The COVID-19 pandemic has seen organisations scrambling to adapt to new ways of working as country after country plunged into lockdown. As organisations grapple with the uncertainty of the economy and businesses, HR leaders are also plunged into the spotlight.
In the post pandemic era, HR is responsible for being the “facilitators” in ensuring a safe and smooth transition for employees to the workplace. In the past, some of the strategic focus areas for HR revolved around digital transformation and employee experience. According to The Future Workplace 2021 HR Sentiment Survey, which surveyed around 200 C-level HR leaders in the United States, these priorities have since shifted to focus on employee well-being, diversity, equality, and inclusion, and managing remote workers.
Here are the top five priorities and their impact on people practices:
ADDRESSING DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INCLUSION (DEI)
Diversity, equality, and inclusion has always been a key topic for HR leaders. In this post-pandemic, it has become even more of an imperative. Based on The Future Workplace 2021 HR sentiment Survey, new measures are being taken such as defining metrics for DEI, specifying inclusive behaviours for DEI and forming new partnerships to broaden the talent pool.
Research has shown that organisations with a strong DEI strategy tend to hire individuals with a diverse mix of qualities, resulting in a richer set of ideas, perspectives and approaches to business problems.
CHALLENGE EXISTING TALENT MANAGEMENT MODELS
Talent management models vary from organisation to organisation. However, with an increasingly demanding and remote workforce, organisations need to direct even more focus on existing talent management models. The first step is to establish an organisational culture that values employee experience. Employee experience is crucial as it has a direct impact on customer experience and service. When employees feel happy, they are naturally more inclined to serve their end users better. Likewise, organisations need to focus on upskilling their existing workforce in order to equip them with the right technical knowledge and skill sets to thrive in the dynamic business environment.
Another key aspect that HR leaders need to relook at is performance management. Traditional performance review models of a linear and top-down review approach no longer works today. HR and business leaders realise that this approach does not stimulate creativity, sets unclear expectations and goals, and does not provide an avenue for employees to communicate their career and professional development goals. Progressive approaches that organisations can undertake include continual feedback throughout the year, peer review, and introducing flexible and adaptable goals that are reviewed quarterly throughout the year.
TRANSFORM WORKING PATTERNS
As the pandemic forced employees to change their work locations and revisit their work patterns, HR leaders need to find and experiment with new ways to drive employee engagement and boost productivity levels. Traditional work models such as a 5 day 9am to 5pm work week no longer works for employees. With a large proportion of the workforce working remotely, HR and business leaders need to relook at ways to ensure a clear distinction between employees’ work and personal lives to prevent burnout and fatigue.
There is no one solution that fits all. Hence, HR leaders need to adopt a listening strategy. Provide avenues for employees to provide anonymous feedback, create an FAQ portal to address commonly-raised concerns, and be transparent with employees when communicating new work models. Adopt a flexible approach for employees who may have difficulties adapting to the new work model and work closely with employees to discover and implement new solutions to help them cope.
CREATE AN ADAPTABLE WORKFORCE
An adaptable and resilient workforce is an imperative for HR leaders during the pandemic and even more so in the post pandemic era. Businesses are not the only ones trying to adapt to the multiple uncertainties and setbacks. Employees themselves are trying to adjust to work remotely, while ensuring that they remain productive and engaged. This is even more so for new hires. Who may not necessarily have the traditional onboarding activities or even step foot in the office once.
HR leaders and managers need to ensure that the workforce remains engaged. While providing avenues for new hires to connect and build relationships with existing colleagues. Concurrently, existing employees need to be versatile and able to adapt to this new way of working in order to innovate and collaborate with employees to achieve the same organisational goal.
MAKE MENTAL WELL-BEING A BUSINESS MANDATE
The novelty of working remotely has worned off. Back to back Zoom meetings, juggling family demands, lack of a proper workstation – all these have taken a toll on employees. As this pandemic continues, this fatigue and claustrophobia deepens and starts to affect positive feelings about everything – personal affirmation, work performance, and even employees’ feelings towards their work and the organisation that they are employed with.
HR leaders and managers need to be prepared to have this fatigue impacting all employees, even themselves. Instead of succumbing to the mental exhaustion, there is a great need for business leaders and managers to be more attuned and empathetic towards employees. Offer well-being benefits such as revamping flexible working arrangements or access to well-being apps or courses. Schedule no-meeting Fridays or introduce a year-end office closure for all employees to unwind and discharge. Tailor well-being solutions based on the industry, the organisation size, and most importantly, to each individual employee.
As organisations move into the new year, this is the golden moment for HR leaders to shine. The way employees work, where they work and the technologies used are here to stay. As HR leaders crave out their key human capital priorities for the road ahead, it is crucial to also ensure alignment with overarching business objectives. There are no doubt plenty of key priorities that HR and business leaders need to be concerned about but recognising which are the most crucial and impactful on the workforce will provide HR and business leaders with a clearer direction.
Motivate Your Employee With Bonuses
Employees are a critical asset to any organisation. Engaged employees translate to a motivated and productive workforce. Which in turn leads to positive outputs for the organisation and its customers.
There are plenty of ways to engage employees, with the primary source typically being compensation. Other methods include building a strong employee value proposition, inculcating an enriching corporate culture, providing plenty of career opportunities for employees, and on-the-job training. However, all these would be in vain without a strong total rewards philosophy. According to LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends report, the top three reasons why Millennials left their job were: better compensation and benefits, more advancement and more of a challenge.
The compensation mix of employees typically differ depending on the type of role and seniority. However, there are various compensation vehicles that organisations can leverage on to drive different behaviours amongst employees. For instance, base salary is typically pegged to the job position, regardless of the job holder’s qualifications or past experience. Fixed cash allowances would be dependent on the nature of the job. For example, sales employees typically receive transportation and mobile allowances due to the mobility nature of the role. Bonuses (or variable bonuses) are then used as a compensation tool to drive employee performance.
WHAT IS VARIABLE BONUS?
Based on the definition by Primeum, an incentive compensation blog, variable bonus is made up of multiple types of bonuses and varies according to the position held by the employee. The purpose of variable bonus is intended to compensate for employee’s performance and the bonus may be individual or shared.
SHORT-TERM INCENTIVE
Short-term incentive, also commonly referred to as performance pay. Whic is typically provided for job functions where it is easy to define clear and consistent targets. As it is straightforward to set a standard of work expectations linked to a clear level of performance. This variable bonus tool is the ideal solution.
Performance bonuses typically mean that employees are paid based on a specific target. In most situations, the employee’s performance bonus is pegged to their ability to meet and exceed targets and their performance is assessed in terms of actual achievements measured against predefined targets.
SALES INCENTIVE
Sales incentive is a type of bonus that is linked to results. These types of bonuses are typically provided to sales employees to reward them for selling a predetermined amount of goods and/or services. Sales incentives can come in the form of incentives or commissions.
Sales incentives is similar to performance pay. Where predetermined incentives are provided to sales employees when they have met or exceeded a fixed sales target. This helps to motivate sales employees to achieve that particular target in order to receive the monetary award. Commission is always in monetary form and is a percentage of the price of the product or service sold. The more the sales employee sells, the higher their commission.
DISCRETIONARY BONUS
Discretionary bonus is when the bonus is provided to the employee without any prior requirements of the bonus eligibility as well as how much or when the bonus will be disbursed. This type of bonus is typically not included in employees’ employment contract. There are various scenarios in which organisations may provide discretionary bonuses to employees. Such as during an exceptionally-well financial year or to retain existing employees due to high turnover rates
PROFIT-SHARING
Profit-sharing plan is a type of incentive plan. Which gives employees a share in their organisation’s profits based on its quarterly or annual earnings. This type of plan is typically suited for publicly-traded organisations, and provides employees with a sense of corporate ownership. In terms of the amount provided.
LONG-TERM INCENTIVE
As the name suggests, long-term incentive is a type of compensation tool with a longer time horizon as compared to short-term incentives. Most long-term incentive plans have a time period of 2 to 5 years. And are used to promote long-term retention and alignment with corporate goals. Where the job has a crucial impact on the overall organisational strategy.
LEVERAGE ON A PAYROLL SOFTWARE TO MANAGE YOUR INCENTIVE PLANS
Managing various types of incentive plans can be confusing and taxing for HR and payroll. If the department is leveraging manual excel calculations for computation. Chances are that the calculations are prone to inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Leveraging payroll software can help to address these inefficiencies, driving accuracy and minimising non-compliance with local statutory requirements.
While bonuses are often used to reward employees for the efforts and contributions to the organisation. It also offers plenty of payroll insights. Organisations can capitalise on payroll data within their payroll system. To gain deeper insights in the distribution of bonuses and merit increments.
Bonuses are no doubt a great compensation vehicle to drive the right employee behaviours within the organisation. Coupled with robust non-monetary benefits, the right mix of monetary and non-monetary rewards can help to encourage and create a highly-motivated and productive workforce within the organisation.
