CASE STUDY $2$

What Are the Right Ingredients for a Recognition

and Rewards Program?

The answer to the question ought to be simple and straightforward. But it isn$$t$.$ Depending

on where they might be in their career or depending on their family status, people might

want very different things in any recognition and rewards program. So how do employers

make decisions?

One answer is to ask employees, although there might be concern that by asking,

employees will have raised expectations as to what should be included. However, by not

doing so$,$ a company may put together a total rewards approach that is not meaningful to

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$58$ REWARDING AND RECOGNIZING EMPLOYEES $277$

the employees and therefore may not achieve the total rewards strategy of the company. For

example, a group of chief financial officers recently were asked to rate the total $3$ components of a total rewards program. They listed a better benefit plan, more flexibility, and more

vacation days. When a group of employees were asked the same question, their responses

were more vacation days, more flexibility, and a better benefit plan. If the company could

only do the first choice, it is possible that it would have missed the mark by following the

views of the chief financial officer instead of the employees. It is also possible that the costs

might have been more.

If a company focuses on providing more work flexibility as part of the rewards and

recognition program, it needs to make it happen. Recent research found that although

flexible work arrangements were available in many organizations, only about one$-$third of

those organizations allowed more than $50\%$ of the employees to use flexible work arrangements. Companiesindicated that there was a limit on the amount of flexibility due to service

delivery and adequate coverage of work activities. The same study also found that not all

managers are comfortable with having employees on flexible arrangements, believing that

better levels of productivity would be achieved at work rather than employees working

from home.

Even though it is important to look at all ingredients in the total rewards package,

companies need to ensure that their pay levels are competitive with the market if they want

to attract and retain top talent. And depending on the geographic location of the company,

the competitive pressures may be more severe. Although the decline in oil prices has led to

a number of staff reductions in Alberta, it hasn$$t allowed Alberta companies to ease up on

watching the salaries of their employees.

Whether it is $1$ component or the entire total rewards program, organizations need

to periodically review and ensure that they are meeting the needs of the employees and

the organization.