Shaping a total rewards strategy for the future 

Cognizant is, first and foremost, a people company. We provide our clients with cutting-edge technologies, so it only makes sense that we offer our associates the same innovative digital experience.

Above all, we want to make things easy for our associates. As a global company with great offerings and robust programs, we want to make sure people know where to find information when they need it — they shouldn’t feel as though they have to navigate an obstacle course to find things.

That’s where MyRewards comes in. It’s a very clean, modern, mobile-responsive digital experience and also very rich: MyRewards provides everything our associates need to know and allows them to see the next best action and, most importantly, how to take it.

At Cognizant, we take a broad view of total rewards to ensure we are answering employees’ essential questions: What does this company offer me? What value do I get from being here? How can I enrich my career? This goes well beyond traditional compensation and benefits — including well-being, learning and development, recognition and much more — it’s a proof point of our employee value proposition. You want to ensure people understand the complete package.

For us, a key thing is making sure people feel they can have a long and rewarding career with us. Cognizant is a company of 350,000+ associates, and our people have exceptional skills. They need to know they have a career path and are recognized and rewarded for the unique contributions they bring to the table.  

Feeling like you’re a part of something special is also crucial. In a post-COVID era, companies must focus on creating that connection — and we’re certainly focused on it at Cognizant. Whether they’re working remotely, at the office or at a client site, we want our associates to experience a deep sense of belonging and purpose.

Put simply, we identified the countries that had the biggest need. These are our two largest geographies from an associate standpoint, and they lacked a comprehensive tool for total rewards information. People were having to navigate multiple sites and applications and were telling us it was a frustrating experience.

In terms of “why now?” — we’re a technology services company, and our people expect to have modern, smart, well-designed technology at work. There was a huge opportunity to improve how we presented the entire package, which was particularly important in the ultra-competitive talent market for technology professionals.  

At Cognizant, we have ambitions to accelerate our growth, simplify our operations and be an employer of choice. To do all of that, we need to make it easy for our people to get their jobs done and help them feel motivated with the work they do.   

Simplicity is a big theme for us: MyRewards takes what was previously scattered in different places and brings them together. If we do our jobs well, completing total rewards-related tasks is a non-event for people — they know the one place they need to go and don’t have to waste energy, and they can get back to the business of Cognizant.

When it comes to being an employer of choice, the tool now offers a front door to an associate that’s welcoming, easy to navigate and helpful. It helps them understand what’s in it for them. Before, it was more difficult for us to weave that story together for people.

It also helps ensure associates know where to go when they need information in the moments that matter — as opposed to having to dig up an email they received on a particular offering. It’s there all the time, 24/7. Having a mobile-responsive tool is also critical, especially since we have a growing younger population accustomed to a modern digital experience.

MyRewards offers that modern experience. It’s clean and easy to use; navigation is simple. We trusted Mercer to deliver an efficient implementation using a solid methodology that works, and they did. Their experience in categorizing and organizing content and user experience meant we didn’t have to start from square one. Mercer provided the flexibility we were looking for and support and guidance when needed

In this post-pandemic era, helping people achieve the necessary balance is crucial. At Cognizant, we believe a hybrid approach is the way of the future, and we seek to provide as much flexibility as possible while still meeting client and business needs.

We’re a hard-working culture — our people are a very dedicated, client-centric group. We want to ensure our associates avail themselves of our programs, which focus on their mental, physical and financial well-being. It requires acknowledging that people have different needs at different stages of their lives. Maybe you are fresh out of university, or you have kids at university, and you’re thinking about your finances a bit more. Or perhaps you’re raising a young family, or you’re a recent college grad taking the first steps in building your career. We want our programs to meet you where you are.

We also want our associates to know it’s okay to do things that boost their well-being, whether it’s taking time to do yoga, go for a run or have dinner with family. And we’re lucky to have executive sponsors who lead from the front by sharing what they do to improve their well-being.

We work hard to drive employee engagement, recognizing that every associate comes from a unique background, has different motivators, and varied life and work goals.

We’ve learned that it’s all in how we create an experience for our associates — we can have the best programs in the universe, but if our people don’t feel free to use them or can’t find them, we’ve missed the mark. So, our goal is to ensure people understand and can easily access the programs we have to support them before, during and after the moments that matter most to them. 

Technology is the foundation of our work with clients, and the rapid change in this space requires us to adapt and stay agile as an organization. AI tools have compelling benefits — they can help us streamline processes, achieve greater efficiency, provide real-time support for our associates and enhance their overall experience, and we have to be diligent about putting people at the center. We will retain the “human” in human resources while we automate.

I also spend a lot of time thinking about creating a personalized experience. Given the breadth and diversity of our workforce, and the hyper-personalized technology they use all the time outside the office, we have to constantly push ourselves to be more targeted. Total rewards is an especially prevalent space for personalization — again, we have an opportunity to meet people where they are with exactly what they need when they need it.