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The Challenge

Creating a personalised online total rewards site is a complex undertaking – for many reasons. It requires you to collate precise information on all existing employee reward programmes (including compensation, benefits and careers); then collate the actual entitlements of the various groups of employees; and create data extracts from a series of services providers (pension, payroll, HR, share schemes, etc).

Those are primarily technology and data issues. But as well as such execution-related challenges, there are objective-related issues: why is the site being created? What business benefits are expected? What employee behaviours are desired?

A site containing accurate and useful information, constantly refreshed and with nice colours, is great. But a really effective site is one that influences employee attitudes, increases retention, strengthens the brand of an emerging culture and makes employees more engaged in the organisation.

So in addition to the data and technology challenge, you also have a change communication challenge – and that’s a very different beast. Both are vital; one is about delivering the message, the other is about the effectiveness of the message.

Objectives

So what is the purpose of that critical message? Total rewards is an approach that demonstrates to the employer the value of each employee – thereby engaging, motivating and retaining that employee. It is an important element of a broader human capital management agenda.

Clearly, then, total rewards is not simply about fulfilling a compliance requirement to provide information. It is also about ongoing dialogue with employees and their relationship with the employer. It’s about getting a message out, getting it understood, and causing positive behaviour reactions. Intelligent information which reveals the personal preferences and aspirations of the audience is crucial if it is to support messages that generate individual motivation and loyalty.

It’s vital to have a very clear idea of what the business is trying to achieve and the part the workforce can play in supporting its objectives. Not only do you need a business strategy that employees understand and support, you need a clear and articulated human capital strategy. Most importantly, you need to know how each employee can contribute to the execution of that strategy. Without your workforce’s involvement, the business strategy will not succeed.

So the technology is not an end in itself; it is a sophisticated means of delivering individually tailored messages to individual employees.

Effective research and targeting

There are many ways organisations can understand who their employees are – and what drives their engagement. Effective employee research is a key component of any total reward approach and can help organisations identify the links between how an employee feels about the company and their behaviour. Employee research will reveal the perceptions and preferences of different employee groups.

The portal can also be used to target those groups that the employer feels a ‘duty of care’ towards. So why not link messages about the importance of saving for retirement with an online display of pension benefits for younger employees?

And the really smart employers will use online message boards to continually collect data from employees as they access and navigate the site. For example, what information do they find useful, what else would they like to see included and do they understand their reward package?

One of the main objectives of any total reward approach – whether online or paper-based – is the desire to show employees the true and full value of their employment. Employees who understand this complete picture (and are able to track their wealth creation over time) are less likely to be lured away by seemingly attractive salary offers from competing employers.

Delivering individually tailored messages

Your total reward solution should be much more than a data display. Through an eligibility rules engine and up-to-date quality information about each employee, you will be able to use a suite of communication tools (bulletins, messaging, surveys and emails) to maintain a dialogue with individuals or groups of employees. You can even maintain separate tailored dialogues with executive leadership, with line management and with HR, by using a role-based solution.

In summary, while you must get the data and the technology right, communication is the element that will make the difference between a site that delivers information and one that influences behaviour.

Source: Creating an online Total Rewards site -  www.evaluation.com, January 2006.

For further information regarding the issues discussed in this article contact the author at Mercer Human Resource Consulting Limited.

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