This month, the 11th annual Employee Benefits Live exhibition and conference takes place in London. This huge gathering of reward professionals promises to be the biggest in the event’s history, demonstrating how crucial reward and benefits practices are today.
Over the years, I have been regularly asked about trends in the industry, but in 2009 this has become an almost weekly enquiry as both employers and advisers try to gauge whether what they are doing is similar to others, more innovative or a bit extreme (for better or for worse).
On 8 September, we invited 26 key benefits managers from a range of industries based in different parts of the UK into the Employee Benefits offices. Between their photographic sessions and interviews, I managed to grab a few words with most of them.
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New strategies
Overall, they had all been extremely busy setting up new strategies, reviewing benefits and coming up with innovative ideas to help drive their businesses’ agendas. Not one seemed to have hunkered down and waited for the storm clouds to pass. In fact, there seemed to be a stronger drive than ever to hold on to key benefits while reviewing costs and keeping an eye on the long-term business impact of any changes on staff motivation and productivity.
All reward strategies being put in place are preparing these leading employers for the upturn. Of course, there is no single ‘correct’ answer in benefits, and I am sure that during the two days of Employee Benefits Live, we will hear of myriad solutions to a variety of problems – from cost cutting and staff motivation to setting senior-level bonuses and managing pay freezes.
Recruitment
On the recruitment side, there is also a vibrant market. Many readers have moved jobs in recent months, and others are about to. Our sister publication, Recruiter, reports that of all HR jobs, it is experienced compensation and benefits managers that are hardest to find.
This bodes well for those working in this niche, but vital area. Your skills are in demand, your job is becoming increasingly business-focused and challenging. So I expect to see lots of networking and headhunting going on in the exhibition hall on 29 and 30 September.
Attending Day One of Employee Benefits Live, it struck me how little discussion there was from speakers and participants on prioritising investments in rewards and business outcomes (beyond cost-cutting).
Every buyer (the individual controlling a budget or able to approve an investment without anyone else’s approval) in every business has both time and money. Acquiring them for yourself is not a resource competition, in the traditional sense. It’s a priority competition. Money and time are going somewhere, just not to you at the moment. You have to manifest more value to win that competition.
As a Rewards Professional, Adviser or Provider take this simple test what % of your time and relationship-building is directed to increasing your value within your organisation or clients vs. defending the status quo? If the answer is anything less than 80/20 you have immediate work to do.
Right now, there is abundant supply of people who can “deliver” compensation and benefits solutions. What is a real shortage and to which buyers will write a cheque now is the skills, expertise and practical techniques to identify serious and relevant issues, collate the relevant data, and apply the knowledge to the best course of action. What are you doing to re-cast or re-position your value to your clients?
Absolutely don’t follow the example of one speaker yesterday, a Global VP Reward, who stated success lay in “defending her budget at all costs from the prying eyes of the Finance Department”. That is the fastest way to be side-lined in your organisation and ultimately, laid off.