LATEST NEWS : OUR JULY 2011 NPO SALARY SURVEY IS NOW AVAILABLE, please contact us on 011 453 0080 or email admin@rewardspecialist.co.za, to place your order

With over 10 years of experience in the Global Reward Arena, our core business is to partner with client organisations and provide guidance and solutions to the implementation and maintenance of  their reward strategies, procedures and  processes to enable them to attract, manage, motivate, and retain their  most valued resource; their human capital. Whilst not all labour turnover negatively affects organisations, our research has shown that it costs organisations on average 150 times what the previous incumbent was earning, even where a new a recruit is brought in at the same annual package as the employee who has left or who is leaving. Our research often highlights where non performing employees are hugely overpaid when compared to the relevant market

It is therefore essential that your most valued resource; your human capital be superbly managed to enable your organisation “to get the best bang for your buck”!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

An organisation “total rewards” strategy consists of the following concepts:

• Internal Equity – same pay for same work within the organisation, i.e. job descriptions / families and the Paterson System of Job Evaluation
• External Equity – same pay for same work when compared to other participant organisations. The market for any job category “is where you lose your labour to and attract your labour from”.
• Employee Equity – Individual employee retention, recognition and the performance management and
  STI programs which includes the development and cascading of organisation, divisional / departmental targets to individual employees
• Organisation Financial Resources and Philosophy, i.e. to be a lag, lead / lag or lead payer in the relevant market

THE SERVICES WE OFFER ARE:

• Salary and Benefit Surveys within South Africa and Central,West and East Africa countries,
• Job Descriptions / Family level descriptors,
• The Paterson system of job evaluation,
• The development and Implementation of performance management and / or short term incentive bonus schemes,
• Total-cost-to-company” concept of remunerating employees,
• Reward corporate governance and the implementation of the King III recommendations,
• Remuneration and other human resource policies and procedures,
• Joint partnership and in-house reward and management workshops

INTRODUCTION

Whilst South Africa is currently on a “high” because of our hugely successful hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The paradox is that we have an unemployment rate of between 30% and 40% and that there is still a severe shortage of skilled, qualified, management and executive talent in the country. This has resulted in numerous organisations making use of international recruits, in particular from other Central, East and West Africa countries. As for other countries, in South Africa a lot of attention and focus is currently on executive pay and governance.

Also whilst there has been a substantial decrease in the CPI, in South Africa, in particular during 2009 and 2010, mainly due to the global economic crisis. The large fluctuations in the CPI during the last two years has been a difficult one for organisations, in particular those organisations who base their annual salary increases on inflation and the CPI. What are employers supposed to do? The answers are surprisingly simple and remain unchanged. The objective of a total rewards program or strategy is to do what is necessary to attract, motivate and retain the talent needed to achieve the desired organization or business results.

ADVICE TO ORGANISATIONS

Organisations’ should award salary increases because they must offer competitive salaries in order to be an attractive employer and drive employee performance through intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. The same is true of other rewards such as benefits, work-life balance, flexible work practices and training and development programs. It is about attracting, motivating and retaining productive human capital.

The key is finding the right mix of total rewards programs to accomplish this is an ever changing marketplace where employee needs are diverse and often driven by external pressures. Implementing programs in response to short-term problems like electricity and fuel prices today may provide temporary relief, to support in some instances life style choices, but doesn’t necessarily help the employer sustain its human capital and can even create long-term challenges such as entitlement mentalities in employees. Finding a good balance between total rewards programs, salaries and benefits will be more practical and ultimately does more to position the organization as an “employer-of-choice”.