Why employee reward communications are a powerful force for your business
Imagine spending millions of pounds developing a new product or service for your customers then failing to market it. Your business just wouldn’t do it. But this is exactly what happens when organisations provide the internal equivalent of products and services - a.k.a. their total reward package - to their employees.
Setting up compensation, benefits and professional development schemes suck up serious amounts of time and cash. Only doing the bare minimum when it comes to communication means you’re not getting the best return on your investment. And that’s not good for your employees or your business.
So, what’s the payoff of communicating more about your reward package? Short answer - plenty. For the long answer, read on.
Poor reward communications are a high-risk strategy
Depending on the size of your organisation, you’ll spend tens of thousands to millions of pounds on building a competitive reward package. From pensions, insurance and health and wellbeing products to learning and development, company cars and bonus schemes, you’ll likely provide a long list of rewards for your people.
The reason businesses do this is to answer the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question that existing and prospective employees have. They’ll ask this question in different ways at different times:
At the start of the employment relationship - what’s the package and how does it compare in the market?
When deciding how much effort to put into their job - is there any kind of incentive to go above and beyond or to work in a specific way?
When deciding whether they want to stay with your organisation - what’s on offer if I climb the career ladder? Can I get a better deal elsewhere?
Throughout an employee’s journey with your organisation, if they don’t understand what’s in it for them, you’re spending money with no real impact.
Imagine if only 10 percent of your employees understood the value of their healthcare benefits. With today’s focus on wellbeing, that’s a risk your business can’t afford to take.
That’s exactly what this research from Willis Towers Watson shows.
Source: Willis Towers Watson
As you’d expect, companies that fail to communicate their total reward package find their employees don’t understand their reward offering and its true value. Whereas organisations with great communication strategies have teams that understand the benefits and value much better.
Your reward package is designed to attract, retain and engage the best people, and you’re spending good money to deliver on all three goals. As are your competitors.
But if your people don’t understand the value of what you provide, they're more likely to be enticed away by other companies who communicate better, even if the package is no different. Leaving your business with disengaged employees who are keeping one eye on the job market.
Effective employee communications deliver major business benefits
There are also other reasons to invest in communicating your employee reward programmes. If you’ve taken a strategic approach in designing your total reward package, it’s even more important that it sends a clear message to employees because it’s designed to support your organisation’s long-term goals. But, employees will only understand the messages you want to send if you broadcast them effectively.
Employee health and wellbeing communications
Think about employee wellbeing. This could be an area you’ve invested heavily in with paid medical cover, cashplans, employee assistance programmes, dental, optical, financial education and many other benefits. Your aims are to:
Reduce time off work and sick pay costs as people return to work quicker
Cut the time spent on sickness management by line managers and HR
Increase output with a happier, healthier team that feels cared for
Boost employee engagement
Remain competitive in an employment marketplace that values wellbeing
However, if you haven’t invested time and effort into establishing employee personas, building campaigns and investing in internal marketing around your wellbeing package, your employees simply won’t know that you care. Let alone how to access the benefits and experience the true value of good health - for themselves, their families and your business.
Communicating employee bonus schemes
And what about your incentive plans? These schemes often pay out huge sums of money, but if your people don’t know how to influence their payout your bonus schemes aren’t working as hard as they could. And this can impact business performance and result in disgruntled staff.
Conversely, by improving understanding of your bonus schemes - and drawing a clear line of sight between objectives, outcomes and payouts - you’ll boost employee understanding. Ensuring the budget you set aside for payments is fully aligned to encouraging employees to focus their efforts in the right direction.
And those aren’t the only advantages for your business...
Boost your bottom line through communication
Research from Willis Towers Watson shows that organisations who communicate effectively across the board have a 47% higher return on investment to shareholders over five years compared to the worst communicators.
That’s an enormous payback. But only if you communicate effectively about every aspect involved in your employees’ experience. And that includes reward.
This sends a very clear message: communicating with your employees not only generates the best return on your total reward investment but it has the power to send your organisational performance sky high.
Get your comms right and your employees won’t need to ask: “What’s in it for me?” They’ll already know leaving them free and inspired to focus on delivering for your business.
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Find out how I can help you deliver powerful communications to your customers and staff. Get in touch on 07703 155 404 or at becky@clarioncallcomms.co.uk.