, you haven't communicated at all.

Be brave, put your reward strategy out there, get the feedback going and let it become an engagement activity.

Is your reward strategy working?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 15:17:56 GMT

How do you know?

Continuing our posts on Reward Strategy, this is the question that we'd like you to think about.

Knowing whether a reward strategy is working means you have to effectiveness of your strategy over time, using a variety of measures to assess whether the strategy is achieving its intended outcomes. Here are some ways to do this:

Employee satisfaction: One of the most direct ways to assess the effectiveness of your reward strategy is to ask your employees how satisfied they are with their pay and benefits. Employee surveys, focus groups, and interviews can provide valuable feedback on how employees perceive the effectiveness of your reward strategy. Be brave - you may be surprised at the outcomes. sometimes it genuinely isn't as bad as you think.

Employee turnover: Employee turnover is an important indicator of whether the reward strategy is working. If you're losing valuable employees to competitors or to other industries, it may be a sign that your reward strategy is not competitive or attractive enough.

Recruitment success: This is another good measure of your success. If you can attract high-quality candidates for open positions, it is a sign that the reward strategy is effective in attracting talent.

Performance metrics: Performance metrics, such as sales revenue, productivity, and customer satisfaction, can provide insights into whether the reward strategy is motivating and engaging employees to perform at a high level. There are 100's of metrics, but things like tenure, churn rate, advocacy score, satisfaction index, absenteeism are the 5 we most frequently see utilised.

Financial performance: Financial performance, such as revenue growth, profitability, and shareholder returns, can also provide insights into the effectiveness of your reward strategy. If you are achieving strong financial results, alongside high employee satisfaction, good recruitment success this could be a sign that the reward strategy is helping to drive performance and results.

By regularly evaluating the effectiveness of your reward strategy using some well thought out measures, you can assess whether your strategy is achieving its intended outcomes and make adjustments as needed to ensure that it remains effective over time.

Don't be afraid to measure your strategy, use metrics and demonstrate your successes to your business.

How Much Are You Worth?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 08:58:53 GMT

Before you accept that job offer, check one thing.....

Are they offering you the right salary?

So here's an interesting thought - all things come in 3s apparently - and I have to agree right now (except for maybe bank holidays, there are loads of those this year).

I have been contacted by 3 separate individuals in the past couple of weeks to help them benchmark a job offer. Not something we come across often, so something to celebrate when we do see it. Why did they come to us:

I applied for a job internally and now they are offering me a lower salary than the job advert stated on the basis that this is a promotion. How can I argue for more money?
I applied for a job, had 2 interviews, and now they are offering me a lower salary on the basis that I don't have enough experience. How much is enough experience? How can I put the case for more money?
I applied for a job, now they've come back to say I am too expensive even though I am asking for the salary they advertised.

We looked at the benchmarking data we had, and then researched it to understand when and why companies would pay more, or less. Was it experience, skills, qualifications or something else? We also sent them off to do a little bit of homework - what was the previous jobholder earning? (because sometimes that knowledge is available).

Then we went through the business case for more salary and discussed what they could ask for instead if they were refused. ie. a commitment to paying it at a specific time based on tangible targets, benefits like extra pensions contributions.

Result!! 1 of them has come back to confirm she has been offered the job at 10% more than the original offer.

Whilst I am still waiting to hear about the others, this just makes me smile.

Maybe it will be a growth area in reward - individuals sourcing data to ensure they get the right salary when they start.

I live in hope!

Who are the Stakeholders?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 31 May 2023 07:55:03 GMT

Who should we focus on?

Involving your stakeholders in your reward strategy development process helps to build buy-in and support for the reward strategy across the organisation. You can ensure that your strategy is comprehensive, aligned with your objectives and values, and meets the needs of both your organisation and your employees.

But who are the stakeholders you should be involving and why?

( It's in alphabetical order because the importance is down to your organisation culture)

Current Employees, Managers and supervisors: These people are on the receiving end of the reward strategy, and employees or their representatives can provide valuable input to ensure the strategy meets their needs and preferences. If your strategy is all about employee retention, engagement, development and culture these are the people you need to talk to. Find out what they want. ( It’s no mistake that these come first, even if this is an alphabetical list! I could have called them staff )

Executives and other Senior Leaders: These are the stakeholders who will have a strategic perspective on your objectives. They will have approved the strategic objectives and can provide insider guidance on how the reward strategy can support those objectives.

Finance team: Your finance team will provide insights into the financial impact of different compensation and benefits programs and help to ensure that the reward strategy is financially sustainable. This is the team that will ensure you strategy is financially sound and gets the nod.

HR and compensation team: this team have expertise in designing and administering compensation and benefits programs, and can provide insights into best practices and industry benchmarks. They also will be able to give you insight into the engagement impact of your proposals. They are likely to have their ear to the ground in respect of what your competitors are up to as well. They will also be helping you with communications (unless you have a specific employee communications/engagement team).

IT Team: Because you will no doubt have to integrate something with your current IT, even if its link to the relevant provider on your intranet. Get this team involved early, because the last thing you need is your strategy being stalled at the implementation stage.

Legal and compliance experts: Legal and compliance experts can ensure that the reward strategy complies with relevant laws and regulations, such as GDPR, equal pay laws and tax regulations.

Potential Employees: Radical maybe, but you could ask your interview candidates what else they would like to see in the comp and ben package. After all, these are the people making the decision to join you, or not, based on your reward strategy.

In our experience, if you don’t involve groups of stakeholders such as employees then your assumptions about what your strategy should look like could end up stagnant; based on the same concepts and ideas you've always had, and your strategy will not be engaging and so will not deliver the outcomes you hope.

Friday's frivolity

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 25 May 2023 14:46:14 GMT

Bad cat!!

Since it's Friday I thought I would post a little bit of frivolity.

This is my latest acquisition - he's 13 years old (a bit of a touchy story since we thought he was 16 and old and frail - how wrong!). He was my mother-in-law's cat - and as this picture shows, he has got a very bad habit. Yup he's spent the last 12-13 year's drinking his water straight out the kitchen tap. So, for some people (like me) this is an absolute "No! No!" - Bad cat! Get down! Now! I said, Now! And for other's it's - well, you know, not the end of the world, it could be worse - at least he use's the litter tray when he needs to go......

So we've spent the last few weeks trying to break the habit. After 35+ years of cat ownership, I thought I'd learnt a thing or two. He is teaching me that a) Knowledge and application are not the same thing; b)patience is a virtue; and, c) bad habits can be so ingrained even the thought of the punishment doesn't break them. He shut his eyes and ignored the water spray. He turned a slightly deaf ear to the slap of the towel on the side next to him. He splashed water out of the drinking bowl, covering everything in water for a 2m radius around the bowl.

I guess there are some lessons in there we can all learn from. This could be an analogy for guesstimating salaries, misogynistic management or any other not so great reward and HR practices we encounter. But really, it's just a note to me to remember that at only 13 years old, I could have another 5+ years of cajoling and threatening, and still not convince this monster to drink out the water fountain.

Oh, and he has established himself as the reward specialist, helping the other cats articulate their need for rewards - He turned his nose up at cat treats (which they then ate), cat milk (which none of them liked), and he did like the catnip but only if you put it on a shelf off the floor (where the others couldnt get to it).

I need chocolate! - a bad habit I should give up perhaps?

p.s. have you succeeded in breaking any bad habits lately?

What is an EVP

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 24 May 2023 07:44:00 GMT

And how does it link to your strategy?

EVP stands for Employer Value Proposition. Which is basically a term we use now to describe what an employer is offering staff in return for their hard work and dedication. It's the set of terms, working practices and benefits that make your organisation an attractive place to work, and that distinguishes you from other employers in the eyes of current and potential employees.

The EVP typically includes a mix of tangible benefits such as salary, bonuses, and insurances, as well as intangible benefits like recognition, opportunities for career development, a positive company culture, and work-life balance. Your EVP can help attract and retain employees who share your values and vision, and who are looking for more than just a job. None of this is new of course (think Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs)

Your reward strategy and EVP are closely linked because the reward strategy is one of the key elements of the EVP. For example, if the EVP emphasizes work-life balance, the reward strategy might include flexible working arrangements or generous paid time off policies. If the EVP emphasizes career development, the reward strategy might include opportunities for training, mentoring, or professional development. By linking the reward strategy to the EVP, you can create a consistent and compelling message about the value your offer your employees, which should in turn improve employee engagement, help to build a positive employer brand and therefore attract the talent you need.

Overall, a well-designed reward strategy should be closely linked to your EVP to ensure that the rewards offered to employees are consistent with the value proposition and support your strategic objectives.

What is a Reward Strategy

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 10 May 2023 11:29:28 GMT

So as previously mentioned, it’s a good idea to get a reward strategy in place. But just to be clear, what we are talking about here is a plan that outlines your approach to compensation and benefits for your employees. It’s a bespoke plan for your business, because generally every business is different; in size, location, culture, stage of development and objectives. So of course it needs to be specific to your needs.

Typically a strategy will include the following elements:

Your philosophy: this sets out your overall approach to pay and rewards. It outlines the guiding principles you will follow when making reward decisions, such as if you will pay for performance, how your reward structure will be developed, your approach to internal equity, and external competitiveness, and, how it fits with your culture. It should have clear messages about how it aligns with your values.

Job evaluation and grading: Job evaluation is the process of assessing the value of different roles within the organization and assigning them to hierarchy on their relative importance. This can then be used to determine your optimal grading structure. It can also be used to highlight things like career paths, development needs, gaps in your organisation structure. It tells you where jobs are similar and where they are different. It can help form the underpinning business case for pay differences.

Salary structure: The salary structure sets out the pay ranges for different job grades or bands, taking into account factors such as your philosophy, external market data, and internal equity considerations. Different approaches will drive different behaviours. (I always say there are only 9 ways to pay people and everything else is a variation on one of those, but don’t tell anyone I said that!).

Incentive plans: Incentive provide additional rewards to employees based on their performance, such as bonuses, profit sharing, or equity participation. If this is your aim, make sure you get the right approach in place to support your strategy. Make sure it has the right focus to drive your desired outcomes.

Benefits packages: Benefits packages include non-cash rewards that support employees' physical, mental, and financial well-being, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off. Different approaches are generally around things like flexible or voluntary benefits schemes and what is favoured in different sectors. But they often end up being a decision from management on what they think is best for their employees. If your philosophy is to have an engaged workforce, you will need to get them engaged with your benefits approach (and all the other elements, but benefits does tend to be the one where employees are not asked enough about what they want).

Recognition and rewards: Recognition and rewards approaches are designed to acknowledge and celebrate employee achievements and contributions, and may include things like awards, public recognition, or special privileges such as days off or lunches.

Communication and transparency: Communication and transparency are critical components of a successful reward strategy - we’re not good at talking about any of this in the UK (one of the reasons why we have speech bubbles in our logo is because communication is so important). Your strategy should consider how you will communicate your approach and your plans to employees clearly and transparently.

And finally, a reward strategy should be reviewed and updated regularly. Just like any other strategy.

In summary, a reward strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how you will attract, retain, and motivate your employees using compensation and benefits. The strategy should be aligned with your objectives and values, and should be communicated clearly and transparently to employees to build trust and engagement.

Sounds simple of course, but if you’re struggling to know where to start – just give us a call. Watch out for our next piece on who should be involved in setting the strategy, after all, it belongs to the business, not just to HR.

Reward Strategy - why do we need it?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 03 May 2023 09:19:18 GMT

If more than 80% of businesses don’t have a strategy, this could be the one thing that puts you ahead of your competitors. Pay is a big issue for employees right now, so its more important than ever to have a plan.

I speak to lots of businesses who have spent many hours putting in place the HR strategy and making sure it aligns to their business’ plans and will support them in managing the challenges ahead. Many of them are focussed on the people and the recruitment, training and development, and terms and benefits that they will be offering. But they are not always focussed on the reward strategy and what that will mean. We always recommend for those that haven’t got a specific reward strategy they should take some time thinking about the plan and the impact of their pay practices.

A well designed reward strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how you will use your pay and benefits offering to attract, retain, and motivate your employees. Like all good strategies, it should be aligned with the business plan and values, and should be communicated clearly and transparently to employees to build trust and engagement.

The most frustrating experience for our clients is when their reward practices don’t meet the business needs. We are most frequently invited in to speak to clients when they realise that their salaries/salary structure no longer fits the bill; because they can’t recruit on the current pay scales, or managers and staff alike complain about the lack of transparency, or even because some benefits operate counter to their values and don’t deliver expected behaviours.

We work with our clients to identify the values and core principles that will underpin and drive decisions behind the strategy. Then we help them start work on the issues they are trying to resolve and get to where they want to be. It’s not aways an easy process but getting the right stakeholders involved and giving those stakeholders a voice will always reap benefits from their engagement with the process and engaged stakeholders will sell your strategy for you.

Here is a link to our case study outlining how we have helped one of our clients build their reward strategy.

Pay Transparency - do we need a law?

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 12:25:10 GMT

Pay Transparency - do we need a law?

On the 30th March 2023, the European Union Parliament adopted new rules on pay transparency which will end pay secrecy within organisations. The new rules are part of the wider rules to ensure equal pay and reducing the equal pay gap which for Europe is reported at 13%, with the UK currently having an average of 13.2% for those submitting in the 22/23 period (Mar/Apr 23, as at 13th April 23).

But do we need a similar law in the UK? As HR consultants and reward specialists, we often come across situations where organisations are reluctant to share salary data with its staff. Indeed, we still come across restrictive clauses in contracts that prohibit staff talking about salaries. Even now, staff often tell us they do not feel they can raise pay level issues with management, it still feels like it is a taboo subject. Often they are informed, that they can’t be told what their colleagues are earning, as this is either sensitive business or personal data.

This practice could fall foul of the current Equality Act 2010 (EA2010) Section 77, which effectively stops the prevention of pay disclosure in relation to protected characteristics. Based on that, it would seem we don’t really need a pay transparency regulation as under EA2010 this pay information should be disclosed. However, such information is only required to be disclosed when requested, and only when in connection with protected characteristics. This effectively means company’s can hide inequalities until such time as a direct question arises to expose them.

There are of course many organisations that freely operate under a pay transparency policy. However, there are many more who do not, and in these days of pay equality, still operate under a shroud of secrecy. Therefore, I would argue that we do need regulations that enforce pay transparency. We need a vehicle to remove that shroud and assist in driving towards not just pay equality for gender purposes, but across the workforce.

If you want to know how to drive pay transparency in your organisation, email me and I will be pleased to give you a few tips.

andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

LET THEM EAT CAKE

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 07:48:48 GMT

How do you keep a constantly mobile body fuelled?

So, this month is Parkinson’s awareness month. No big deal, most months have an awareness day here and there and I try to keep up and follow/understand what they are mostly about. But this one is important to me because my husband has Parkinson’s Disease.

One of the issues it causes is that it can make you lose weight. It takes a lot of calories to keep a constantly mobile body fuelled. And what you eat can affect how well the meds work. Catch 22. My husband has lost a lot of weight recently.

The doctor fortunately took it seriously and sent him for tests. All of which were thankfully clear, the stress is lifted a little and he is now taking additional Vitamin B12. He has also been given license to eat cake and drink beer. So, each evening I watch my husband stuff his face with carbs and quietly fume that I can't even look at a donut without increasing a dress size. If he puts the weight back on though, it will be well worth the suffering (on my part ��).

So, spare a thought today for those suffering from this awful disease.

And I unashamedly beg for a little of your hard earned cash if you can spare it, find out more: Your donations will make a difference | Parkinson's UK (parkinsons.org.uk)

Equal Pay - justification has its pitfalls

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 08:37:15 GMT

The top 10 pitfalls in Market Rate equal pay justification

I've been very lucky to work with Luke Menzies from Menzies Law on equal pay. We've spent many an hour on the way to one of our clients discussing the issues and pitfalls in equal pay and how we can help our clients avoid them. Luke did a really good blog on how using Market Rates as a justification can still get you into trouble, and so (with his permission) I have used it here as part of this series of blogs.

Blog: Top 10 pitfalls in Market Rate equal pay justifications - Menzies Law

Have a read of the blog and see what you could be doing wrong.

I can't emphasise enough; source your market data carefully, use it cautiously, get it regularly reviewed and keep it as evidence.

if you are in any doubt about your equal pay practices, or if you think you might need an audit, give us a call and we'll happily talk you through it.

Some myths about equal pay

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 08:17:41 GMT

It'll never happen to us.....

1. It’s only about women having a moan. Well no! Actually it’s not. I have found so many instances of men working in a predominately female environment, who are on lower pay than their female colleagues. Sometimes its justified, there’s a business case not related to his gender. Sometimes it’s not and I hear disparaging remarks being made. This is not a one-way train. Equal pay works in both directions.

2. It doesn’t matter if the salary is different, so long as the total package is the same. This is one I hear frequently. But in reality the legislation looks at each individual element that make up the pay package. So, using your bonus scheme or maybe a company car allowance, as a way of keeping the package equal might be a good thing on the face of it, but it wont necessarily stand up in court.

3. They’ve just got that much more experience. Ok, what exactly do you mean? If you mean that they have significant experience in the job that enables them to do it more effectively, then you can potentially justify it. But, if what you're really saying is that they’ve been with you longer, or they’re older, or any other slightly more spurious reasoning, then you are probably on dodgy ground. Experience has to be relevant. I see a lot of cases where the experience is more about time served than learning opportunities. If you cannot articulate how experience makes the difference in tangible ways, you are probably on dodgy ground.

4. We had market data to support the difference. Market data is very important for business casing differences in pay. However, it is a self-limiting factor. A difference that was justified 3 or 4 years ago may not be quite so relevant now. Market data only really works as an argument if you revisit it regularly. So keep track of the data, update it regularly, monitor the gap, try and close it down. As @Luke Menzies would say “it’s an evaporating defence” and you don’t want to get caught out because you haven’t been keeping up with your market research.

5. We had to pay more because we appointed them externally and they were on so much more in their previous role. So, if they are worth it, how come the staff who have been with you through thick and thin, who have supported the business and helped it grow, are not? As with the case above, you might be able to swing this for a year or so, but the argument will wear thin very quickly.

6. Women don’t ask for pay rises. Well, if only that were the case. I can point you to many women I have met over the years who have worked hard to business case their pay rise and been fobbed off. Everything from “we missed our chance this pay review, I’ll try again in a year”, to “we don’t really have the budget, time’s are hard right now”. The worst response, the one that makes me really angry is “you’re only questioning this because you work in HR/payroll (or some other team where you are privy to the information”. No, they’re questioning it because it’s wrong – plain and simple. Honestly, if you don’t rate them for some reason tell them why in a grown up conversation – otherwise put your money where your mouth is.

7. We can't afford to close that gap. Maybe not, but you can afford to start working on it, to start dealing with the problem. Do nothing will land you in more trouble than taking baby steps and doing what is affordable. Do nothing and end up in court with the attendant costs, the reputational hit and the additional workload and it will have cost you more - 6 years of back pay to make up!! on top of everything else. Women are generally reasonable creatures (back to why you get away with the excuses in 6.) and working to close the gap is a positive step. No one wants their company to go broke solving the problem. We just want you to make a good start.

So if these resonate with you, maybe its time to start making a difference in your business.

What's included in an Equal Pay Audit?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 09:07:43 GMT

I'll be honest, it will involve a bit of work at your end

No one sets out deliberately to have unequal pay practices. However, it is easy for history, bias and lack of clarity to have exactly that result. Many organisations shy away from undertaking an in-depth equal pay audit for fear of what they might find. However, if you don’t know what the actual problem is how can you resolve it?

It is important to just to be clear that where equal pay legislation is concerned, you are assessing whether there is a notable gap in pay for equal work, which can be defined in three ways and we recommend you assess your data using this as a guide:

Work ‘rated as equivalent’ – where the comparator groups have had their jobs rated as equivalent under an analytical job evaluation scheme, with similar evaluation scores and categorised in the same level.
Work of ‘equal value’ – where the work is different but is of equal value in terms of the demands of the job. Where job evaluation is not common practice, placement in a ranked structure can be useful and is usually related to organisation structure or pay framework.
‘Like work’ – where the comparator groups (in this case, men and women) are doing work that is the same or broadly similar.

When undertaking an EPA your consultant will work with you to identify which roles are in scope and establish what information is needed to support the review.

Key steps that will require your input should include:

· Identifying which staff are included in the audit

· Understanding how the business is structured and what organisation codes are used

· Identifying pay elements to be included and ensuring that all payroll elements are aligned by title

· Identifying non-pay elements to be reviewed

· Collecting and collating pay related policies

· Establishing the parameters for the reports

· Assessing and comparing the salary data using EHRC guidelines and the characteristics you have agreed (gender, ethnicity, age, length of service, alignment to structure)

· Creating a report summarising with the findings, and

· if you work with us on this, we will also recommend involving Menzies law in assessing the legal risks in the findings

· Developing a plan for mitigation.

What are the outcomes?

· You get a report showing exactly where and how unequal pay practices were occurring.

· You get a summary of the biggest gaps and where to focus your efforts

· You will have a summary or a risk assessment, of the legislative requirements outlining your responsibility and the potential risks to the organisation of failure to comply (useful when talking to a sceptical leadership team)

Most importantly, you have the starting point for taking some positive action to understand and resolve some of the issues.

Don’t be daunted by this, a good consultant will help you along the way. Just pick up the phone.

Why do I need an Equal Pay Audit?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 08:52:04 GMT

Apart from the obvious legal implications, it gives you a good starting point!

We are often asked to get involved because clients are not sure where to start. They may have identified an issue, or worse a member of staff has raised one: “why is he/she paid more than me?”. We also get involved when clients identify problems arising from business activities. The trick is to pre-empt those issues:

Merging with another organisation and harmonising payscales or terms and conditions can be a hazardous activity. Get it right and no one will notice. Get it wrong and everyone will be up in arms. An equal pay audit (EPA) will help you identify what issues you need to resolve as part of the harmonisation exercise.
Payscales appear fair but the client has feedback or complaints from staff and managers. Sometimes payscales no longer fit the bill. Managers go on to make practical decisions to solve immediate problems and then later down the line there is a visible issue. An EPA will help you identify what causes the issue, pre-empt future issues or give you a focus for when you are developing/changing your pay scales.
Individuals have raised queries and made comparisons with other staff. Its human nature to make these comparisons. An EPA will help you identify whether there is likely to be an issue in a specific cohort and may even help you pre-empt queries by highlighting where potential comparisons might be made.
Trades Union/Staff Council/Consultation Groups have requested one. You’re all going to be singing from the same hymn-sheet in the end. A good outcome from your EPA will leave everyone satisfied that everything is already as good as it can be. A more difficult outcome will give you something to work from and help you identify hotspots and issues to resolve; it will also give you something to measure against in future.
The GPG gap is disproportionate and a bit of a deep dive is needed to get to the root of the problem. It has been highly recommended from the start that an EPA should follow on from GPG reporting. People sometimes confuse GPG with equal pay - the former tells you the headline size of the gap, the latter tells you what's going on behind the scenes.

An EPA will cut your data in many ways, and highlight the areas on which you need to focus. Not knowing where to start often stops a process dead in its tracks. Having an action plan, or a focus for your activities, will give you the confidence to get started. Be warned though – no EPA can dig into the records to find out what decisions where made and when to create a problem. It will only tell you the size of the problem. But at least you’ll know here to start.

If you are not sure if you need an audit, get in touch and we’ll talk you through it; that way you will know for sure.

Do equal pay audits work?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 08:09:02 GMT

Well yes, quite frankly, they do!

International Women's Day and GPG reporting often create a little flurry of interest in equal pay audits. Not surprising really as there's nothing like a bit of media attention to focus the mind on what's likely to land on your desk in the next few months. Pre-empting the boss's "I was just thinking" moment is an occupational hazard in most HR teams (which is where we mostly get the interest from).

Once we've undertaken the audit we meet with the client to discuss the outcomes. Often the first thing the recipient says w is "I knew it!". That's because they have a fair idea where the issues really lie, and who is making some potentially uncomfortable decisions. The audit report is usually the proof they need to enable them to put a business case for resolving some of the issues.

Sometimes I see the light go out in someone's eyes. It might be worse than they thought. Or some of the gaps really seem insurmountable - especially when budgets are tight. Or sometimes, it feels like all their hard work at keeping the business on track has somehow failed. The worse outcome is that they know they are not going to get a remit to do anything to resolve the problem, but thankfully that's a rare outcome these days.

Whatever happens in that discussion, it usually gets taken forward to a senior management or leadership team meeting, or a working party, and agreement is given to whatever course of action is acceptable.

In my experience what makes a difference (and therefore what makes an equal pay audit work) is having recommendations and a defined action plane. An action plan supports the business to work through the issues, which can help in the following ways:

- it can sort out why a cohort are paid differently, business case it and/or change it.

- it can help the managers understand the impact of their decisions and hopefully encourage them to make better decisions in future

- it can encourage ongoing efforts to monitor and review the data regularly to see what progress is being made

- it can encourage the business to publish their successes, tell people what they've achieved, show their staff it made a difference.

Of course, I'll be honest now and say - sometimes what makes the difference is the fact that someone external has looked at the data and created the report. It's no longer HR harping on about it. Sometimes we can go in and say the same thing HR have been saying for years, but because we are consultants everyone is suddenly listening. But, I'm just glad that they are listening, and hopefully acting, on the outcomes.

Do equal pay audits work? Yes, they really do. If you want to find out more about what an equal pay audit entails, watch this space because I'll be writing a few more blogs on the subject over the next few weeks. Or give me a call and we can talk it through.

International Women's Day 2023

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 14:29:46 GMT

International Women's Day 2023

Today we celebrate fellow women, and the incredible things women have achieved.

Achievements that have changed the way you and I live today. What’s crystal clear, is that their achievements didn’t come easy. These women faced hate, harsh judgment, even violence against them but they pushed through because their vision was bigger than themselves.

As you read a snapshot of the following four stories, ask yourself ‘What can I learn from these women?’

Emmeline Pankhurst

Emeline founded the Women’s social & political union (WSPU) in 1903.
As a child Emeline was very intellectual, whilst she slept one night she heard her father say "What a pity she wasn't born a lad." through her experiences she learnt a lot about the treatment of women in the workplace, she didn’t accept it.

Her extreme protest ways landed her in jail many times, and stirred up much controversy but ultimately Emeline’s movement helped women win the right to vote.

It’s a bittersweet story because Emeline never lived to see her dream become reality, she died 3 weeks before the law for equal votes was passed.

Read Emeline’s story here: Emmeline Pankhurst - Wikipedia

Harriet Tubman

An American abolitionist and social activist. Harriet was born into slavery in the 1820’s, she was beaten and whipped from a young age. At the age of 5-6 she was hired out to a woman to care for her baby and rock the cradle as it slept. If the baby woke up and cried, she was whipped. These scars she carried for the rest of her life.

At 12, she accidentally received a traumatic blow to the head that caused issues throughout her life. It was after this injury that she experienced vivid dreams and strange visions - she called these premonitions from god.

In 1849, she managed to escape and following this she would risk her own life to rescue over 300 enslaved people. In her later life she established a home for the needy, and joined forces with other abolitionists and suffragists.

She died in 1913 and was buried with military honors. She is known as an American hero and an icon of freedom.

Read Harriet’s story here: Harriet Tubman - Wikipedia

Rosa Parks

In the late 19th Century a set of laws were introduced in the United States that claimed to provide African Americans ‘separate but equal’ status. The ‘Jim Crow laws’ were created by white authorities that enforced racial segregation, they believed black people's lives didn’t matter as much as theirs. The goal was to make sure black and white citizens led very separate lives.

Rosa and her husband Raymond joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) , an association formed to put a stop to this awful treatment.

On 1st December 1955, Rosa boarded the bus home and took a seat at the front of the bus - an area reserved for white passengers.

When the bus was full and a white man boarded, Rosa was told to give up her seat along with other black passengers. All but Rosa obeyed and she was arrested and fined for breaking segregation laws. She refused the fine. She said it was the law that was wrong, not her behaviour!

News of Rosa’s arrest spread and the black citizens of Montgomery planned a boycott of the city’s buses in protest. The boycott lasted 381 days. With 70% of bus users African American, the transport service struggled financially and violence broke out from members of the white population.

On the 13th November 1956, the supreme court ruled that the racial segregation laws were ‘unconstitutional’ - making them no longer valid or recognised. Rosa became known as ‘the mother of the civil rights movement.’

Read Rosa’s story here: Rosa Parks - Wikipedia

Dr. Temple Grandin

Diagnosed with Autism as a child, Dr. Temple Grandin went on to pursue a career in psychology and animal science.

For nearly 3 decades she has been working to improve animal welfare in the livestock industry. Livestock handling facilities she designed are used worldwide and she’s also influenced industry standards when it comes to the slaughter process.

“I think we can eat meat ethically,” she said, “but we’ve got to give animals a good life.”

She spent 30 years looking at the beef industry through the eyes of a cow, experiencing the dire conditions for herself. By doing this she found small ways to treat the cattle more humanely, making a big difference to their lives.

Temple says she thinks in pictures (She has Asperger’s Syndrome) she believes this has helped her empathise with the experience of animals.

She’s not only improved the lives of livestock, but also helped deepen our understanding of what autism is, as a spokesperson and advocate for others like her.

Read Dr. Temple Grandin’s story here:
Temple Grandin - Wikipedia

These are just four inspiring women who have contributed to the world we experience today. There are millions more.

Because women have stood up to what’s important, we are able to live a freedom that the women before us couldn’t.

They are proof, what we do matters.

We all help shape the world in our own way - our own mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties, daughters, cousins, friends, bosses and colleagues have contributed hugely to my own life.

My mother taught me how to love and be compassionate.

My grandmother taught me the importance of family.

My aunt taught me strength and resilience.

My friends taught me how to enjoy life and support others.
My colleagues taught me new skills and how to collaborate.

My female bosses taught me anything is possible.

Today, I share my thanks to all of them.

I’m fiercely proud to be one of them.

I am so lucky.......

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 13:15:53 GMT

I have amazing women in my life

And, I have had a career where I have worked with many amazing women.

You often read about women not supporting women in the workplace environment and I suspect there are some situations where this is true. But it is not my overall experience. Thank you to each and every one of the women who have been there to support me, laugh with me, encourage me, help me out and generally, ensure that I have had many many positive women in my career. These ladies in Tewkesbury Co-working, where I have my office, are an amazing little support group. They have been happy to celebrate when I win a contract, commiserate when I have an off day, and show me in a hundred different ways that women celebrate women.

Go for it ladies, remember that somewhere someone is celebrating your every success (even the small ones). It may not be a colleague, friend or a family member - it maybe a random stranger. In a cafe in Bristol a few weeks back, a woman passed me on the stairs. She stopped, smiled and said "wow you really suit that dress, its lovely" and then carried on without another word. I was taken aback, and totally boosted. I don't know her, may never see her again, but it made the difference to my day.

And, to be honest, more than a few men do these things as well. I am late to the game this year thanking them. So, from the heart, to all the amazing women I thank you, and to all the super supportive men - I thank you too!

How do you find a reward consultant to meet your needs?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:43:17 GMT

Well, you can start with us, or ...........

if your tender process requires it, you can start looking around for companies that you might want to work with.

New clients usually come to us through direct contact recommendations from previous clients, or recommendations from our HR contacts. If you are already using an HR consultant they should be able to help you find the right Reward consultancy for you. If you are reading this, then hopefully you will also decide we are a good choice. To be honest, we get more than 90% of our work through word of mouth recommendations. And we have a number of HR consultancies and contacts who regularly use us to support their clients.

I was surprise though to find out from HR people I spoke to at the CIPD conference last year that many hadn't any real idea who was out there and what services they offered. When I asked the question some years ago the CIPD estimated (but had no real evidence) that they had about 3,000 independent reward consultants in their UK membership. At the time 300 of us were at a conference in London. I am sure there are more now, and I am even more sure there are thousands out there who are not CIPD members. Not a problem, so long as they do a good job and have the right experience for you.

It goes against the grain of course to plug other reward organisations, but when I speak to clients who have to go out to wider tender we are frequently asked who else they can invite into the process. Of course the answer depends on the tender and there are a number of organisations that spring to mind. You can choose organisations like Cendex, Croner, Willis Towers Watson, Capita, Hays or Ernst & Young - all big names in the salary benchmarking market. Or you can chose from other organisations like us, Paydata, Turning Point HR, Innecto. We can usually suggest other consultants that might fit your need if you are unlucky enough to be going through the tender process and need some help.

Alternatively you can take your chances with Google. Depending on what you put in the search box, you will get back plenty of answers. My advice though is to be fairly specific. Include terms like salary benchmarking, pay structures design, equal pay, if that is what you are looking for. Otherwise you might end up wth a list of benefits programmes or recognition schemes.

And, of course, give me a call on 07415 974004 for a chat.

Tendering for a Reward Specialist

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 08:29:26 GMT

What we need to know

Lots of organisations use a formal tender process to source their consultant. Either because they have the procurement process tied up in this, or because it just takes the strain at their end. But some organisations don't - and that's OK. What we need to know usually falls out of a formal procurement process, but not all the time. So here are some of the things that are important to us.

Firstly tenders are very important to us but they are also resource-intensive to complete. We do have the basic information to hand of course, but actually completing the tender documentation can take at best half a day, sometimes 2-3 days. This is one reason why smaller organisations often don’t do formal tendering for things like local government roles. We just don’t have the resources to take our lead consultant out of the business for a few days to complete something like this.

(quick rant coming up) We know plans are afoot to encourage larger organisations to think about their tender processes, but please, think about the reality of the smaller organisations when setting the questions – do you absolutely need 11 pages of questions about our IT – if we are ICO registered, GDPR compliant and our servers are UK based, what more do you need? (rant over) .

Like most consultancies we subscribe to a number of different tendering portals. These are great because they tell us when someone is looking for a specialist and we can then go on and log an interest. There are many different portals and your procurement team (if you have one) will know which is the best for your sector. And of course, you don’t have to use a portal, its not compulsory. You can decide to handle it all and just contact organisations you like the sound of. We quite often get invited to tender because the potential buyer has spoken to someone who knows us.

Irrespective of how you find your tenderers, there is some key information we need to know. I refer you back to the blog on the questions we ask Questions a Reward Consultant Will Ask You (rewardrisk.co.uk) – but here are some basic things that get included in tenders:

1. An organisation brief – These are usually 1-2 pages of information about the organisation, your history, culture and the reason you need a specialist. You may also include the cultural fit of the organisation you are looking for and the nature of the support (critical friend etc). Think also about the type of data you want sourced and things like regional limitations etc.

2. Copies of relevant documents – make copies of current documentation available on request, unless it is commercially sensitive: pay structures, policies, strategy etc. and potentially a list of the job roles or job groups affected by the project.

3. Key contacts and method – tell us who to contact with questions – and how you want that contact made. Don’t give out a telephone number if you only want contact by email. (quick tip – also make sure the recipient knows they are expected to be available for the duration of the “open for questions” period – we withdrew our tender for one opportunity after the contact was unavailable to answer any questions which meant that only the current supplier could respond – mean trick and a waste of our time).

4. Your own approach/policy on compliance and ESG – what you are expecting suppliers to comply with in this respect and are you asking them to commit to something specific. We recently tendered for a charity who asked us commit to some work in the community. Not a problem and we were happy to commit to complying but we did have to point out that this was not necessarily practical as they were the other end of the country. We offered instead to commit to charity days on their behalf in our local area.

5. What’s the marking system – how the tender will be scored helps you to focus on getting the right information in the right places in your response. Cost isn’t everything so make sure we know how much of the focus is on cost and how much on other elements. Some organisations put cost above experience in their particular sector or vice versa and knowing this helps us to decide whether to decline the opportunity.

6. Limitations on wording, presentation, of our responses etc – and we’ve even had instructions like the font and font size, or the numbers of images to be used.

Basically, there is no such thing as too much information. If it's about the organisation, or about the process, then tell us about it. We reward specialists like detail. Sorry, I know its not really fashionable to say these things - but we do!

What is a unique job role?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 14:05:40 GMT

and why do we ask about them?

What is a unique job role?

One of the ways in which you can save money on your reward projects is by identifying what is a unique job role in your business.

Of course we know that all of your roles are unique, as is your business, and your staff - employing individuals is what makes every business unique. But that is not quite what we mean. When we ask about unique, or discreet, job roles, we are talking about the occasions where you have jobs that are covered by more than one person, but are generally very similar, and only have minor changes.

For example, if you have an administrator undertaking a number of generic tasks in your sales department, then you realise that you need one in finance. You may not need a different job role. They might be undertaking the same generic tasks: supporting the team, filing, responding to queries, answering the phone, processing and completing paperwork. The only difference is which department they are doing this for. The chances are then, that you don’t need a different job description. That is what we mean by unique job role.

We are often told clients have 20 or 30 or more job roles, but when we get down to it, some of them are actually generic; with the primary difference being the department or location they are based in. The managers are adamant the roles are different, but the reality is, it is the manager that is different.

You can take it to extremes of course and we sometimes see job descriptions so generic that they are almost impossible to assess. They describe only the headlines of the job to the point where we cannot see how a job differs, what level it is being performed at, or how difficult it will be to recruit to. I do admit though, that this is fairly unusual.

So when we ask, how many unique/discreet job roles do you have, it is because we are trying to ascertain how many we will need to review for you. If you do have generic roles, then a generic job description will count as one role, and we only need to see one version to determine its relative size, find benchmarking data or include it in whatever project you are commissioning us for.

I should say though, that undertaking a reward exercise is often the excuse you need to take a good look at the roles in your structure, rationalise the number of job roles you have, and get managers to see the value of not insisting on this “uniqueness”.

I’ll let you into a secret; when I worked in-house we used to use reference codes for jobs descriptions; then we could see exactly how many job roles were unique. A reference coded job description could have as many job titles as jobholders, but the code ensured we were able to track who had been allocated to which job description. It also made our life much easier when it came to assessing equal pay and other HR audits. (We had a place for the code in the HR system, so that we could use it as a search item).

So, even though you know every job is unique because of the jobholder and/or manager, or the location/department it works in, remember, there are really good reasons to aim for a generic approach and potentially benefit from cost and resource efficiencies later down the line. Just be pragmatic about it and don’t let it stop the managers doing what they need.

How much does a reward consultant cost?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 13:40:45 GMT

or "how long is a piece of string?"

This is if course a “how long is a piece of string question” but here is some rationale behind what charges you see. Not all consultants are the same, but we tend to do it this way because our clients like it and know what they are getting for their money.

The rates will normally vary depending on what we are being asked to do. Reward consultants generally pick up everything from job evaluation to Remco support. Our list includes:

· Job profile review

· Job sizing

· Salary benchmarking

· Pay structures design and review

· Benefits and terms review

· Reward strategy development

· Performance and capability management

· Remuneration committee support

· “Critical friend” support

· GPG (Gender Pay Gap), equal pay and equality audits

We even get involved in pay review implementation if we are asked to.

For things like Remco support or critical friend support we will often charge an hourly or day rate. This means that you are paying for the amount of time spent providing the support you need. We have noticed though that clients sometimes try to work out how many hours we are spending on their project by using our hourly/day rate. There is never a direct correlation because the project rate usually has economies of scale brought about by the volume of work involved.

Project rate: This is where we look at the nature of the project, the volume of work involved and decide how much time that will take us. It is usually easier with a project because there are economies of scale. Working on a project usually means that there is continuity in the workload, making it easier on the project team as we are not skipping from client to client. It is usually based on things like:

· How many job roles are included

· how complex is the current position

· How involved will we be in discussions with stakeholders

· How involved will we be in implementation

· How quickly do you want the work

· How much data are we going to have to source from elsewhere

· How complex/rare is the data we need to collate

Itemised rate: Often when we do ad hoc pieces of work, such as a single piece of benchmarking, or a brief report, then the price is fixed rate. Different consultants charge different rates of course. For instance, we base our costs for single role benchmarking on the nature of the role. We charge different rates for job sizing and benchmarking a director than we would charge for a more junior role. This is because the job is more complex to assess, and the data is harder to come by. We also have additional rates for if we are asked to interview or discuss the job with the jobholder/their line manager.

Whatever the cost you are quoted, and whoever you go with, remember that different consultants bring different skills and experience. Some consultants will have worked for one of the big consultancy firms, or top accountancy firms before going it solo. Others will have worked in-house for one or more organisations and got their breadth of experience from there. What you are paying for is not always the cost of the time it takes to hit it with the hammer, but the skills and experience that underpin the knowledge of which bit to hit.

Questions a Reward Consultant Will Ask You

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 11:15:21 GMT

and why we need to know......

I am often surprised when I speak to potential new clients that they are nervous about talking to consultants. Thinking it about it though, its generally because they don't know what to expect. So here's something I think will help settle the nerves. these are the questions a reward consultant is likely to ask you when you make that first tentative contact:

Whats the nature of your business? We will need to understand what your business is about - what service you offer, to whom, in which sectors and whereabouts are all key questions that will help us determine whether or not we can help you, or whether there is another consultant better placed. Believe it or not, the smaller reward consultants quite often recommend each other on the basis that we know who has the better databases on which sectors (as you would expect, this practice is probably not so common among the bigger consultancies).

What problem are you trying to solve? Be clear about the outcomes you want - even if you don't know how we can provide it. If we understand what you are trying to achieve, we'll take you the process. We will also be better placed to ensure that you get what you need. We can help deal with everything from "the Board want us to benchmark our CEO" to “staff don’t use our benefits” and "we need to review our reward strategy".

What is driving the issue? All clients are unique and have different drivers and issues behind the work they want to undertake. Focussing on what is driving your query or project will help us to identify what you need from us. "The Board want us to benchmark our CEO" will get a different response to, "we need to know how much a project manager is paid". Consultants will normally have the experience needed to guide you in the right direction.

What is the scope of your project? This can be quite a big question. The scope and volume of work behind the project will of course impact on the cost. Think about the fact that there may be some significant economies of scale if you are doing a major piece of work and include a larger volume of roles. We normally will want to know the number of job roles and FTE involved in a benchmarking project, or the different terms and benefits to be included, or the types of pay structure you currently have. Also think about what areas are no-go and why – we know then what to avoid.

When do you want it completed by? Th is can be difficult to tie down and we will tell you if you are being realistic. We may be able to turn around a single piece of benchmarking in 48 hours, but if you ask us to review your pay structure in 3 weeks, we might balk at the idea. When you’re thinking about timescales don’t forget to include time for approvals and communications processes. Working back from an end date will help identify if you are being realistic.

What resources are available at your end to support your project? This one often impacts on timescale as projects can be delayed while job descriptions are updated, or we wait for payroll to run the salary information we need, or the new HRM wont be in place for another month. Also, think about whether or not directors/managers and other stakeholders will need to be involved and what their availability is.

What information will you have for us and how do you plan to get it to us? We will usually discuss information and data needs with you. We often put a list in the proposal, or provide a datasheet for you to complete. One of the biggest issues we have though is ensuring we are GDPR compliant. A quick note here for your GDPR specialist - this is data being used for legitimate purposes and we always recommend that data is anonymised, and that spreadsheets and other documents are password protected.

Who is going to be involved in the project? We will work with whoever you tell us to, but we need to ensure that you have involved everyone you need for successful implementation of your project. Your team, your key stakeholders, staff working groups, IT and internal communications teams may all need to be involved in a major project. Conversely for a small piece of benchmarking it might just be you and the manager.

And the thorny one - What's your budget looking like? Don’t be shy. I know we all hate talking about money in the UK, but we need to understand your budget so that we can make sure we offer the right options. And there are always options for a tighter budget – there may be more you can do in-house with just ad hoc support from your consultant, or different approaches that are more cost effective. Ask the question if you think you have budget constraints.

Hopefully this insight will help settle your nerves about dealing with a consultant and encourage you to pick up the phone, or make that contact. If you have any burning questions though, feel free to ask them.

What Does a Reward Consultant do?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 10:09:12 GMT

and why you need one.....

Firstly and most importantly: Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2023! I hope you all had a fabulous festive season and got to spend time with the people you wanted, doing the things you wanted to do.

I actually spent some time talking to someone new over the festive season and we inevitably got round to the question “what do you do?”. When I tell people I am a reward consultant they often ask what that means. So, I tell them I am a management consultant who specialises in pay and benefits. Most people get it and if they look it up on Wikipedia they’ll find something similar to this:

Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives . ^[1]

1. "What is Management Consulting?" . Bright Network. Retrieved 17 June 2022.

I then go on to explain that it's about helping organisations put in place the reward practices (or the salaries and benefit structures) they need to support their business goals . If they’re really interested I explain about an EVP and why recognition and engagement are important. Of course, it is a lot more complex than that - any consultant in any business will tell you the technical stuff is what they appoint you for. But it is the rest of it that makes the difference.

When I set up RRM in 2016 I was adamant that we would be different. I didn't want to be the consultant that came in, did the job, and left you with a thousand questions and a price list if you asked them. I'd worked with consultants in the past where, as soon as the project was finished, then they were gone and they charged you £x per hour to get answers to questions that came down the line. So, it isn't just about helping organisations put in place the salaries and benefits they need to support their business goals, it is about helping them understand why and how different approaches drive different behaviours, and how to manage their reward practices into the future. It’s about giving the HR team and the business they support, the knowledge they need to make good decisions.

RRM will be 7 years old in June. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. Or that we are now a team of 5, and have an office. But one thing is for sure, I’ve stuck by my guns on our practice of aiming to ensure that every client gets the support and knowledge they need to make good decisions.

And so my New Year's resolution, is to do more of the same. Happy New Year.

Happy Christmas - Have you been scrooged?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 12:00:49 GMT

Or rather, will your performance be changing?

So, having been tasked by my team to write a blog rounding up the year my first instinct was to rush off and look at our numbers and put some fantastic facts about RRM and what a great year it's been. Then, my attention got caught in one of the Scrooge/A Christmas Carole/Muppet films that was on TV. And, because I am me, I ended up thinking how great it was at showing the good and bad of performance management. (Sorry, Kaz, the roundup will have to wait till the new year!).

Admit it, if you're still doing appraisals, you start by looking at the past. What have you done this year? Have you achieved targets? and, if you have competencies - "How" have you achieved targets? Dear old scrooge had a hard time with this; while everyone else was oozing goodwill to all men, he was building his pot of gold on the back of other people's misfortunes.

Next of course, what are you doing now? What could you be doing better? What's getting in the way? How are you perceived by your colleagues? I love the fact that Scrooge's nephew insists on seeing the good in him when everyone else is pointing out what an old misery he is. I also love that he begins to see the error of his ways when given feedback on his performance.

And finally, plans for the future. What's next? New targets, development needs, performance goals, support for the changes that need to occur. Scrooge is shown a future where nothing good comes out of his current approach. If you don't change what you're doing, how will you change the future? We have lots of performance sayings around that and my favourite is "do what you've always done, get what you've always got".

Now the lovely thing at the end of the films is that we see Scrooge undergo an epiphany and instantly change his ways. Of course, in reality that takes time. I love it that many books nowadays have epilogues; a commentary about what happened next. I wonder if Scrooge maintained his new performance, or whether he slipped back into his old ways. Faced with new targets did he instantly forget himself or did he maintain his new approach?

So, at the risk of asking for acres of feedback about how performance reviews don't work - following your review, what's the one thing you're changing for you're future (and I don't mean what you're New Year's Resolution!! - they never work).

Getting better at measuring your capability management

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 20:00:08 GMT

Qualitative and Quantitative Measures

Last week Andrew Carter and I attended the CIPD annual conference - #ACE2022. Taking time out of the office for this sort of thing does feel a bit like a treat - time to catch up, re-group, think about the future. Time also to hear about what the commentators think will be important over the next year. Time to wonder what the future will bring.

I've been to a few of these things over the years and always heard something that makes me sit up and take notice. This time, I nearly cheered! If it had been a smaller audience I might well have reached across and shook Peter Cheese's hand. As it was, I never got the opportunity to chat with him in person.

What, you may ask, did he say that was so important? Just this - we need to get better at measuring things in HR, we need to do more quantitative and qualitative measuring. We need to start finding robust ways to prove our initiatives work. Oh flip yes!

How do we do that? Well in my view we find out what the business needs to know about the outcomes of what we do, and work out ways to present it to them. Easy to say but not quite so easy to do. So I have a question - what is the one HR measure that your business couldn't do without and how easy is it to do? For example: is it attrition, or recruitment costs/time, salary costs, headcount, training costs, which are all fairly obvious and very important, and I'd love to hear about the non-standard measures you use as well. Tell me what makes your Exec sit up and take notice.

Of course, its never easy, but we do have a solution to measuring your capability management projects - if you want to know more, take a quick look here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLMQYu8EQb8

What is capability management all about?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:08:35 GMT

Why do we do it?

Our clients have been telling us for years that they wanted a capability matrix. They needed to be able to prove somehow that they were developing the capability they needed for their business to succeed. That something had to be more tangible than a series of woolly values and phrases. It needed to articulated at every level within the business, it needed targets for degrees of success and it needed to be represented (preferably visually) in their reporting processes.

We built CapMat to help our clients understand what capabilities they are trying to drive, and how those capabilities can be measured - and to prove that you can articulate measures for just about anything.

Capability matrices are about getting your staff aligned to your corporate goals, which sounds easy in principle, but in practice it often turns out to be slightly more complicated than you first thought. Of course it is complicated, it's about people and there is nothing more complicated than the people we employ.

This is why when our clients tell us they want to measure their capability we start of by identifying what those capabilities are. People measurements are never as straight forward as churn or payroll size. They are driven by your culture, by the nature of the work, by the product or services you sell and by external factors such as the economic climate.

Identifying your goals, especially the essential people goals, is therefore crucial. What skills and behaviours are you trying to develop? How do they manifest? Why are they important? How/Can we articulate them?

It could be anything from strategic or leadership/management capability through to values. We want our staff to be more strategic - well what does "more strategic" look like, at every level through the business - from leading and developing strategy through to knowing it exists. We want our values to be measured - well what does good look like, through to what needs to improve.

We built CapMat to help our clients manage this and get useful reporting outcomes that can be measured and tracked to show the success of their initiatives.

If you want to find out more about why we developed CapMat, have a look at this video https://youtu.be/qLMQYu8EQb8

If ever there was a time to be kind.........

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 12:12:47 GMT

........... now is that time!

We will be closed next Monday, 19th September, as undoubtedly will most of the country.

I am pleased to see many of the large retail organisations also closing that day. As many organisations as possibly can are giving staff time off to join in the national mourning. Quite right too.

But as I hear tales of woe about the diverse impact of the arrangements, it dawns on me that we could take a leaf out of our late Queen's book - be kind. Just, be kind. So many people have told stories in the past few days of how kind she was.

Before you leap in to criticise that business owner for closing/not closing or that employee for not working/working, remember that they too are trying to do the best thing. They are trying to make decisions for the long term good of their business or maybe they are trying to meet expectations from home and family. Very few of us are lucky enough to make a no-impact decision on this.

So please, be kind to eachother, and be kind to yourselves.

Keep safe

Jane

The Start of My 'On Screen' Career

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 11:01:21 GMT

A Day Filming

Well it’s been an interesting week so far… and its only Tuesday.

This week we did the filming for our upcoming launch of our capability matrix – RRM CapMat - and I had the new experience of being filmed for marketing purposes – (so I am not wearing medieval costume, which is when I usually get on camera!).

Leo and Cat from DBD marketing were very supportive and guided me through the process. Leo made sure I was well prepared in advance, with questions to think about and an explanation of the process, and both of them made me feel quite comfortable. Cat explained what she was looking for and how to keep it natural. Given how talkative I am I didn’t have any problem with the speaking bit and I did my best not to wave my hands around too much.

I hadn’t realised how much would go into this though: getting the light right, different angles, different backgrounds, different working positions and screens, variations on the questions to cover all the major points, some side trips on topics that also feed into the main subject.

And of course there was lots of laughter and a few out-takes.

I guess I am getting used to the idea that this is the start of my “on screen” career. When I start doing podcasts I am going to have to be this prepared.

I can’t wait to see the finish product and am looking forward to the launch. Exciting times!

Happy International Cat Day!

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:48:38 GMT

It's international Cat Day!

Those of you who know me well know how much I love my cats, as will those who read our blogs or catch up on LinkedIn.

I have to say though, that I don’t celebrate their birthday, buy them gifts on anniversaries, or put their names on xmas cards. I don’t think that makes me a bad person – it’s just not my way. I do however, anthropomorphise (wow all those o’s) them. I can’t help it. So, Here’s what happened when I started aligning stereotypical behaviours to their position in the hierarchy):

The old political regime

Minnie – our CEO – (not the mama! – for those Dinosaurs lovers). She is a Tortie with some very old school behaviours. She treats everyone like they are there to do as she bids. Possibly, about to be ousted by the new upstart in the group. Knows that capability is an issue, but doesn’t know how to measure it.

Spikey – our late and much lamented ginger haired COO – kept everyone in line, could be a bit feisty – but had the ear of the CEO. Implemented her decisions. Didn’t care about capability so long as stuff got done by someone.

Corky – our late and much lamented tuxedo office junior. He was never quite as biddable as he should be, didn’t get any of the rules, was frequently late, badly dressed and always hungry, but somehow always achieved what he set out to do – knew he didn’t have the capability but was never quite sure why.

The new political regime

Minnie – our CEO – see above – she’s now measuring capability with the support of her consultant (that would be me! And its currently based on delivery of nightly focused 121s and the right treats).

Darcey – our new CFO – (also a Tortie – very similar to CEO, cut from the same cloth but with some new ideas) Counts the toys every day, measures out rewards with a strict eye on quantity, doesn’t always remember to be fair. Not afraid to argue her point. Reckons she could take the CEO down if only the door was left open. Has seen a capability model she likes and is strategically planning how to use it to get rid of the CEO (attempts nightly to distract me from the focused 121s and demands her own share of the treats is equal to that of the CEO).

Zoom – the (tabby) Sales Director – he has ultra-smooth manners, never forgets you, ensures you are included, moves at the speed of light, attempts and fails daily to get power over the CFO. He’s on commission from the CFO to bring in more toys and earn his rewards. He’s a bit smarmy with the CFO and will probably attempt a coup if she doesn’t take down the CEO soon. Liked the capability model, can see how to use it, will go with it as long as its quick and easy and reaps rewards (doesn’t care how its measured really and wants a larger than average portion of the treats – 121s are optional but can be done remotely at the top of his voice if necessary).

All joking apart, capability measurement is going to be a big thing in the next few weeks, watch this space………..

Note to self: assigning stereotypical behaviours is not good practice for an equality and diversity enthusiast – this is the last time I shall be permitted this approach.

Meanwhile, some pics of cats to bring a smile to your week. :)

For more information about: International Cat Day 2022, follow this link.

Kickstarter to HR Admin Assistant in 1 Year!

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 10:07:50 GMT

Happy 1 Year Workaversary!

I can’t believe it’s over a year since Brandon joined us. I can’t believe that someone else didn’t snap up the man I met at the Kickstart interviews. Brandon’s interest in research, use of Excel and dry sense of humour stood right out.

So, that’s the first year down Brandon, I bet you wonder what year 2 is going to bring? I could say more of the same, but I suspect you’re already more than aware that no two weeks are the same in RRM and as we develop and grow new products – I am sure you will grow with them……

Its not everyday you wake up, check the calendar, and realise you’ve been at your job for a year without realising.

That the interviews, meeting new co-workers, and training, all happened in what feels like just yesterday.

That after the lockdowns, applying for jobs that you didn’t know would even exist in a few months, and all the uncertainty you have found your new routine, the next phase in your life.

I had never even thought of the HR industry as a place for me until a year ago. I would never have guessed how all that incidental research, report writing, data analysing and spreadsheeting, from across different classes with entirely different focuses and subjects, would end up being far more useful than I thought it would.

That after everything, it would all fall into place but a few years later.

After a year of nothing but respect, useful training, interesting work, helpful co-workers, and a genuinely caring boss, I’ve never been so glad to have been wrong about “where do you see yourself in 5 years”, let alone one.

ALL Workers Entitled to 5.6 Weeks Leave

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 10:52:57 GMT

Harper Trust vs Brazel - Supreme Court Ruling

Yesterday, 20 ^th July 2022 saw the UK Supreme Court release their judgement on the infamous Harper Trust vs Brazel case relating to holiday entitlement and pay for ‘part-year’ workers eg. term time, ruling in favour of Ms Brazel.

Effectively, whilst the ruling has more bearing on part-year workers, it actually affects all workers who work irregular hours/days. It means that the 5.6 weeks annual entitlement to paid leave under the WTR 13 and 13a is available to all workers irrespective of their working pattern. As highlighted in this judgement and the previous EAT and Appeal Court judgements, there is no provision for proportioning leave based on working patterns. The only effective proportioning it allows for is 1 ^st and last year accrual.

Ultimately, we cannot see that it will have an effect on those permanent part-time staff who work either fixed hour and/or days in a week. For example, someone who works fixed 3 days a week has a holiday entitlement of 5.6 x 3 days = 16.8 days. A week’s holiday only requiring the submission of 3 days annual leave. Pay being the standard weekly pay of 3 days or average over 52 paid weeks if the hours over those fixed 3 days are irregular or varied. Hourly staff working on the same hours x 5.6 principle.

But it will have an effect on bank/zero hours staff whose hours/days are irregular and may not work one week from the next. In this instance the organisation will need to show that its calculation of leave entitlement is based on the worker getting 5.6 weeks paid leave over the year. I believe the pragmatic approach is that these workers are allocated the same days/weeks entitlement as for full-time staff. If they want to take a week then they use 5 days of their entitlement and get paid their average weekly pay. If they want a day or half day then they could receive 1/5 ^th or 1/10 ^th of the weekly average respectively. Whatever method used, the use of the old 12.07% accrual is no longer applicable!

The principle behind the ruling actually lies in the ‘paid’ element of the entitlement and with the calculation of the average weekly wage iaw the WTR and ERA respective sections. The ruling recognises that the effect of it may entitle part-year workers to receive more in holiday pay then a full-year worker and this is something that managers and HR staff are likely to have to deal with in the near future.

I do wonder though, if the business community will now lobby parliament for a change in the WTRs to allow for proportioning for part-year workers or how the average wage is calculated for part-year workers, we watch with interest.

https://www.supremecourt.uk/press-summary/uksc-2019-0209.html

Financial Wellbeing - Its Not Just Pensions

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 07:13:19 GMT

..... and its not just for the wealthy!!

So its been nearly a month since we did the interview and since then Sim Ilyas and I have been busy. Not least because we attended the Gloucestershire Business Show at the end of July and took part in a panel with David Avis at AND Digital to discuss the issue further. Watch this space for a further session.

We really have had some interesting discussions with people and heard some really good stuff. A client even contacted me to talk about the benefits changes they had put in after our recent review of pay and benefits; pay increases, introducing a discount card, reviewing the range of benefits from their provider - focussing on what staff really want. It was all making me feel like the message was getting out there.

One thing that brought the issue home to me at the event, was the individual I met who hadn't accessed their company benefits because they had lost their login details. They were so relieved they had an excuse not to go on there and make any financial decisions. They had quickly moved on to more exciting stuff. Engagement was obviously a big issue here.

But then a review of the monthly stats for LinkedIn pulled me up sharp. For Flips Sake - Its not about me putting people in touch with pensions advisors, or wealth managers. Its so much bigger than that. So how come, the majority of the people I have requests to contact from this month are exactly those people?

For me, its about helping our staff understand the value of their benefits, or helping them source advice on good money management, or helping them with access to discounts and services that make a difference. It's also about the community stuff - getting out there to help people deal with the pressures of life - issues like getting the short term loan without the exorbitant interest rates.

What I really want is to hear from the people who are doing the good stuff for their staff. What services are out there for companies who don't know where to start with financial wellbeing? What are employers doing that we don't get to hear about because they don't think its special? What have you implemented to engage with the people who are just turned off by the thought? What has your organisation done that made a difference to you? I'd really be interested to hear from you, and you may event get a mention/invite to the next panel discussion.

Retaining Talent Through Financial Wellbeing

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 14:30:36 GMT

Retaining Talent Through Financial Wellbeing

How employment works has seen huge change in recent years, but one thing has stayed the same – we need to

earn the money to live.

Modern society revolves around finance, and in the current climate people are moving jobs more

often to improve their lifestyles.

It’s created a tough landscape for business, and recruitment has never been more difficult. It’s being called the “war for talent”.

So how do we differentiate our offer and retain staff?

Large pay rises are not on the radar, we need to maximise the money employees earn, put them in a better position to handle it, and de-risk the financial decisions they make.

I'll be discussing this very topic at 11.45am - Wednesday 29th June at the Gloucestershire Business Sh ow, Cheltenham. Please join us if you are able, it's a free event and there will be plenty of discussions around many important Business topics.

I recently interviewed Sim Ilyas from Great Western Credit Union, we discussed financial wellbeing - It's a great conversation packed with very actionable steps. Let us know what you think!

Empty Lap Syndrome

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 11 May 2022 13:58:01 GMT

I am working on my mental health

I usually keep posts about my pets to Facebook and (occasionally) Instagram. But this week heralds a new era in our household.

Losing Corky earlier this year meant that we were down to a 1 cat household. In 33 years we had never had less than 2. I've really struggled with having nothing to cuddle up to in the evenings. It was particularly difficult for me as our elderly female tortie really doesn't like me much. She'll put up with me if my husband is out, but if he is there then I am the devil's spawn. Every time I walk through the door I get the distinct impression she cannot believe I came back. So she definitely does not want to be petted or share sofa space.

But now we have two new kittens. The benefit to my mental health? No more empty lap syndrome. I am looking forward to struggling to reach for things because I am pinned to the sofa. Or wasting half a morning on a Saturday because I am comfortable with my kindle and a cat or two. Or standing in the garden shaking a tin and shouting weird names - we haven't named them yet.

And that is an interesting issue - what to call them. Without fail its the first question everyone asks. Its our policy to wait until we can observe their personalities and then name them something appropriate from there. Here's some of the names we've used over the years

Chewie always pinned down Swipe and chomped on his ears.

Swipey was an inveterate thief - his biggest success may have been a half eaten pastie

Spooky - made everyone run for the cat flap by jumping up quickly and darting out the room for no reason (watching three cats trying to exit a flap at the same time was hilarious)

Loopy was - yep, absolutely - completely and utterly

Corky was a little smasher

and Minnie is, and always will be a bit of a minx.

So my completely unrelated to work question is, how do you name your cats?

Mental Health Awareness Week 2022

Mon, 09 May 2022 09:27:42 GMT

Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and I wanted to share my story.

My core belief and something I advocate daily is ‘Invest in you.’

Investing in you is about investing in your body, mind and personal growth. What you put into your body and your mind affects your day, your week, your life.

I learnt this the hard way, in my late teens, early 20’s I started to suffer with chronic stomach issues – a side effect of long-term antibiotic use, and from an early age - a chronic bladder condition which wasn’t taken seriously until 3 years ago. In between all of this I had chronic urticaria, major food sensitivities, IBS and the most paralysing – PMDD.

What is PMDD?

‘Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a very severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It causes a range of emotional and physical symptoms every month during the week or two before your period. It is sometimes referred to as 'severe PMS'.’ NHS

However, it’s so much more than period pain, although the physical symptoms are incredibly testing, the emotional ones are something else. Mood swings, feeling tearful, zero energy, overwhelm, irritability, difficulty concentrating, paranoia, loneliness. Feeling suicidal is a common symptom I fortunately didn’t experience, but I did find myself wanting to ‘run away’ from my own life. I could never explain to anyone how I felt in the moment because it didn’t make sense to me . I hid it away the best that I could, so no one really knew about it.

The thing about PMDD is that it isn’t constant, it tends to last 1-2 weeks on a monthly cycle, so in between I felt like me, my ‘normal’ self. Luckily, this is how I realised something was up. I often think about people in deep depression, it’s worth considering that perhaps they don’t realise they are there.

All I know is that when I felt my worst, it was very real. I wasn’t after sympathy or attention, I wanted to retreat into the shadows, but life must go on and you are forced to be your normal ‘happy’ self even when you don’t feel it inside. You do it for the people around you.

The advice to ‘speak out’ ‘talk to someone’ is great advice, but I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that. When I was deep in it, I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it, I just wanted to feel normal, so I acted normal where possible – better to brush it under the carpet, it’s not real that way. I can talk about it now, easily, but I’m in a much better place mentally and physically. In hindsight - of course it would have been better to speak out, but I didn’t know how to.

When people tell us their problems, we have a human instinct to want to fix them, and this isn’t always helpful. Often the people giving advice, haven’t been there, and of course we are all different. I don’t think there’s a single person who goes through life without adversity or struggle in something .

Having someone just ‘listen’ and ask questions is much more supportive. Simply opening this type of conversation can help suffers recognise something they didn’t see before. When it comes to mental health, recognising how you feel and what triggers it, is absolute key to recovery.

For someone that struggles with their mental health just getting up in the morning may be a mammoth task, let alone going to work. It’s worth explaining to your employer that you suffer with X, though not always easy. You don’t have to go into details but make them aware of it.

A good employer will ask ‘What can we do to help?’ I never did this, just suffered in silence, and struggled on but perhaps a couple of days working from home would have helped, or some assistance from another colleague with projects whilst I transitioned each month.

You could think about bonus’s – would this person benefit from a monthly massage or fitness class or a team building night out bowling for instance? Or a monthly ‘help the community’ day could give them a sense of purpose again.

The key element to my recovery was never drugs, it was health and wellness which brings me full circle. Investing in yourself is the most important thing you can do, particularly when it comes to your mental health. I did that and it’s been a long process that hasn’t come without challenges but hand on heart it has always been the best investment I’ve ever made and will continue to invest in.

We must all learn how to be more compassionate, whether as an employer, a colleague, family member or a friend. We all suffer adversities in life, adversities that can either make or break us - it’s important to remember there are many roads in life, some of us may be starting our journey, some of us may have taken the long bumpy route but ultimately, we all have the same destination, and we reach it at different times in different ways. It’s important to remember that.

World Parkinson's Day

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 10:50:25 GMT

World Parkinson's Day

So its been over 10 years since my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and a lot has happened since then.

Once we got over the initial shock, we started to make small changes to make his life easier.

And then I did the one thing that changed our lives forever. I claimed on the critical illness insurance I had set up for him – little knowing at the time that we would need it. It took me nearly a year to remember it was there and then we started the process. It could have been easier and I understand things have moved on now, so it probably is. But the upshot was.

CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE PAID OFF OUR MORTGAGE when my husband got Parkinson's Disease.

This meant that no matter what happens next, our house is secure. We might one day have to sell it to pay the electricity bill, but for now, no one can take it away from us. When the time came, it meant that he was able to give up work without worrying about whether we would still have a roof over our heads.

I cannot emphasise enough to employers, if you do nothing for your staff – look at your insurances and see what you can do to improve those benefits.

On a personal note, if you do nothing for your family - look at your insurances and see what you need.

Critical Illness, Private Medical etc etc. They are worth it – because you never know.

Happy World Parkinsons’ Day – I hope that whatever you are enduring in your life, there is someone/something there to make it easier for you.

For more information and to get involved with World Parkinson's Day, please click here.

Key Changes to Employment Law in 2022

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 11:02:52 GMT

Key Changes to Employment Law in 2022

As we reach the end of the current tax year, we thought it would be useful to reiterate what’s happening in 2022.

Minimum Wage Increase

National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage will both see increases from April 1 ^st 2022.

The National Insurance Threshold Rises

Information taken from Prepare for the Health and Social Care Levy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For tax year 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023

Employer Class 1, employee Class 1, Class 1A, Class 1B and Class 4 National Insurance contributions will increase, for one year, by 1.25 percentage points.

From 6 April 2023

The National Insurance contribution rates will go back down to 2021 to 2022 levels, and the levy will become a separate new tax of 1.25%.

How the levy will affect you:

Between 6 April 2022 and 5 April 2023

If you are an employer, employee or self-employed (and below the State Pension age), you will pay the 1.25 percentage points increase in National Insurance contributions.

From 6 April 2023

The separate levy of 1.25% will apply to the same amounts for the following classes of National Insurance contributions:

Class 1 that are above the primary and secondary thresholds
Class 1A and Class 1B for employers
Class 4 for the self-employed

All existing National Insurance contribution reliefs will apply to the separate levy for:

employees under the age of 21
apprentices under the age of 25
qualifying Freeport employees
those eligible for the Employment Allowance
armed forces veterans

HMRC will collect the levy through existing PAYE payroll and Self Assessment

Statutory Increases

Statutory Maternity, paternity, sick pay etc have all increased. For a comprehensive guide on these please visit the link below:

Rates and thresholds for employers 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Gender Pay Gap Reporting

You must report your gender pay gap data if your organisation has 250 or more employees on a specific date. Last year this date was extended due to the impact of the Covid 19 Pandemic however this year’s deadlines are set as follows:

· 30 March 2022 – this is for most public authority employers

· 4 April 2022 – this is for private, voluntary and all other public authority employers

Details of what you need to report can be found here:

Report your gender pay gap data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Pay Fairness and Pay Reporting

Following questions around fairness practices in organisations, the UK has now introduced various regulations. For example, it is now a law to treat employees fairly in various areas such as policy and practice, and reward management. It is also a legal requirement for large employers to disclose pay data.

For more information visit: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/reward/pay-fairness-reporting-factsheet

The Employment Bill & Further Law Developments for 2022

Luke at Menzies Law has written a roundup of the planned changes in employment law coming in 2022. You can read more here: https://www.menzieslaw.co.uk/blog-2022-employment-law-developments/

If you would like any clarification on the above please contact us Book a free consultation | Reward Risk

Rewarding Work

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 12:13:27 GMT

Rewarding Work

One of the things I love about working as a consultant in reward is the times when I feel I have done something very rewarding (pun intended), and when I feel a little jaded or weary, I think back on those moments, find my mojo and get back to it.

I’ve just been away for a few days with a special group of friends. We have a variety of different things in common, and one of them is our love of charity shops. We’ve just been near Welshpool in Wales for a week, and charity shopping was on the to do list. I was proud to think as I wandered from shop to shop, down a street in the town, that I’d - worked with them, am currently working with them, have a quote in with them, and am looking forward to hopefully adding more charities to the list. It’s a great feeling when you go in the shop to know that you are helping them in a different way.

Of course, when choosing to work with a charity, I have to be very aware that how their funding is spent is crucially important to them, and of the impact of our recommendations on their hard-won cash. It’s a difficult balance to make at a time when market rates for jobs such as fundraisers, shop managers and other retail staff are through the roof. To say nothing of the impact of a lack of candidates for many roles. Who would have thought that would be an outcome from Covid when a year ago we were all happily predicting there would be a glut of people needing jobs?

Anyway, as I was saying, charity work is important to me. I also do the occasional pro bono work with ad hoc projects through Cranfield Trust. Luke from Menzies Law introduced me to them and I have found it a worthwhile experience. Charities apply to them for support with their goals and Cranfield Trust matches them with volunteer consultants with the skills they need, such as business planning, financial forecasting, or help with charity governance. The projects I have worked on have been interesting, and the people I have worked with have been so committed and engaged in their services.

To anyone who thinks about working with the charity sector – my advice is, do it! They may not reward you with £m projects, but then who will? It is just so worthwhile to get engaged with them and learn about the important stuff they do.

What do you do, for the feel-good factor? Do you engage with the charity and not-for-profit sector?

Life as a Kickstarter

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 11:13:20 GMT

Life as a Kickstarter

Hi, I’m a former Kickstarter at Reward Risk Management, and it’s honestly been an irreplaceable step on the way to my current and future work life, and maybe help convince you why this path might just be for you.

My previous job ended mid-2020 and the timing was far less then fortunate. Worse, during that year I later had both a medical issue (making me almost unable to walk at times) AND contracted covid-19. What that time left me with what felt like a year of my life wasted. But why am I saying all this? Why am I telling yet another story of the mess that was employment within the last few years? Because it ended with kickstart.

It wasn’t my first time contacting the job centre; after leaving school I quickly learned how invaluable work experience was, especially as a new young adult with endless opportunities yet a lack of direction. They helped me get an internship and work experience that certainly helped my CV, but in 2021 they helped give me what I was missing: direction.

It was my third kickstart interview. My third sit down in a spaced-out room, only a thin plastic shield between me and my now-current boss. I’ve had many before. Over the phone, in person, booked days away with little time to research and prepare, and yet, it was the calmest interview I’ve ever had. It wasn’t cold and formal to a fault. It was warm, honest and (if my work coaches’ comments to her was anything to go by) effective.

According to my work coach, it was the most he had ever heard me talk and open-up about myself, especially in an interview (something far harder than many companies may admit).

We talked, obviously, but it wasn’t the usually robotic questions, rather it felt more like a discussion. We talked about relative skills. Talked about the group projects I helped manage in sixth form. Talked about the job and its responsibilities and what I could bring to the role. As someone only used to stoic and one-note interviews, the genuine warmness and personality of the interview was as much a surprise as it was confidence building. I didn’t feel like a robot being tested by an automaton (like many phone interviews or even face to face ones have felt in the past).

My previous Kickstart interviews both went well, and I’m sure that I may have enjoyed those jobs too. So why did I choose this one? Afterall, I hadn’t considered HR before. Its one of the subtler industries, yet vital for any company to thrive, especially given these chaotic last few years. For me leaving school, I ultimately felt left adrift to navigate the modern job hiring process. But, with kickstart, I wasn’t expected to know everything before I put my foot in the door or have years of relevant experience.

My interviewer saw my skills, from excel skills gained during IT and refined through a relatively short amount of training, to formal research learned through sourcing papers and information in biology, I already had many of the skills (from seemingly unrelated places) that aligned perfectly for the job.

And for RRM? Practical, real experience managing new hires and my generations expectations and approach to the workplace, in a near risk-free and productive way. Sure, from my understanding several of the prior interviews seemed wasted as the work coaches often encouraged shotgunning us into seemingly any interview we were able-bodied to do, but the knowledge and experience of employing and training someone new to the industry are especially useful for a HR business (which specialises in advising other companies on staff decisions and reward schemes).

Over the last 6 (now approaching 7) months I’ve learned so much about a whole industry I’d never really considered, gained an easily liveable wage, experience, a routine and discovered skills I didn’t even know that I had, such as self-motivation and self-discipline (which I likely wouldn’t have discovered if I wasn’t spending most of my time working from home, which has been amazing for me personally).

This has also hopefully been the start of a brand-new career for me. I’ve already gone from researcher to job analyst and am happily paid a decent wage at a permanent position that is largely working from home, a far cry from my previous odd-hours temp, minimum wage jobs, and I cant wait to see where I go from here.

Brandon.

Welcome 2022

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 10:49:52 GMT

It’s that time of year.

This is always a busy time of year for RRM and this year has been no different for us. Part of the problem is possibly of our own making, because, as a family-run business it is important to us that we make time to get together as a family, and so we close for Christmas. All the more important this year because we then got to spend time on holiday together at Combe Martin in Devon – which was just lovely.

But now we're back into work and ready for the busyness that comes this time of year. Benchmarking updates, GPG and Equal Pay and budget calculations all usually form a significant part of our workload at this time. This year however, we have also already been contacted by a number of clients and (hopefully) new clients to discuss pay structures reviews. Some want us to do the review ready for implementation in April, and others want to start the work in April. As a consultant in another organisation put it – “it’s like everyone gets their Easter Bonnet out about now, dusts it off and decides, yep its good to go – or nope, we need a new one”. Either way, and whatever your preferred analogy is, this means that the forthcoming year is already on target for growth.

With that in mind, we have taken on Brandon Gibbs-Gaylard (say hello please Brandon) as a permanent employee and he is our Reward Assistant – he was one of our kickstart employees. Our experience of the scheme has been nothing but positive and we were delighted with the quality of candidates we got. Brandon is staying with us though and you should watch this space for blogs, updates and anything else we can press-gang him into doing. As he gets embedded in his role we will be introducing him to our clients.

We have also taken on Karen Scott (say hello please Karen), who is supporting me with social media and other business administration. She has been with us a couple of months as well and its been wonderful having someone else to talk through social media with. Welcome aboard.

That’s the changes so far – but if it carries on like this, we will have more to add before the year end.

Welcome to 2022 everyone, hope your year is productive and positive (not in a Covid way!)

A Day in the Life of an Associate Director

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 10:44:08 GMT

A Day in The Life of an Associate Director

Following on from Jane’s Blog, published a few weeks back I was prompted (well... persuaded) to write a blog myself about ‘A Typical Day in the Life of an Associate Director’.

So let me share my typical day with you:

I’m a slightly earlier starter, normally rising at 5.40am to get to the gym at 6.00am when it opens! Now, that’s not to say I’m a fitness fanatic, but we (my wife and son) joined the local gym in April this year and I’m all about getting our money’s worth! I have also restarted playing squash on a Wednesday but take Thursday mornings off to participate in a weekly breakfast meeting which starts at 6.30am - but that is a whole different blog.

After returning home, I’m normally ready to start work between 8.30 and 9.00am. However, this can change if I’m required to take my son to school. Due to my wife having a life changing operation recently with a long recovery period, I am required to do this daily. This means a slightly later start of 9.15am as I need to get my son fed, dressed and dropped at school. Returning, I grab a quick cup of tea, sit down at my desk, open up my laptop and start checking my emails.

There is a quick call to my assistant Manpreet (one of our Kickstart Placements), and we catch up on the previous afternoon and what’s important for today. On my list could be some job evaluation (JE) scoring and pay benchmarking to do for one of our clients or I could be dealing with some HR Support issues for which I am the dedicated specialist.

On this particular day, I decided to expand Manpreet’s experience; so, I gave her a slightly different task. I have already scored one of the JE roles, so I explain why I have chosen it and ask her to look at the score using our scoring matrix guidance.

This requires her to read the role profile and identify from it the relevant responsibilities and skills, which relate to the scores. “We’ll talk about your findings tomorrow” I tell her (spoiler alert, she did really well and showed good understanding of the process).

Almost on a daily basis Jane, and I communicate through Teams, we’re located over 100 miles away from each other so regular meet ups are done electronically. We discuss the status of ongoing projects and what is coming up in the future. The normal rhythm of the day is invariably interrupted by calls or emails from clients with requests for urgent JE/Benchmarking of roles. Some quick shuffling of tasks, a call to Manpreet to ask her to start researching salaries is usually needed to meet expectations.

Lunch is normally 30 mins then on with the grind. The afternoon is generally the same as the morning but can be interrupted with school pickup. I’m also on dinner duty so I tend to finish about 5.00pm to start cooking our meal. My wife and I generally take it in turns to put our son to bed but at present, I’m on full-time child-care duties. So, after dinner it’s onto some father/son time (I’m getting quite good at Minecraft now), story reading and bed. I’m usually free again around 8.00pm-ish. I then head back to the laptop and continue with some more work.

Now, I should mention some other things I do. I am also President of a local BNI Chapter and Trustee for a local charity. So, whilst doing all of the above, I’m also dealing with issues that arise throughout the day/week with both of these positions.

This makes my days/evenings varied but I’m not complaining. If you’ve read my profile on our website, you will know that I had a long career in the RAF. Being an Associate Director is different, but the skills and knowledge I gained in my past employment are helping me in my present role(s).

The Real Living Wage

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 10:54:08 GMT

What is the Real Living Wage?

It’s an interesting thing that lots of people are not aware that the Real Living Wage is different to National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage.

Especially those that are earning these rates. They really don’t know how it works and maybe it’s time we made it clear. So, we put together the following brief:

Feel free to share this with your friends, staff, colleagues and anyone else who needs or ought to know.

Minimum Wage and Living Wage are minimum pay rates set by the Government that all Companies must pay their employees, the current pay rates are due to rise in April 2022:

National Living Wage for over-23s: from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour
National Minimum Wage for ages 21-22: from £8.36 to £9.18
National Minimum Wage for ages 18 to 20: from £6.56 to £6.83
National Minimum Wage for under-18s: from £4.62 to £4.81
The Apprentice rate: from £4.30 to £4.81 - This applies to under 19’s, or people over 19 in their first year of apprenticeship. Apprentices older than 19 who have finished their first year are entitled to the relevant wage for their age group.

The Minimum Wage is the same across all parts of the UK.

National Living Wage was introduced by the Government inspired by the Living Wage campaign, it wasn’t calculated according to what an employee needs to live but, on a target to reach of 66% of national median earnings by 2024. The Government takes into consideration what is affordable for businesses.

The Real Living Wage is a wage rate based on what people need to live. It covers anyone age 18 and above and is currently £10.85 per hour in London £9.50 for the rest of the UK. The Real Living Wage isn’t statutory, it’s voluntary, but the Living Wage Foundation encourages all employers that can afford to do so, to pay their staff the Real Living Wage so that they can meet the costs of living.

Benefits for Businesses:

It improves the reputation of your Business
It Increases motivation and retention of staff
It helps differentiate your business from others in the industry
It improves relationships between managers and staff

You can become a Living Wage Employer by becoming accredited, further details can be found here:

Become a Real Living Wage Employer | Living Wage Foundation

Reward Risk Management is proud to be a Real Living Wage Employer. We chose to become accredited because we feel the RLW is important and telling our clients that we support it, is a fundamental way to get them to think about their values and what it could mean to their staff. We believe that if your staff are paid a real and relevant wage, they can stop worrying about how much they earn, and start concentrating on doing their jobs really well – they will be more engaged with you.

The foundation has been successful with the Real Living Wage, giving many employees the peace of mind that they can make ends meet and live their lives out of poverty. They have now introduced a new Living Hours Standard . It calls on Employers to provide employees the right to:

Notice periods for shifts: of at least 4 weeks’ notice, with guaranteed payment if shifts are cancelled within this notice period
The right to a contract that reflects accurate hours worked
A guaranteed minimum of 16 hours a week (unless the employee requests otherwise)

(Credit source: Living Wage Organisation )

Why is this important for Employers and Employees?

It doesn’t matter what industry you operate in, the bottom line for every business is to maximise profits. To do that you need to employ great employees who you can retain long-term. Many Companies pay the minimum that they can get away with, which is not going to produce committed long-term and loyal employees, just simply increase staff turnover.

This strategy will decrease your profit overall, by causing the following issues:

Low wages won’t attract great employees - great employees know their worth.
Unhappy employees look for new jobs, productivity will drop during these times.
Employees who don’t feel valued won’t feel the need to be loyal.
If you don’t pay your employees well, your competition will.
Paying an employee, a lower wage, sets the standard of work lower.

Valued and happy employees stay loyal to their Companies, they work hard and always have your best interests at heart.

Sir Richard Branson once said this:

‘Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business. It’s as simple as that.’

Loyal employees are assets, not liabilities.

A Day in the Life of a Reward Specialist

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:09:57 GMT

A Day in the Life of a Reward Specialist

People often ask me what I do, and they’re not usually being funny. A reward specialist is not someone you come across much in general working life. To paint a picture, I’ll share what my typical day is about:

I’m an early starter, in the office by 8.00 am. I always start by checking my emails and dealing with anything that can be responded to quickly or is urgent. Then I park that and get on with whatever major task is facing me. This is usually some form of pay structure work, although we are currently doing a lot of strategy and capability work.

Today is job evaluation and salary benchmarking of a small number of finance roles for a client. I evaluate the roles and sense check the outcomes against our database for the client, and the central database. I call Andy up on teams and chat about the outcomes. Whilst we are looking at the income recovery officer role, Andy reminds me that he has just done a similar role for another client, and we look at that one together. Happy with the scores, I pull in the benchmarking data the team have collated. Our fabulous Kickstart team are great at collecting job data off the internet and we pull in all the data from our other resources. I sense check what we have and look to see what trends we can observe from the comparator roles. Then I pull up a template and put all the information into the report. At that point I park it – I like to go back and read it cold before I send it out.

I pick up a couple of calls from my phone and check WhatsApp and Teams for other messages while I’m making another drink. It’s raining, so I won’t be going for my usual walk at lunchtime, but I will make sure I take a break then.

I touch base with Lindsay, at Menzies Law and we talk about work I’ve completed for them. She’s been talking to a potential client, and we arrange for a call. After the call we will compare notes and pull together a quote, but that won’t be until next week now.

After lunch, I pick up the queries from a pay structure review meeting I had with another client. I have selected the three options I believe will suit their needs and have costed out the impact. I plot the job scores and current salaries in a chart and then overlay different type of structure to see what fits naturally. I also consider the client’s preferences (no point doing a lot of work on an option they hate). I like to cost by individual where possible, but we can always do it on FTE per role if it’s easier for the client. This one is by individual. I work through the options identifying the impact on the individual job holders. Who gets the largest increases, who gets the smallest. I tweak the options until I feel I’ve got the best possible outcome and then create some visuals in PowerPoint with the results and send them over to the HR Director for her comments. If she is happy, she will send them on requesting confirmation of which option they prefer. We book a call to talk about next steps and arrange for me to visit and talk to their staff group about it.

I call Brandon my Kickstarter on Teams and check he’s ok with his workload. Being a Kickstarter with RRM is not an easy journey – we’ve had them doing real work from day one and the best way I can express the impact is this – every twenty-five hours they spend researching jobs on the internet is three days’ worth of time back for me. It’s made a huge difference to us. We’ve had them working on benchmarking jobs, collating, and updating job descriptions, updating our databases, and writing reports on a variety of reward and HR topics, and generally working together as a team to get the urgent stuff done. But this is real work, sometimes it’s boring and sometimes it’s interesting. However, there is always plenty of it. I remind Brandon to find some excel training. I cannot emphasise enough how important excel is for our business and I am happy to pay for some training to get the additional skills he needs – he knows some of the good stuff, but there is so much more he could be doing in excel (and to be honest, I think he enjoys the challenge!).

I pick up a few more emails before going back to the client report and checking it one last time before I send it out.

I take some time to review my actions from my business plan and then pick up emails with the steering group regarding the next BIISN networking meeting I’m chairing. It’s not the first networking event I’ve chaired, but we’ve got a challenge with this group because a large number of students from an overseas university are coming along. It’s good because we are an international group, but we need to ensure they get the most out of the meeting without disrupting it for all the other attendees. The meeting starts with an interview and the steering group member that arranged this one, has confirmed the topic and interviewee so I’m comfortable I have everything I need for that. So, agenda/script – tick, interview – tick, attendees – tick.

Brandon drops me a quick chat message to say he’s done for the day. Then I meet on zoom with the provider to talk about the work for digitising the capability matrix model. This model has been built in excel and it aligns the client’s strategy to a set of corporate capabilities, so that they can measure individual and organisation performance and see where the gaps are. The RAG rated outcomes for the reports give a quick and easy visual image of the gaps for any cohort group the client selects. Digitising it will make it so much easier for the client to use as they will be able to access it online (and of course remove the reliance on our VBA coding skills).

One last chat on Teams with Andy and the day is nearly done. I check my to do list for the morning – and highlight the item I’ll need to do first. Then I switch off the screen and head down to the kitchen for dinner.

Kickstart Scheme Ends March 2022

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 09:33:17 GMT

Kickstart Scheme Ends March 2022. Could it be continued as a new Youth Internship Scheme?

In July 2020, Rishi Sunak the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the introduction of a scheme aimed at assisting up to 250,000 of the UK’s youth, on Universal Credit, to find meaningful paid work placements for a 6-month period.

The new “Kickstart Scheme,” administered by the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP), would provide funding for organisations to provide a minimum of 25 hours of work per week, plus a grant towards management and support costs, to a young person between the ages of 16 and 24. The grant was announced at £1,500 plus the 25 hours per week of NMW/NLW and employers statutory contributions. An organisation could offer more hours and pay a higher wage, but the additional costs would fall to them.

The Scheme opened in September 2020 with an initial end date of 31st December 2021. Originally, you needed to have 30 Kickstart positions available or had to apply through a Gateway setup to collate smaller applications and submit them together, but this was amended at the end of January 2021 with these limits removed.

As part of the ‘contract’ between the employing organisation and the DWP, the Kickstart Placement would also be provided with future employability support in the form of training and mentoring in areas such as CV writing, interview skills, communication, and teamwork. Cost of providing the employability support would be admissible against the grant.

As of October 2021, it is reported that 4/5th of the target posts has been created, with 200,000 jobs available, 77,000 have been filled, it was announced that the scheme will be extended until the end of March 2022. This is expected considering that less than 1/3rd of the target posts have been filled.

We are proud to be a part of this Scheme and have two placements who are gaining valuable experience with us, growing knowledge of how salary benchmarking is conducted and researching generalist HR topics. Additionally, we have been assisting small organisations with their applications with the DWP and in partnership with The Job Guru (as specialist recruitment organisation) provide an employability support package.

The journey has not always been smooth, not only for us but others who have been through the application process. If you were not a registered Company, then the chances of your application being accepted were small. Sole traders were advised to go through what is called ‘Gateway Plus,’ an organisation approved by the DWP to effectively employ the Kickstart Placement on behalf of the sole trader. Gateways and other applicants reported delays with approvals, or rejection without any information as to why.

In our case, once approved, the allocated local Job Centre Plus was not as expected, we also suspected that Job Coaches in the DWP were working towards a quota as some of the applicants did not seem to be suitably matched to the position. Fortunately, as the employing organisation, we were able to choose a suitable pool of candidates to interview and selected two great individuals to support. That said, I can report that improvements have been made, with the DWP reaching out and asking questions about applications, the Job Centre Plus staff engaging more and very recently the post approval stage being turned into a self-service system.

The announcement of the extension of the scheme has been welcomed by many commentators. However, the application window for new placements will be closed on 17th December 2021.

Will the target of 250,000 placements have been met by the end of March 2022 and how will the scheme’s success be measured?

What about the number of placements or the percentage of those placements who continue into full-time employment?

What has been clear to me in my journey with the Scheme is the misunderstanding by organisations, especially small businesses about what the offer is. I have had queries from organisations asking how these new short-term apprenticeships work! I have been asked if it is just another intern position. It is hard to say no to that query, as effectively an internship is all about providing work experience in a specific profession. The main difference with internships is that they are aimed at graduates or those soon to graduate. Whereas the Kickstart Scheme is aimed at providing work experience to anyone under the age of 25, irrespective of education. The current internship format has many benefits but is often criticised because of lack of access, poor pay or even lack of pay.

So, could the Kickstart Scheme be replaced with a new formal Youth Internship Scheme aimed at the same age group but including all educational abilities, making it more inclusive? Providing much needed experience along with future employability support, for those at risk of long-term unemployment.

There are risks, Kickstart positions are unique and must not replace current permanent positions. Putting checks and balances into place to ensure such a scheme is not abused would be important. However, the DWP has introduced a new self-service system where approved organisations can place their available positions for the Kickstart Scheme, why waste this innovation?

Life as a Kickstarter

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 11:12:16 GMT

Life as a Kickstarter

Not only do we provide assistance and advice about the Government’s Kickstart scheme , but we also employ two of our very own Kickstarters! Brandon and Manpreet , both joined us during the summer and are really getting stuck into their roles here at Reward Risk Management, they’ve been a tremendous asset to us so far.

The Kickstart Scheme is a government funded scheme that provides funding to employers to create jobs for 16–24-year-olds on universal credit, at risk of long-term unemployment. An Employer of any size can enrol on the scheme and access funding for:

• 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or National Living Wage depending on the age of the employee) for up to 25 hours per week for a total of 6 months.

• Associated Employer National Insurance contributions.

• Minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions.

Employers can take advantage of this funding up until 31st December 2021 (you will get funding until 30th June 2022 if your employee starts their job on 31st December 2021.) Further funding is also available for training and support so that the employee on the scheme can access a job in the future.

We asked Brandon and Manpreet about their experience with the scheme so far:

How did you first find out about the Kickstart Scheme?

Manpreet: “My work coach told me about the Kickstart scheme because I wanted to work in the HR industry.”

Brandon: “The Job Centre discussed it with me whilst I was looking for a job during covid.”

How easy was the process – from application to being offered a position?

Manpreet: “The process was good. It was really easy because all you need to do is send your C.V and cover letter to make yourself stand out from the crowd.”

Brandon: “Very easy, especially as employers were far more proactive than usual.”

What happened during your first week on the job?

Manpreet: “In my first week I was nervous because I was new, but everyone made me feel welcome and were friendly. I learned more about the company and what my role was in the job. I got given a laptop to work from home.”

Brandon: “A discussion about the job role, the Company and training. Largely introductory but I did get some research and analysing to do in the first week as well.”

What training have you completed during your time so far?

Manpreet: “How to provide a number of administration functions to support delivery of HR and Pay & Reward services to clients of the consultancy.

• Ensuring that clients details are correctly recorded in the database.

• Basic administrative duties such as emails, scanning, copying, printing and writing up reports.

• Researching information from the internet for HR functions for Pay and Reward and input the results into relevant databases.

• Supporting the company job evaluation processes by filing job descriptions and other job role data received from clients, creating job lists, and ensuring information matches that provided by the clients.”

Brandon: “Research and discussion on different areas of HR and businesses, as well as expanding my Excel skills.”

What skills do you feel you can take away from this role?

Manpreet: “The skills I would take with me is excellent communication and ‘people’ skills. The ability to work under pressure and to meet targets, having good organisational and administrative skills.”

Brandon: “Self-motivation, greater self-management and awareness of how companies run. My excel and research skills have also improved.”

What are your plans for the future?

Manpreet: “My plan for the future is to continue working at Reward Risk and to gain experience that I need to work in HR so I can carry these skills with me. In the future, I am hoping to do a master's degree in HR because I would like to go further with my education and strengthen my experience.”

Brandon: “Hopefully stay at the company continuing to do work on a more permanent basis, though if not, I feel far more confident in my greater work experience and job seeking ability, not to mention the skills I’ve learned and improved.”

If you would like to find out more about the Kickstart Scheme, please contact us on 07415 974 004 or email andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Alternatively, to sign up visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-kickstart-scheme-grant

Getting off to a great (kick)start

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 11:03:35 GMT

And they're off!

So two puns (not sorry) to start us off. One for each of our kickstart employees - welcome aboard Manpreet and Brandon!

It is hard to believe it's been four months since Andrew started working with Steve Ackroyd and the team at The Job Guru to help our clients with finding their Kickstart employees. And now we have two of our own.

Manpreet joined us 2 weeks ago and is already making a difference. She has been helping to update our Excel databases and has learned a lot about Excel and the skills she would need working for a reward consultancy. Recognising that the basic skills are just not enough, she has already started on a training course to gain some of the knowledge she needs. The best bit is - she gets to practice and use those skills straight away. Even better, she is carrying out a vitally important task for us, and saving me and Andrew loads of time.

Brandon joined us this week. He had a bit of an introduction on his first morning, and then without any time to waste, he was thrown in at the deep end. His first job was to collate some information we had collected at a client workshop recently. There's nothing like undertaking a real piece of work on your first day to reinforce why you were chosen for the job. It gave him the opportunity to learn about some of the acronyms used in HR (and business in general) and also to decypher some other shorthand that typically gets used. His other tasks this week are to undertake some benefits research and also see what sort of Excel course he needs.

I am already comfortable that we made the right decision in taking on employees through the Kickstart scheme. Even as we are helping Manpreet and Brandon understand what we do, we are learning ourselves about the assumptions we make in our daily work. If you ever doubt that you should employ someone without experience, I would just say - go for it! They will challenge your thinking, force you to be clearer in your explanations, help you work out what your processes should look like, and also breathe much needed fresh air into your business.

I have to say that it probably wont be easy and I am expecting some hiccups along the way. But I am also very much looking forward to working with these two over the next few months.

Note to self: they can write the next two blogs!

Keep safe everyone. And if you need some help and guidance to get your kickstart programme off to a good start then contact us at www.rewardrisk.co.uk.

With a little help from your friends

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 14:20:12 GMT

The unexpected consequences of keeping in touch.....

For personal reasons we haven't done a lot on the RRM website recently. That will change over the next few months as we settle our Kickstarters in and get a grip on the social media.

However, I am sitting at my desk and wondering at the unexpected turns life takes now and then, particularly with people I have "kept in touch" with over the years.

This week, the amazing Dianne Auld contacted me. Dianne taught me some wonderful tricks with excel and without her I dont doubt that I would be struggling to build some of the interesting excel functions into the documents I use. We don't speak every week, or even every month, but we do contact each other from time to time; catch up, share news and sometimes pass on queries. This time, Dianne asked me to help a client, who was looking for a contact for their client, who was looking for a contact for a colleague, who needed some work doing in the UK. Thanks Dianne! I am looking forward to hearing more from the ultimate client in due course.

I also heard from the lovely Ruth Dawson-Jones and Rachel Allen. I never imagined that they would both still be in contact with me 8 years after I left Sanctuary and that we would be able to work together from time to time. Whilst the past few months have been difficult personally, it was great to have your kind and thoughtful messages with your encouragement and support. Thanks both!

And my thanks also to the incredible Nadine and Emma Carr. I still cant believe its 25+ years Nadine! How did that happen? I smile every time I see the image on facebook of the amazing cake Heartsease made for Paul for his birthday. Or when I use my Tropics products (and the thoughtful gifts you sent me). I am looking forward to trying out the spa soon.

It's nice to be reminded occasionally that "keeping in touch" has its own reward, both professionally and personally, especially when its with people who make you feel valued and bring a smile to your face just when you need it.

Of course, I also have to say thank you to the wonderful colleagues, clients and contacts who have been so kind and supportive over the past few months. Social distancing is only a physical gap and you have all reached out in so many ways to offer help and support. I hope if you ever need me, I can be there for you too!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone. And remember, if someone pops into your head - get in touch - you never know where it might lead (for them, or for you!).

Kickstart With Us

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 09:00:19 GMT

Changes you need to know about the Government's Kickstart scheme?

On the 2nd February, our Kickstart guru Andrew got together with Steve Ackroyd, The Job Guru, to host a webinar on the Government’s Kickstart Scheme. The webinar provided information on the Scheme and how it works, employers’ responsibilities and the changes introduced as at 3rd February 2021.

Just to re-cap: when it was introduced in September 2020, the scheme offered employers funding at national minimal or living wage as appropriate for 25 hours per week including employers’ statutory payments and a grant of £1,500 per role to assist with associated running costs such as equipment, uniforms, training other management costs.

The roles must be new positions and existing vacancies or dismissing employees to create roles is not allowed. Access to the scheme was initially for any organisation who could create 30 or more Kickstart roles, or through a Gateway for those who could not create that many roles. The 2nd option allowed SMEs the opportunity to participate in the initiative.

Recent changes to the scheme mean the 25 hours per week is allowed to be averaged over a month, and more importantly, from 3rd February the removal of the 30 roles as a minimum, therefore allowing organisations to apply direct to the Scheme.

However, using a Gateway like RRM can save you a lot of time and heartache. We use our connections and expertise to assist you in getting your application approved. As a Gateway we are not allowed to charge for this service.

If you wish to know more, then why not attend one of our next Webinars, details can be found on our Facebook events page , or contact us via the chat option below.

Learning about Mental Health Awareness

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 06:45:01 GMT

Do you have a mental health and wellbeing policy?

This week I took some time out for a bit of personal development. It's important to do that occasionally and when you've been busy I think it's a great way to just decompress for a few hours and still feel productive. (Yes, I am one of those people who has to give myself permission to take time off, it's just the way I am!).

So I finally completed the i-act Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing training. What an eye-opener! I've always been slightly afraid of getting into this arena - mostly because I am worried I will say or do the wrong thing. It was a relief to find out that I am not alone in that.

Learning the signs to look for, the right and wrong things to say, and the tools you can use to direct people to the help they can use has given me a stronger sense that I can handle these situations. I even tried a few of the tools on myself.

One thing that did stand out for me was the Mental Health and Wellbeing policy. I would like to believe that all of my clients, because they are an enlightened bunch generally, would have a policy for this. A defined approach; with perhaps managers who are trained, staff who are informed, champions and initiatives that encourage communication and understanding of the mental health and wellbeing issues, rather than a few short paragraphs in the general health and wellbeing policy approach. I didn't but I will have soon!

Do you have a seperate policy?

Have you got trained managers?

Do you need to do more?

Why I've been eating chocolate this week

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:05:14 GMT

busy busy busy

This last week has been a busy and productive week. Both at work, and at home. I think it’s important to reflect sometimes and just appreciate what you have done.

On the home front, we’re having some work done on our driveway. The builders have been digging up the old drive, and preparing it to lay the new one. Just to put it into perspective, we live in a typical semi so the driveway is right in front of the house. And it’s noisy. Really really noisy. Not their fault, it’s the machinery they’re using mostly. Oh, and smelly too – I have forgotten how bad tarmac smells.

So, in a bid to ensure that I could get some work done, I decamped from my home office to the local co-working space – The Exchange, Tewkesbury https://tewkesburycoworking.co.uk. It’s right in the town and a brilliant space to work from. All the comforts of the home office, and none of the noise. Plus there are meeting rooms that you can rent as well (great for when you’re meeting on line).

So, I used the time wisely - I went out and bought chocolate �� – cos a girl needs chocolate to deal with the trauma of moving offices, even for a short period.

Seriously though, this was all about work, so I worked on a capability matrix I am building for a client. I've learned some new VBA coding for excel and am busy applying that in every spreadsheet I open. Even better excel has some interesting new functinality that makes lists and lookups etc so much easier (yep geek hat on!!). So I've been using my new skills while I spend some concentrated time to work through the links from their job descriptions to the capability measures. I hardly noticed people coming and going while I was working and it was nice to look out the window and gaze at the slowly passing traffic. I feel like I've done some really productive work - and that I need to learn more VBA.

I also worked with a client to discuss the outcomes of their structures review. This wasn’t solely a pay piece. Finding out what your staff are doing is fundamental to understanding what gaps you need to fill in your business. Getting all the job descriptions drafted and meeting with the jobholders is always my favourite bit. I learn as much about the culture as I do about the work being done. When you map it out and show the client what’s missing it can be great to see the lightbulb moment. And the best bit – he’d already been thinking about it and started work on filling the more obvious gaps. He’s got some work ahead of him too, but at the end of it, he will have a really sound business, and I will have the satisfaction of knowing I helped.

And finally, I did a presentation for the Association of Financial Mutuals. I was really looking forward to this one. It was fairly short, but I loved the challenge of getting over some really useful information in 30 minutes flat. To say nothing of dealing with a frozen presentation screen. I gave them some key things they need to think about with any pay changes they could be making, and my top tips on getting your GPG process right. And I got to meet some very interesting people in the process.

So I have to say a clear thank you this week to:
Gill Downes@Tewkesbury co-working for providing the space to keep me sane
Tamasin Larocque-Fathers @ AFM, for her hard work keeping us presenters in line and on line.
Billy Smith @ Action Coach – for finding me the best clients – thank you Billy for the recommendation.
Tina Jennings @ Crosan Croga – for getting me involved with her clients – it’s a pleasure to be working on this.

And Andrew Carter @ RRM and Ruth Dawson-Jones @ Processio, for holding the fort with me.

and Nick Baalam - because I could escape the noise, but he couldnt.

Have I ever told you, I love my job!
Note to self, say it more often – I love my job!

How engaging are your leaders?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 10:21:43 GMT

Get a free engagement survey

Leadership has been a big thing for us lately; it was one of the biggest issues identified in our Senior HR Network questionnaire. I can’t remember a time when I worked with people who didn’t have an opinion about the capabilities of their leaders. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, but the vast majority of the people I work with now have much positive information to share. Examples of good leadership have included leaders driving culture change, leaders getting their hands dirty when it counts, and leaders who were all about their teams.

I am one of those people though, who likes to have the evidence to support the claim and so we’ve been looking at how companies measure their leaders. Whilst we were researching that, I came across a company called Engagement Multiplier. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard of them – one or two of my clients are already signed up and are absolutely advocates. So I took a closer look, liked what I found and decided to talk to them some more. They took me on a demo, answered the 1001 and questions Andrew and I came up with, and convinced us that we were ideal partners. Not least because our new clients are usually in the midst of significant change when they come to us. Of course, there is nothing like change to highlight how well leaders are doing, and Engagement Multiplier even has a survey specifically aimed at helping you understand your leadership gap.

So I am delighted to announce that we have signed up as a partner with Engagement Multiplier. This means that we can offer you a free trial of their engagement survey. Follow this link for more information

https://www.rewardrisk.co.uk/employee-engagement

Summertime, and the living is easy ........

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 06:55:14 GMT

Or is it "many rivers to cross"?

I’ve worked in HR for some years now (not saying how long!!) and I am no longer convinced that summertime is the easy time – even more so now than ever before.

I usually get a little busier around now when our reward clients start thinking about the things they need to do to meet their objectives, and start planning for next year’s workload too. High on that list is usually pay review; the need to sort the budget, get finance to agree the figures, write the exec paper(s) and get it planned in, all while still doing business as usual.

But this year BAU is of course something completely different and we have been busy doing proposals for far more fundamental reward reviews - re-writing the whole reward strategy from job evaluation to EVP. Fingers crossed some of these proposals will be accepted, and the learning curve will continue for the one’s that failed. If we are doing proposals for this work, this means that HR and Finance are planning big changes. I am not completely surprised as the work we have been doing with the Senior HR Network shows that workforce planning and the respective changes are high on the list of issues keeping senior leadership awake at night.

Some organisations are moving quickly, determined to be ahead of the game, and get everything sorted so that staff know where they stand. The finite detail in the planning will fall out of the project. Other’s are taking time to plan up front what the end product will look like in their mind before they tell their provider what they want. Either way, it’s change all round and decisions taken in the next few weeks will be crucial.

It may feel like a heavy burden but remember that you are not alone in this. There’s a whole community out here ready to help. The HR community is nothing if not supportive of eachother. And of course, there are people like me, who would be delighted to help you scope your project and think about what you need to get in place. Take heart, grab the bull by the horns (whatever metaphor you like) and reach out – A problem shared………

It's good to talk

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 08:59:14 GMT

What are you doing to protect your staff?

5 months ago, almost to the day, I posted a blog about Time to Talk Day – Thursday 6th February – a day when mental health is in the forefront of many people’s minds and when hopefully people and organisations are galvanised to take action to support those with mental health issues. It has been interesting to see how much focus has been placed on mental wellbeing during the lockdown, and it really came home to me this weekend how important social contact is for that wellbeing. It’s been a bit of a revelation to see leaders talking openly about the effects of lockdown and encouraging their staff to talk about their issues.

You see, feeling fed up, tired and grouchy last week – I phoned a good friend. We chatted for a while about the usual stuff then got down to planning a bit of a get-together for the weekend. Come hell or high water (and lets face it in Tewkesbury you can get either), we were going to meet up for an ice-cream, a walk and a good catch up. Of course, it rained! So we got our ice-creams, sat each end of a bench with our brollies and anoraks and started talking. We then walked for a while, maintaining our social distance as we poured our hearts out to eachother for nigh on 2 and half hours. It was fabulous. I came away feeling much more me again.

Until I got home and clicked onto a comment on twitter...... a wellbeing consultant who was naturally shocked that their client has decided they don’t need to do anything more about their staff wellbeing now they are all coming back to work. I was stunned. Will all our problems instantly disappear when we get back into normal working? I think not, and I urge companies to remember that the worries your staff are facing will not automatically disappear because you got them back into the workplace. Think long-term and start putting plans in place to help your staff. EAPs, wellbeing initiatives, anything you can think of that supports people to get help. Maybe build on that team spirit you developed over lockdown and get staff working on fundraising? This month is awareness raising month for the Samaritans – you could start with a socially distanced coffee morning?

https://www.samaritans.org/support-us/campaign/talk-us/

And from a personal viewpoint, remember even the small things can make a difference: take someone for an ice-cream in the rain, walk a familiar route with a friend, plan things to do together soon. Big or small, every action could make the difference to someone.

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 7

Sat, 27 Jun 2020 12:37:02 GMT

What do you need to handle the change? What resources will be required - is it time, money, people?

The Senior HR Network conducted a series of interviews with our extensive network of leaders from a multitude of industries both public and private sector, all above SME level, based nationally and internationally to understand their recent Covid-19 experience. Together we explored what life was like immediately after the announcement of ‘lockdown’, their experience thus far and their current thinking around managing ongoing change, transition and the future state.

Our final article asked: ‘What do you need to handle the change? What resources will be required? Time, money, people’?

In previous articles we saw concerns about returning to previous levels of delivery while at the same time managing unplanned workforce reductions and the implementation of planned transformation projects. Many organisations indicated that they would be conducting operating model reviews; this was both for cost management purposes but also to ensure viability and relevance now that “going back” was not an option. For some this was a necessity for survival. For others COVID-19 was an opportunity to make changes that would have been unthinkable before.

In response to these themes, we asked what resources leaders would need to handle the change. There were three key areas of concern:

• Personal Resources – Personal resilience, and time are being pushed to their limits. Resilience is a recurring theme and we have noted that leaders are now more likely to express concerns about their personal resilience, perhaps in response to the need to get staff to ‘open up’ about their issues. Pressures on resilience are often linked with the concept that time is of the essence. “Headspace”, or ‘time to think’ was seen as crucial, but there is no doubt that this will be in short supply because organisations will want/need to move quickly once the lockdown is lifted and leaders must develop a rapid response approach to handling workforce changes and future responses to crises.

• Operational Resources - In addition, there was also a recognition that not all leaders have the breadth of skills and technical expertise in their current teams to support their organisations in developing future responses. Workforce planning was a key issue, with a sudden focus on what needs to change to make organisations viable again – everything from ensuring that critical roles are identified and succession planning developed, through to managing and modelling the impact of response scenarios and ensuring engagement with change. Other resources included services that are often linked with HR at a leadership level, for example facilities management or health and safety. For those that saw money as a critical area, there is also the recognition that cashflow may not be forthcoming and government funding will be reduced.

• External Resources – We also saw a recognition that the government has some part to play in enabling the response; for instance, organisations want increased clarity with regards to guidelines/regulations and managing social distancing for smaller offices or on public transport that was seen as a problem and barrier for returning to the workplace physically. Another area of concern was the long-term availability of financial assistance and the impact when the current arrangements are withdrawn.

Our research identifies that leaders know their limitations and recognise that they will need to seek resources/input from external sources to deliver expected changes. What is not clear yet, is whether circumstances will allow our leaders the time to reflect and plan before stakeholder’s demand responses.

The articles we have shared have mentioned several ‘so what’s’.

As this is the last in this series we felt it would be pertinent to share our recommendations following the rich learnings from the leaders we spoke to that all businesses need to think about including but not limited to;

1. Cost, identify your current and expected trading patterns and consider opportunities to invest, divest or diversify your business model to capitalise on changing or new markets and mitigate for failing markets. Review and eliminate unnecessary practices and costs going forward to enable greater financial resilience and agility should we see a future surge in COVID-19-cases (or another disaster). Cost controls, and options around what you can do to improve efficiency? How do you get clarity regarding your workforce planning? Being able to use this process as a strategic tool to focus on the right resource at the right time on the most significant opportunities will be a win.

2. Future of work undertake a review of the impact of Covid-19 on your business and consolidate your learning in case of future local or national lockdown activity. Think about not only the ‘what’ but the ‘how’. How will you take the virtual working learnings and ensure that your organisational design is optimal? Plan your workforce based upon predicted need, hiring, reskilling, or upskilling your workforce accordingly. Eradicate old cumbersome ways of working and fully embrace a slicker more productive way that opens up cost-saving opportunities, develops streamlined processes, decision making and improves capability all targeted to optimise and build your operation, it is essential.

3. Mental health and wellbeing will be fundamental. Staying close to the health of your people will enable you to safeguard your investment but also ensure that your human resources can be as high performing as they can be mentally and physically. It is great to have the design optimised, investing further in wellbeing, looking after your humans, will naturally ensure they look after you.

4. Employee engagement invests in your management and leadership, to enable them to weather the impact of the ongoing pandemic and to lead your business back to a sustainable future position. Retention and development will embed change. When your organisational design is right, the wellbeing of your people is on point, having your human resources fully engaged unlocking their best self, their strengths and developing those capabilities will reap long term, sustainable, benefit, not only to the individual but their role, your team, customers and bottom line. Having the right tools, development planning, methods will be fundamental.

5. Culture, collaboration and learning together and cultivating a winning mentality will be essential to a sustainable new reality and future growth. Tapping into your core values to drive performance and create the right behaviours to make the most of every opportunity, this is the finale where investment in time will reap huge returns if done well.

If you feel time is potentially getting away from you and that you will need to source extra resources to support you in developing your plans, talk to our experts at the Senior HR Network.

There is much to think about, but nothing is insurmountable, the senior HR network has the skills and experience to support you and can help guide and deliver robust transition plans that will speed up and bolster a seamless return and a sustainable future making the most of your new reality.
Get in touch with one of us today to see how we can help you.

About the authors

The Senior HR Network was set up to provide senior HR practitioners across the UK and across disciplines to share knowledge, learnings and experiences and expand future thinking in people and organisations.

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 6

Sat, 27 Jun 2020 12:36:59 GMT

Are you worried about managing this change, and what does that look like for your team?

We asked: Are you worried about managing this change, and what does that look like for your team?

Leaders were under "No illusion” expecting the change and transformation of a future state to be 'difficult' at times. It was clear that the most significant issue was around sufficient funding moving forward to enable current programmes of work to be completed posing the question as to whether the continued investment would be available and a priority to pursue future developments.

Many experienced cost cuttings and reductions in personnel before COVID-19 and thus a theme that further 'efficiency' will need to be applied not only to 'who does what' but also to 'what' and 'how' we do it moving forward. Resources are tight and stretched; how resources will be deployed in the 'return' will be under scrutiny to meet high expectations around ongoing performance.

Teams have responded well to change. Adaptability has been impressive, engagement levels are good, learnings are being captured and initiatives to engage. Support staff seem to be at an all-time high with the organisation's we spoke to, and they are sensitive to exhaustion, post-traumatic stress, mental health and wellbeing, all being paramount. Work patterns are being considered, and several businesses spoke about the opportunity to 'rest and rotate' to ease return and minimise burnout.

New policies and reward structures were being implemented that recognise change and ‘old-fashioned’ practices were being abolished, a move forward to the future of work and rapid progress.

Overall there was a general sense that leading with an open mind, knowing that change will not be easy but that a collaborative approach to any adjustment to strategies and decision-making, working side by side with employees and stakeholders alike will be essential to a full recovery.

So far, so good, but what does this mean for the transition and what do these insights tell us about what we should be thinking about in our forward planning. Getting this next phase right will be fundamental to a smooth and productive transition back to a 'new reality'. A reality where businesses can balance tight cost controls alongside designing cost-efficient, lean operationally strong business that gets the most out of every resource moving forward, especially its people.

About the authors
The Senior HR Network was set up to provide senior HR practitioners across the UK and across disciplines to share knowledge, learnings and experiences and expand future thinking in people and organisations.

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 5

Sat, 27 Jun 2020 12:36:56 GMT

How do you think leadership in your organisation will need to change?

We asked: How do you think leadership in your organisation will need to change?

There was a remarkable consistency in the response to this question. When the crisis was in its initial few days, management skills utilising 'command and control' abilities were advantageous, so short-term measures to keep staff safe were actioned quickly.

Once safety measures and initial actions were implemented, the leadership skills required quickly changed. There was a consistent feeling amongst all that the game has irreversibly changed for leaders, certainly for the foreseeable future.

Respondents felt that their organisations had pulled together, and it had been a team effort across all functions.

While, for the obvious reasons, respondents have not enjoyed the last few months, they have stated it has in some ways been an engaging professional experience. An example is that they have seen employees given the opportunity to be more empowered in their roles due to the loosening of managerial control often from not being physically in the same location. Also, there is a feeling that there is no turning back to the new business reality of flexible working. Many respondents felt that COVID-19 had increased the pace of change in these positive areas.

What is the ‘so what?’ from this; and the fundamental changes our interviewees are predicting for leaders:

1.    Trust. An essential leadership skill before COVID-19 but it was felt that it would become more critical as teams interact with each other virtually. There is less opportunity to build and maintain relationships when not interacting face-to-face. A suggestion is that leaders should enthusiastically develop themselves to learn the leadership skills of empathy and actively support the devolving of decision making across and down the organisation.

2.    Empathy. Is related to the skill of building trust. Examples would be that leaders will need to be empathetic as people return to work. The reactions to COVID-19 amongst teams and leaders have varied enormously, and so leaders will need to manage this with empathy and caring attitudes. This will not be a natural skill for many leaders and may have a lasting effect on processes like the identification of high potentials in the future.

3.    Task management, not presentism. The horse has bolted for those leaders who did not approve of their people 'working from home'! This opinion is not only dated but, if it was not before, is now obsolete in the 2020+ workplace. This shift raises the need for leadership skills like trust, empathy, team building and decision making. The feeling is that COVID-19 has accelerated the already identified leadership need for these skills.

4.    The logistics of work changing. While you could argue this is an obvious observation, it will be interesting to see how it evolves for companies, teams and individuals. A lot of the interviewees we spoke to were familiar with virtual working and an international business environment and understood travel, for instance, will be minimal for some time. However, the way we work and how we work is an area where organisations will put significant leadership focus ongoing. The potential impact on mental health, wellbeing, team effectiveness are not known, and it could mean a rapid change in how we all work moving forward, it’s not just about what you do but how you do it more now than ever. Respondents recognised these potential changes and were ready to act as the future becomes apparent. This could mean a gradual relaxation of current laws but also further ‘outbreaks’, may require ongoing tightening of work practices. The main observation from the interviewees is that they know it is a fluid situation and remaining vigilant will continue to be necessary.

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 4

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 14:51:46 GMT

How do our leaders think they will need to change?

We asked: How do our leaders think they will need to change?

While we can’t predict the future, our leaders had a consistent message when asked how they think they will need to change post-crisis. Very simply, leaders are going to have to gear up with a short, medium and long term plan, both economically and how they lead their workforce, the responses we received were split into three main areas:

Bringing our workforce back to a safe environment

How organisations and leaders have responded during this crisis and how they will bring their teams back to the workplace will be remembered for a very long time, and reassuringly for the leaders we talked to, safety was a number one priority.

Our survey found that in the short-term leaders have to tactically plan, where employees are unable to work remotely leaders are preparing for the provision of social distancing in the workplace, gaining access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and flexibly rotating their employees to allow for the additional space needed to provide a safe environment. Leaders will need to consider the employees who may have a fear of returning to a social work environment and consider turning the dial up on empathy and managing varied emotions through change, while also maintaining their own emotional responses.

For some leaders, they are having to manage a large proportion of their workforce that has not been into a workspace for over ten weeks and who may be considering their future options in working flexibly or differently. It is expected that a high number of employees will request flexible working, shorter hours or even just not return to the workplace at all!

Technological transformation

Before the Covid-19 crisis, many businesses were pursuing digital transformation programmes to allow for a more flexible workforce, greater collaboration and improved stakeholder experience. This was a self-paced transformation that has now become an urgent priority. For some that we surveyed, digital transformation and remote working had been, in the past, a low priority and the traditional mindsets to working and delivery were still evident.

Our workforces and customers have mostly been given an opportunity to ‘try out’ and get ‘accustomed’ to digital consumerism, working, and collaboration all at once. The movement towards a digital business model in such a short period of time will become the new normal, and leaders will have to accept the change, innovate with their teams to keep pace and learn to collaborate in a very different way.

The technological shift, coupled with the restriction we have had on travel both locally and globally, will present a challenge if our leaders don't keep up with their teams preference to use technology more and travel less, in particular, this will be prevalent in the more traditional sectors. The paced move to digital transformation and the new ways of working must be viewed holistically by leaders, maintaining focus on the human side of digital transformation at least as much as the technological side.

Recovering business performance and workforce planning

All indications are that for many sectors it will take time to recover from this crisis, adding additional elements of pressure to how leaders approach their workforce plans to meet short, medium and long term strategic plans and stakeholder expectations in an uncertain and volatile global economy.

While business performance will remain a high priority, leaders must consider the retention of skills, talent and balancing how they bring back the right workforce to deliver on customer demands while stabilising financial performance. Without a shadow of a doubt, for some organisations, a planned restructuring and reduction in workforce is imminent, particularly where government support has allowed flexibility in retaining employees. Initially, an element of reactiveness will be observed in both restructuring and recruitment needs to meet financial challenges and the fluctuation in customer demand while also accommodating the new ways of working. Each role, service or product will be scrutinised for the value that it brings to both the organisation and the customer in the future world.

The trickiest element for leaders managing a post-crisis strategy will be distinguishing between crisis-induced short-term changes and what is a more permanent shift, leaders will need to manoeuvre from crisis management to a creative and innovative mindset when considering workforce planning. The more traditional organisations and leaders will need to make sure that they fully engage in this shift rather than risk disruption that could leave competitors with an advantage.

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 3

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 13:35:56 GMT

What do you think your priorities will be when your organisation comes out of the immediate crisis?

We asked: What do you think your priorities will be when your organisation comes out of the immediate crisis?

The emerging themes can be grouped into two major categories: short term (next 3-6 months); and longer-term (six months plus).

In the short term, many organisations are planning for the safety of staff returning to the usual place of work and managing their safety and wellbeing. Many organisations who have become busier during COVID-19 are considering how they can “decompress” tired and overworked employees while still delivering their services. Those that deprioritised non-crisis related service delivery are now starting to plan how they reinstate those services, if at all.
Other organisations shared their anxiety of returning to previous levels of delivery while at the same time managing unplanned workforce reductions. With such a large number of employees Furloughed, many organisations are seeing staff seeking employment elsewhere in the meantime. This is particularly prevalent in organisations deemed to be more ‘vulnerable’ such as in the retail industry.

Some organisations shared a more fundamental level of survival. Revenue regeneration was top of their list of activities if they were to continue operating at all.

In the longer term, a large number of organisations shared how COVID-19 has accelerated the implementation of planned transformation projects. This is especially true of technology-based transformations. Many shared their understanding that there was no “going back to how things were” and that they were focussing on capturing and implementing learning gained during the last three months.

Many organisations indicated that they were conducting operating model reviews; this was both for cost management purposes but also to ensure viability and relevance now that "going back" was not an option. For some, this was a necessity for survival. For others, COVID-19 was seen as an opportunity to make changes that would have been unthinkable before.

What is the ‘so what?’ from this:

1. Seize the day – we would strongly encourage organisations to make those difficult changes while things are still in a state of flux. Employees, leaders and shareholders are already in an "unfrozen" state (Lewin) and therefore more likely to be responsive to transformational change, particularly where there are clear links to survivability and profitability. So "carpe diem". Review that operating model. Revisit that Organisation Design. Refresh that culture. Really notice what you have liked and loathed as a result of the COVID-19 learning. And then do something about it.

2. Be good at change – duh, right? But here’s the thing. If you want to avoid ‘change fatigue’ (although, the jury is out on if that’s even a thing), businesses have to get good at change management. Especially the people side of change and by this we mean: communicating; engaging; facilitating; empowering; inspiring; motivating; collaborating; listening etc. This is paramount to keep everyone whole and with you. Despite the name ‘change management’, this relies on good leadership, not management. So have a look at your leaders and do a mental inventory on those verbs above. If the ticks are sparse, rethink your leadership development.

3. Plan, where you can – we know that projection feels hard right now, too many “unknown unknowns” (Rumsfeld). But surely it’s better to be half right than totally wrong? Dust off those workforce planning documents so you can see whether those unintended losses are regretted or helpful. Create several scenarios about what the future could look like and run the sums on what the size and shape of the workforce should look like. Have a clear line of sight between business output and role. Build confidence that every person makes a direct contribution to the business outputs. And understand where you might have more resilience if you have to make further efficiencies.

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 2

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 08:27:47 GMT

What are the priorities right now for your business and your people?

We asked: What are the priorities right now for your business and your people?

The organisations we spoke to had experienced different pressures depending upon which category they were in as described above.

All organisations we spoke to indicated that their priority was to be able to work safely and to plan how they would approach the restoration of their business, when ready, while protecting the emotional, physical, and financial welfare of their employees.

An immediate focus of those businesses adversely impacted by Covid-19 was the preservation of their cashflow to remain sustainable and to protect jobs wherever possible. These organisations had prioritised measures such as reducing non-critical spend and renegotiating contracts. Many had placed controls around investment in recruitment, training and any other third-party spend and many were seeking to optimise their use of the job retention scheme to retain employees while working to return to their usual "run rate" and the associated generation of income over time.

Where a longer-term reduction in income could be foreseen, many businesses were undertaking rigorous financial planning and option appraisal exercises to formulate a coherent plan and identify the measures required to continue trading safely while remaining financially viable.

For those businesses at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19, such as public services, there was a stretch in resources while diverting activity and resource into addressing Covid-19 and knowing they would need to switch on "business as usual" activities when able to (or directed to). Funding and infrastructure had been provided by the Government in some instances, and a priority was to understand how long this additional support would remain in place and/or what actions were needed to secure the additional resources for an extended period if possible, to smooth the transition when needed.

The businesses in our survey reflected that they needed to think beyond their internal pressures and work at a sector or macro level, understanding the impact their supply chain could have on them and recognising the knock-on impact that decisions they made now might potentially have on other businesses/communities in the future.

There was evidence in our survey group of the importance of identification of immediate resource and skills gaps, prioritising development and upskilling/reskilling of existing employees and recruitment to key roles, whether on a temporary or permanent basis. While Covid-19 was still in the mix, availability of critical workers to meet demand would remain a challenge as employees naturally continued to contract the virus or need to isolate for the safety of others. Continued access to Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to support staff to travel and remain at work, if their presence was essential to delivering services, was highlighted as a key concern.

Some business sectors indicated a cyclical recruitment and retention challenge posed by Covid-19, for example, education, and therefore the need to attract enough new business to derive the necessary income to remain sustainable for 20/21 and beyond was paramount. Their success would not only be impacted by their actions but by external influences such as service-user perception and behaviour.

Generally, most businesses had recognised that supporting their employees during this period was vital, whether at work, working from home, well, unwell or furloughed. Managers and leaders had responded differently depending upon their own experience and developed skills for leading and managing during change. Most respondents shared their reflection that the pandemic has impacted individuals on all levels, personally and professionally.

Some organisations had been quick to employ improved communication and support frameworks, including leadership coaching and counselling, to promote trust, empathy and flexibility as their key cultural values and behaviours to support navigation through the disruption.

Overall while the Covid-19 pandemic was not something businesses would have asked for, many acknowledged they had already adapted to new ways of working and wanted to encourage retention of the gains made, by restoring their businesses in a modified form so as not to lose any positive changes which had come about as a by-product of this unprecedented circumstance.

What is the ‘so what?’ from this:

1. Even in times of considerable uncertainty, employees have worked over and above expectation, adapting to different ways of working and finding solutions that might not have been imagined before.

2. The combined impact of fear and uncertainty has required managers to lead differently and brought to the fore the importance of a good communication framework, trust, empathetic leadership, and support.

3. To retain (and gain from) the best of the circumstances and to engender a lasting change in culture and a sustainable future will require businesses to lead by example, optimise technology and consider more flexible ways of leading and working.

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 1

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 06:54:15 GMT

What is life like in your business at the moment?

We asked: What is life like in your business at the moment?

It was clear from the responses that the answers are split between (1) those organisations that remained operating as they were considered essential services, (2) those non-essential service who could continue working either normally or had to scale down and (3) those who effectively put themselves into a mothballed state. The latter was split between those who were required to close by the Coronavirus legislation or because demand for their services had dramatically reduced.

For those in groups (1) and (2) who were able to continue to operate, the immediate concern was following the guidance on social distancing (SD) and working from home (WFH). WFH quickly became the new normal for many office-based staff, even in public organisations. To accommodate this, organisations were forced to implement policies that did not exist before and spend on IT equipment to enable the employee to access resources. For some organisations, this just accelerated a WFH ideology or flexible working policy. Managing and policing these new policies became the immediate concern. It was noticeable that most organisations tried to keep a HQ function operational to ensure compliance and monitoring the delivery of processes remotely.

For those organisations in group (2) who had to scale down and those in group (3) who effectively locked their doors, the immediate concern was how to achieve the reduction in staff. Over the initial period of the ‘lockdown’ and restrictions, the Government recognising the financial impact this would have on organisations and people in general and introduced numerous Coronavirus financial assistance schemes. The major scheme affecting the people arena was the introduction of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (commonly called furlough). Organisations now had a new category of staff: Furloughed. This distinct group of employees have required the introduction of new HR policies looking at issues such as initial notice, pay, communication, wellbeing and return to work.

Additionally, the initial introduction of furlough was not a smooth process as the published guidance differed slightly from the original concept, which caused problems in itself. However, most of the organisations questioned recognised the importance of retaining staff and used the scheme over the option of redundancies. Notably, by 14 June 2020 after the ceasing of new registrations, around 9.1 million employees in the UK had been furloughed by about 1.1 million employers.

What is the "so what?" from this:

1.   The flash to bang for the lockdown was relatively quick, and organisations had to quickly develop plans and policies at short notice. Despite notice from the effect of Coronavirus lockdowns in other countries, many organisations were still unprepared and effectively caught short.

2.   Crisis planning will become a significant focus post Covid-19. Where traditional business continuity plans may have involved some form of remote working, they mainly relied upon relocation to other premises. The focus now will be for these plans to look at all ways of working, learning from the success or not of the introduction of WFH and SD.

3.   The Government introduced numerous financial assistance schemes over the initial period of lockdown and only time will tell if the furlough scheme will achieve any effect in reducing large scale redundancies overall. However, the scheme was welcome, and employees quickly embraced it as a method to retain staff and reduce costs of doing so, often citing it as a method of retaining cash flow.

4. For organisations that had international sites, the added issue of country-based regulations and different timings of their introduction brought additional challenges. Operationally this placed challenges on how organisations reacted.

All organisations felt that life after the initial lockdown announcement was hectic, however, what we should remember is that this was the first such event in modern history and thus, despite warnings, caught most organisations cold. Post Covid-19 most organisations have said that lessons learnt documents will be produced and crisis plans rewritten. The primary question is around whether these plans should include the possibility that the Government will introduce financial assistance schemes like furlough again or and if not, what are the implications for business continuity in the future?

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

Annual Leave on Furlough

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 18:00:02 GMT

COVID 19

On Friday the 17th of April HMRC issued guidance on the calculation of furlough pay, which included how to treat holiday pay. Upon reading the guidance it's clear that a business decision needs to be made regarding whether as a business it allows annual leave to be taken by staff on furlough. There are various factors that would need to be considered.

Firstly, anyone taking annual leave would have to be paid their standard holiday pay as calculated under the working time regulations, that means anyone furloughed on less than 100% of their pay would need to have their pay topped up to their standard holiday rate for that period. I can see the advantage of those being paid at a lower rate requesting leave but why would someone furloughed on 100% decide to do so?

Those organisations that have furloughed their staff at lower than 100% of their pay to the maximum amount that they can claim under CJRS rules, now have a business decision regarding the affordability of paying the top up.

Public holidays are mentioned, for those who normally have these days off, a day’s annual leave is taken as appropriately. If as an organisation it is decided that this is to continue during a furlough period, then the topping up rule will apply.

Easter has traditionally only needed 2 days leave to cover this period for the Monday and Friday, while ethically, you would be paying 100% for only the 4 days of the whole Easter weekend.

One option in the guidance is to do nothing and allow staff members to take these annual leave days off in lieu. Another business decision.

I now come to what I call the ethical decision. Does an organisation request or force employees to take annual leave during furlough absence? Employment legislation regarding annual leave has not changed. Notice at double the amount of leave to be taken should still be given. Effectively, an organisation could furlough an employee for 3 weeks stating that week 3 is going to be annual leave. Assuming that an employee’s weeks 1 and 2 will be at the CJRS rate of 80%, this means that for 20% increase in wages they lose 5 days annual leave. The obvious 20% pay increase is probably welcome, but the only real gain to them, is that they are now on annual leave and theoretically can't be called back to work at short notice.

So, the business must decide what benefit forcing or allowing annual leave during furlough will bring. Can it afford to top up salaries to do so? What does it gain or lose in relationships with its furloughed employees? How does the employee feel about being required to use annual leave at this time?

I'll leave you with these thoughts. If you practically can, what harm does it do to leave your employees to accrue leave over this period? How many days do you think this will amount to? Given that the Government has temporarily allowed statutory leave to be carried forward for the next 2 years you have the opportunity to spread the pain, the benefit to your staff is significant and you will be rewarded with happier employees when they come back.

Love Actually

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 19:01:28 GMT

Reward Strategy - What's not to love?

Okay, I admit it, I’m being a bit cheeky here (it might be the chocolates I got this morning!) – but really what’s not to love about reward?

Reward: a thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement

Some organisations call it compensation, but I have an issue with that:

Compensation: something, typically money, awarded to someone in recognition of loss, suffering, or injury

If I’m being picky- and let’s be honest here I am - I somehow think they may have hit the nail right on the head. I wonder at which point does our employment mindset go from wanting to be rewarded for providing our services to wanting to be compensated for the fact we have to turn up every day. More worryingly, how did work get so bad that we have to be compensated for doing it?

If your staff don’t love their work, if they don’t love getting up in the morning to do it, if they don’t love it when they are there – then the engagement has gone. This is where you need to start talking to your staff and finding out what's gone wrong. Engage with your staff and reward them for the efforts they put in on your behalf. There’s plenty of evidence out there to suggest it works. I guess the problem is knowing how to do that.

If you are struggling with staff engagement, give us a call.

Time to talk

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 19:19:14 GMT

Health and wellness benefits

Is mental health awareness on your agenda for 2020? Health and wellness benefits are on the surge, and mental health and wellbeing is at the top of the list.

More than a third (36%) of employers use employee assistance programmes (EAPs) to support staff mental health during winter, while 32% provide flexible and remote working opportunities (Source: Employee Benefits)

On Thursday 6th February it will be Time to Talk Day – a day when mental health will be in the forefront of many people’s minds.

I came from an armed forces family and have many many friends and contacts who are still in, or are ex-forces. They struggle daily with issues and problems that I cannot begin to understand.

I also know many people in the civilian world who have mental health issues.

I am glad it is no longer swept under the table, I am glad its not acceptable to tell them anymore to “pull yourself together”, “stop worrying”, don’t “dwell on it”, “get on with it” and all the other unhelpful phrases I’ve heard (and unforgivingly) used over the years.

I hope I’ve learned to be a better person when talking to people about mental health, and I have accepted that I can still do better. I suspect we all can.

If you want to help change attitudes to mental health, why not start with those nearest to you. “How are you really?” or “what’s happening for you?”. But if you don’t feel you are in that place, then you can help in other ways, and learn more by clicking on the link below. #TimeToTalk.

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/time-talk-day/support-time-talk-day-online

Out with the old/In with the new

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:36:50 GMT

Salary Benchmarking

Out with the old/in with the new: Traditionally, the new year is time for change in the workplace. Apart from the festive clear out when the lucky one’s without enough to do between Christmas and the New Year spend their time clearing out their desks, some people have been thinking about their plans for the next year and making career choices. If they decide it’s time for change and this means staff turnover increases.

As recruiters prepare themselves for the post-Christmas rush I will hear from clients looking for salary benchmarking data for new roles. Tradition is to tweak a jd, or create a new one based on another already in use and send it over for benchmarking. And this is the time, when I think you should be asking some very important questions:

1. Why do you need the role?
2. What exactly is it there to do?
3. How / when will it be done?
4. Who will do it?
5. What impact will it have in your team?
6. Where does it fit in your structure?
7. Who else does the same/similar?
8. Is it permanent/full time etc?
9. How much can you afford to pay?

I believe that if you take the time to answer these questions while you are developing the role, you will be ready to bring in the new jobholder for the right reasons and at the right rate of pay. #salaries #recruitment

Do your staff do this? Secretly selling benefits?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 18:21:21 GMT

Employee Communications

I read the recent furore over United Airlines sacking their staff with mixed feelings and a grim smile.

I’ve come across a few cases in the past of staff “selling on” their benefits. Sometimes they are more than aware that they are committing an offence, but on other occasions it’s not so obvious to them. Selling airline vouchers or a company branded t-shirt on e-bay (especially a desirable brand) may seem like a quick and easy way to make a bit of extra cash, but if it’s been clearly explained to staff that it is not acceptable then they know the risk they are taking.

I wonder why the message doesn’t always get through? Telling staff it won’t be tolerated seems clear enough. So is it the message itself, or the way that it’s delivered?

I frequently discuss with my clients that nothing replaces good old-fashioned communication. As a species we’ve been communicating verbally for far longer than we’ve been writing words down. Verbal communication is probably far more likely to get your message through than a lengthy written missive. Yet it seems we still prefer to communicate with staff using every media except the one that we are genetically programmed to hear.

I get that it’s important for a clear and precise message to be communicated, but are we not just taking the easy way out? We can always use the excuse that by writing it down instead of saying it, we get exactly the same message to everyone. But what if that message is not seen – or not understood? How do we know it’s been effective, if we don’t communicate further?

I hate legislating for the wrong-doers, although of course that’s how most company policies work. But to me this is a clear example where multiple communications methods are required. Tell staff what they can and can’t do, then use other media to reinforce it. Check your contracts are clear, and then maybe on-line communication and good benefits programming can help? If the benefit is not transferrable – a brief reminder as you order it should suffice, or maybe the same type of approach as with concert tickets where you have named ticket holders?

Whatever your preferred method, check the message got through. Test the understanding. Look for feedback…… and repeat……

Equal pay?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 19:15:09 GMT

Equal Pay Guidance

There is a problem when pay data is presented in a way that masks the facts, and doesn’t give the true picture. So, when the much-anticipated BBC gender pay list came out, I was astounded at how little it actually told us.

How do we know Chris Evans earns more than Alex Jones? On the face of it his salary is higher, which appears to be unfair, and suggests a gender pay issue. But do we know if they are truly doing the same job? Do we know what criteria is used to determine their pay and how that pay is structured? All we know is that he has a higher annual salary.

What does it really mean to pay someone unfairly/unequally? It means that when all the factors about the job are taken into consideration; nature, skills, impact, tasks and responsibilities, hours worked etc, the job is the same. If the job is the same and the salary is different, then it is potentially unequal.

However, there is a reason salary is taken back to the hourly rate – its serves a purpose in that it ensures that variable such as working hours are not included. The key question really is:

Is the basic hourly rate the same for two people of the opposite sex doing the same job?

If it’s not and the woman is paid less, there is a potential claim for equal pay.

If it’s not and the man is paid less, there is a potential sex discrimination claim.

There are other issues of course, e.g. terms and benefits. When I am discussing GPG or Equal Pay Audits, I often find myself reminding my clients that in an equal pay claim every element of contractual pay package can be taken individually and it is not about the total value of the package. It does not matter if the basic pay rate is the same, if the criteria for earning additional elements causes a gender imbalance then there is a potential claim.

We need to watch out for smoke screens - presentation of issues that hide the facts and potentially undermine the issue at hand. It doesn’t matter if a man earns more than a woman – so long as the reason is fair and non-gender biased. What does matter is if it is because she is a woman and for that reason deemed to be entitled to less pay than man doing the same job (and I have to say vice versa).

Having said that, of course, as much media coverage as possible to the issue of gender pay will help to focus the minds of those with decision making responsibilities on the need for visible and transparent equity. If the potential risk to unsound decision making is high visibility disgrace and dissatisfaction then there is a potential value to that in solving the gender pay gap. It’s not ideal of course, and I’d rather it was solved by less sensational methods.

Note to self: keep plugging away in the background and make my case to my clients based on facts and sound reasoning. Let the press handle the sensational headlines.

Don't get sunk by a bonus blunder

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:21:58 GMT

Executive Reward

Shortly before Christmas the thorny issue of excessive bonuses once again hit the headlines, this time as the head of a large housebuilder quit after questions about the size of his £75m bonus. Enough to pay cash for a super-yacht! Under bonus arrangements that were undoubtedly agreed at Remuneration Committee level, he got what he was promised – and he’s now left his job, and the organisation are still trying to clean up a publicity nightmare. They would, of course, have had a different nightmare to deal with if they had refused to pay his bonus and he’d sued them: they really didn’t have a leg to stand on. You may be aware that the PR nightmare has now resurfaced after it emerged that his promise to use a considerable chunk of his bonus to set up a charitable foundation has not happened.

The technical side of me, says “Well, he earned it”. I know that may feel hard to digest, given the size of the bonus, but the company put in place certain targets and made the promise of a certain reward if he achieved them. These targets were achieved and so why shouldn’t he get the promised reward? We are a hungry species that likes to earn good bonuses, and the company obviously tapped into that. I suspect the real issue is rather the proportionality of it, which no-one expected.

Have the decision-makers learned nothing? In general, we are also a principled species – we don’t like it when we perceive people are getting excessive reward for what they do. When we hear about it, we make our feelings plain and in some cases vote with our feet. There has been sufficient expression of discontent, ever since the “fat cat” issues with British Gas in the 1990’s, that companies really need to be acting more cautiously.

The argument that to remain competitive we have to pay high bonuses does not necessarily ring true. It’s a question of balance, and psychological studies often don’t provide any evidence base for the view. Remuneration Committees, Boards and key decision-makers should all be thinking carefully about the balance between rewards for executives and those for their other employees. It is a shame that the FRC has had to issue guidance on this. Published CEO pay ratios will also help companies identify what is relevant/appropriate for their sector.

I’m fortunate to spend quite a lot of time working with one particular sector where often executives will take their own pay out of the picture to ensure that pay goes to the people on the ground, although no-one’s perfect and companies still sometimes get it wrong. The difference is that generally they make sure their salaries and bonuses are proportionate. It’s inherent in an environment where they are continually under scrutiny by the sector media and other stakeholders. So they send clear messages about what the remuneration of their executives is about. Behind the scenes though, it’s really all about sourcing robust market data, understand market trends, identifying the pros and cons of your proposals and ensuring that you are considering all the stakeholders.

If you’re concerned that you’re offering bonuses that would buy a super yacht in an environment that warrants a rowing boat (metaphorically or otherwise) and would appreciate further information on ensuring you strike the balance right, do please contact me.

So what's the benefit?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:25:21 GMT

Employee benefits

I’ve been working as a Reward consultant for some years now, and before that I was in an in-house Reward role in a reasonable sized organisation. One of the issues we struggled with then was budget, and how to spend it wisely in order to get the best benefits for our staff.

I discovered early on that some benefits were going to be costly, no matter what. If it’s an insurance or other product that needs actuarial input, that costs money. So let’s be clear. Financial benefits such as insurance are great, but to see any value you need to ensure that your staff know how much it costs you to provide the benefit. So make sure you tell them what they’re getting.

Then, there are the voluntary benefits, such as discount schemes and freebies. Here staff have choice over their spending, and the employer simply provides a list of organisations who have agreed to provide discounts. These have long been seen as a chance for staff to get maximum value from their earnings, but they often claim that they can get better options or bigger discounts elsewhere. That’s naturally going to be the case at some point. What you’re doing here is trying to give them more options. Again, be clear and tell them that.

And now, I have noticed a new trend. The providers who offered complex employee benefit platforms, with supported on-line websites and access to multiple benefit options, used to be really expensive. Well out of the price range of many smaller, or less financially well off, organisations. This meant that lots of companies were missing out because they couldn’t afford the provider’s annual fee, even if they recognised the value in having such a platform. What is happening now though, is that technology has moved on and the platforms for driving these things are less resource-intensive to develop. This means that there are now some really good, cost-effective benefit platforms that can be used by smaller organisations to offer their staff the same sort of benefits as the larger companies do. Apps on mobile phones and laptop working make all of this so much more accessible these days.

I’ve viewed one recently that allows you to put all your benefits online, manage benefit choices and changes, and track take-up. All of this in a well-presented interface that can be personalised to your organisation. Even better, the cost wouldn’t have broken the bank. So, get out there and get looking again folks, the chance is here!

And what’s the benefit? Well of course, an engaged workforce that is more committed and works harder for you.

Blimey, can you still get that?

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 18:26:16 GMT

Job evaluation

Sometimes I feel Job Evaluation is a bit like my favourite tipple – Babycham – although I’ve been a fan of Babycham slightly longer than I have job evaluation (I was always a sucker for anything that came with a cherry on top – cherry bakewells for instance).

Like many, I started out on Babycham when I was allowed a tipple at family events. I think many grown-ups thought that the cute little deer, and the fact it was served in small glasses, made it less potent than wine or other alcohols. Most people are quite shocked when they learn that its 6% proof – that’s stronger than most beers. Many people are also surprised to learn you can still buy it – hence the title for this blog.

I find I sometimes get a similar response from people when I talk about why you need job evaluation. It fell out of favour for a while, for a variety of reasons, not least because it takes some work. But I can see it is clearly coming back on trend, now that pay equality is hitting the top 10 issues for HR again.

Like Babycham, job evaluation is a lot more potent than you realise. It doesn’t just measure the size of your jobs. A fully applied job evaluation scheme will help you understand your internal relativities, align your external relativities for benchmarking and then more. For instance, you can use the outcomes to underpin your pay structure and support you during organisation changes. From a legal risk management point of view, it is an exceptionally powerful tool in both spotting Equal Pay claims and defending against them. You can also use it to underpin and articulate career structures and identify gaps in your succession planning. If you’ve gone to all the effort of sizing your jobs using job evaluation, you might as well then use it to its full extent. And a bit like Babycham's strength, the information is there; you just need to be just looking in the right place for it.

If you’d like to get beyond the bubbles and talk about job evaluation in more depth, I’d be delighted to help. Just get in touch.

Perhaps the ultimate car benefit

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 18:26:58 GMT

Employee benefits

I have recently been involved in a 4-car shunt, so I have every sympathy for anyone trying to sort their car insurance just now. Being in the middle of the shunt and having missed the car in front twice before the 4th car hit us all so hard I finally hit it, I am fortunate enough to be in the middle of a no-blame claim. My car is insured for business and personal use and the whole process has been relatively simple but oh so time-consuming. It has all taken up far too many hours of my time.

This got me thinking about the best car-related benefits I have seen offered by my clients. I’ve seen discounted roadside recovery and cheap car hire. Discounted insurance policies are also frequently on the list. But having been through this recently, I think I would give an award (and possibly my undying loyalty) to the company that offers me someone else to deal with the process of an insurance claim – the ability to make just one call at the very start and it’s then all sorted, from the faff of making insurance claim itself through to accident repair company, replacement vehicle delivery and pick up, solicitor conversations and calls with the other parties involved. Failing that, unrestricted time in working hours to deal with the calls and issues that come up would in my view be a very nice alternative.

If you know anyone who provides that utopia, or provides any unusual car-related benefits, I would be very interested to hear.

But in the meantime, if you are interested in knowing how to tie your benefits into your pay and reward framework so that you have a holistic and strategic approach, just honk (or rather, email me!)

Stop Mentoring - Start Sponsoring

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 18:27:42 GMT

Towards achieving equal pay

It’s been a busy year for mentorists (and I don’t mean the mind tricks chaps on the telly!) – those who are deemed the good and great of mentoring in every business are unusually busy at the moment, as companies rush to put in their next big thing – mentoring programmes for women.

There are schemes and programmes that have been around for a long time (Women in Business, Women Ahead, 30% Club, etc.) and such schemes have undoubtedly done a significant amount to improve the lot of women in business. I have been lucky to have had some great informal and formal mentors over the years. But now that gender pay mitigation is high on everyone’s to do list, I was wondering what had happened to all those mentoring schemes that companies were so proud of. Why have those schemes not done more to help get the gender pay gap down?

Tonight on the train on the way home, listening to pundits waxing lyrical about Gareth Southgate’s achievements in management, it dawned on me that the problem is that mentoring is not enough. It is not sponsoring and it seems to me, it’s sponsoring that is needed.

Sponsoring requires you to actively promote your candidate to all and sundry as part of you looking after their interests. There may be those who would argue that mentors are also supposed to do that, but to be honest I do not see much evidence of it! If the last few years has only taught me one thing about mentoring, it is that getting managers to actively sponsor you, to put their money where their mouth is (so to speak), is a lot harder than just getting them to mentor you. Sponsors risk their reputation by pushing you to the forefront and having faith that you will rise to the occasion. It’s a much more proactive undertaking. They encourage you to take risks and stand alongside you when you do, helping others to see the great in you and supporting you to achieve your goals. They also encourage others to sponsor you.

I’ve got a great sponsor now; when we are working together he pushes me to the front, and has faith that I will be good for his reputation. Because of him, the latest stage of my professional career has developed and grown so much faster than I imagined. I can’t help feeling that we have both benefitted from this!

So my message is, in terms of promoting gender equality, don’t just be a mentor – be a sponsor. Don’t just find a mentor, find a sponsor.

Of course, please don’t rely on this approach alone to get your organisation’s GPG down. Dealing with the sort of cultural biases that have enabled the pay gap to remain despite 40+ years of legislation is going to take a much wider approach. But it’s definitely part of the answer and this is why a lot of larger UK businesses have embraced sponsorship in the last year – both formal schemes and informal.

Flying High

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 18:28:19 GMT

Equality

Travelling by plane is an exciting experience for me. I doubt I will ever lose the thrill of take-off and landing. Even though I am technically minded enough to understand how the plane stays in the air, I still feel a bit of childish wonder.

My latest journey was brightened by the realisation that we had an all-female flight crew – both pilot and co-pilot were female and, of course, all the cabin staff. I might not have noticed when I got on the plane if we were not sitting at the front, but I think the friends we were travelling with would have pointed it out soon enough, given how much I harp on about equality.

It might have been better if we hadn’t got into the debate about whether it was as bad to have an all-female crew as it is to have mostly male pilots and mostly female flight attendants. After 14 days together and much debate over long drawn out dinners, wine and Tsipouro, we finally agreed that an all-female crew was a great advance in the current environment. We are all looking forward to the day when we don’t notice either way because the chances are that there will be equal distribution of the sexes in these roles.

The airline I travelled with has made an open commitment to addressing gender imbalance in their roles. I strongly believe that many of those organisations that are committing to this as a means for addressing their Gender Pay Gap will at least achieve a step change in thinking over the next few years. Maybe not because they reach their targets, but because it’s out in the open – a visible commitment – and we are culturally ready for it.

Oh, and by the way, our landing was better with the all-female crew – who says women can’t park!

Salary Benchmarking Data

Tue, 08 May 2018 18:29:38 GMT

Two cautionary tales:

Last night I was catching up on some of my reading, held over while I had a few days off. I found this blog I did a while back, and thought I would post it again now as it is relevant to some work I have been doing with a prospective new client.

At the time of writing this, I noted two cautionary tales from fellow reward practitioners. One was a reminder that sometimes managers/staff and clients, only hear what they want to hear and therefore you should “cover your back” and always reiterate what was said in writing. Sad, but sometimes true.

The other, was a reminder that numbers and statistics are easily skewed – and it is important to understand what is going on behind the scenes. Lies, damned lies and statistics? I particularly liked the example that if a multi-millionaire enters a coffee shop, the average earnings of everyone in that shop probably increases sufficiently to make them all millionaires. One reason why medians are a better choice than averages.

I am great believer in providing a broad brush of evidence on pay related matters, but I have also always reminded my clients that pay data comes in a variety of forms and felt it was worth reiterating this now:

Pay benchmark surveys – unless it’s a fast-turnaround survey, this is historical data based on what organisations paid some months ago, or even longer. Depending on how frequently the data is published, and how much the market has progressed, it can be relevant to forecast this data forward using an appropriate multiplier (earnings growth maybe) – but not over long periods.

Recent adverts – this is what I call aspirational data. The rates that applicants want to earn when they are looking for a new post, and also, the rates that organisations are willing to offer the right applicant. This information can be volatile because it is not always what current incumbents are actually earning.

Which leads me to - Current incumbent data – this is information from individuals who are currently undertaking the same/similar roles. It may come from within your organisation, or from other data sources available to your data providers (current client databases etc), or from applicants doing similar jobs.

This got me wondering – perhaps unwisely - If you are confining your pay data collection to just one of these sources, then would it perhaps be best to choose it based on what you are paying your employees for? Should increases based on last year’s performance relate to last year’s data? Should Increases based on targets and expectations be based on recent adverts? And of course, current incumbent data is most likely to set you somewhere in between. I should add, that I am not advocating this as a reward process as it is not as cut and dried as this. I just pondered the concept.

I would prefer to help my clients come to their pay related decisions by providing data from a variety of sources. However, the client does have the choice in the end.

Note to self: Remind the client they have choices, then put it in writing!

Gender Pay Gap Reporting

janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk (Jane Baalam) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 19:28:59 GMT

Only 10,000 employers to go

This morning I was rushing around pulling together a list of ingredients for dinner tonight – we have friends coming over and I’m cooking Greek (modern, not medieval, for a change). Admittedly yesterday I was busy doing other things, but I could have taken fifteen minutes out last night to check what I need and start my morning off without the rush.

Anyway, this got me to thinking about why I (and we, in general) leave things to the last minute and cause ourselves some major hassle. It’s not that we always do it on purpose, but I have noticed from discussions with clients that the GPG reporting seems to be the one time when many are deliberately waiting until the last possible moment to publish.

This may be because their numbers are not as great as they would like, or because they are waiting for sign off, or simply because they don’t want to be highly visible. Or maybe it’s because they do not want to have their numbers questioned by the press.

My concern is that everyone seems to have forgotten that we are all doing this for the first time. The calculations are not as straightforward as they could be, the regulations are not absolutely 100% clear about who and what to include/exclude, and the fear of being called out, or even ridiculed, for getting it wrong is strong. No organisation wants to have their name dragged through the mud because the press do not believe their numbers. We all understand that, and hands up anyone who did not feel at least a twinge of sympathy for the companies who published low or zero pay gaps recently, only to revisit them because the Financial Times pounced on them.

As I write, only 1,500 employers have reported their GPG figures and, with only 4 weeks left until the deadline, it is estimated that there another 10,000 employers left. Are you one of the 10,000?

If you have done your calculations, and you are confident in your numbers, then I say crack on and publish them now and get it over with. The worst thing that can happen is that someone will notice them – but then President Trump will post another tweet or there will be more dire Brexit warnings and everyone will forget what the fuss was all about.

And if you’d like us to double-check your figures, just get in touch. But quickly!

Jane Baalam
Pay & Reward Specialist