Planning And Implementing a Total Rewards System

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, before implementing a total rewards system into an organization, it is recommended that a balanced project team is assembled to boost the chances of a successful total rewards plan. The SHRM states that the best team leaders are senior HR professionals, because of their experience with project management and total rewards; they can facilitate communication between project teams and top management to lend credibility to the project (Heneman, 2007).

An outside consultant is also recommended for the project team to bring technical expertise to the project from working with similar organizations. The team benefits not only from the added skills and experience from the outside consultant but also the objective view that is gained. The project team should also show employee representation, involving a union official on the project will make it more likely to receive support for the proposed total rewards plan.

According to the SHRM, other team members that should be incorporated in building the project team include people with expertise in:

• Finance
• Employment Law
• HR information
• Payroll systems (Heneman, 2007)

After building a well balanced project team, the organization can now start with the implementation process.

Phase one: Assessment

During the first step , the

project team assesses the current rewards program and finds ways

to improve it. In order to be effective, the

project team has to accomplish several tasks. These

include:

1. Conducting focus groups

2. Carrying out industry benchmark surveys

3. Examining current reward strategies and employee attitudes toward them

4. Reviewing rewards related literature

5. Creating a report documenting the team’s findings and recommendations

(Heneman, 2007)

Phase two: Design

During the design phase, the team identifies

which employee and organizational attributes to reward

and what rewards to offer.

Its best if the team considers all of the reward strategies, including

compensation, benefits, personal and

professional development, and work

environment. (Heneman, 2007)

Phase three: Execution

After the team has completely revised or designed its new

total rewards system, the next step is the execution phase, where the

company actually puts its new rewards system into play.

During this third phase, the team must consider several issues,

including:

• Eligibility
• Top Management Support
• Measurement
• Project Management (Technology? Involve Union? How long? How you will fund?)

(Heneman, 2007)

Phase four: Evaluation

During this last phase, the project team compares

the actual results of the executed

total rewards strategies with the

desired projected results. This phase shows the top management that the

company’s investment in its total

rewards system has paid off. Although this phase is meant to be constructive,

conducting an evaluation can be negative if you fear that

the selected reward strategies are

not delivering as anticipated

(Corby, White, & Stanworth, 2005).

If the project team thoroughly records the results and conducts adequate research on the the finished total rewards program, this last phase can be really helpful to a company.

References

Corby, S., White, G., & Stanworth, C. (2005). No news is good news? Evaluating new pay systems. Human Resource Management Journal

Heneman, R. (2007, July 01). Implementing total rewards strategies. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/Documents/07RewardsStratReport.pdf