Trend 3: Recalibrate the value exchange

As organizations pursue greater performance with constrained budgets many employee experience, rewards and performance practices still reflect outdated assumptions about jobs, skills and what employees value.

Greater returns depend on targeting investment more precisely, connecting pay, skills, careers and employee experience to workforce needs and business priorities.

Built on insights from nearly 12,000 executives, HR leaders, employees and investors globally, this report provides a deeper analysis of how organizations can modernize rewards, optimize the employee experience and rebuild trust in the employer-employee value exchange.

Organizations generating greater returns from their EVP make deliberate decisions about where investment will have the greatest impact.

This means shifting:

• From adding to the employee experience to targeting investment where it delivers value
• From broadly distributed pay increases to rewards informed by skills, performance and business need
• From static jobs and career structures to flexible job architecture
• From annual employee surveys to continuous listening and workforce insight
• From opaque pay decisions to clear communication that strengthens trust
• From performance management as an HR process to performance enablement supporting growth and career progression.

This report provides practical guidance to help leaders:

• Modernize job architecture so roles, levels, skills and pay reflect changing work
• Establish a roadmap for skills-based pay, starting with capabilities critical to future performance
• Redirect existing rewards and benefits investment before adding to the EVP
• Use continuous listening and analytics to understand workforce priorities
• Address pay cynicism through transparency about reward and progression
• Equip managers for data-informed conversations about performance, skills, careers and pay