Attracting top talent has never been easy, but in today’s hiring landscape, HR professionals also have to work around the Great Resignation, labour shortages, and inflation. Yet, this challenging time offers an important opportunity to review the company’s Total Rewards package — and we’re not just talking about base salary. Are you rewarding your top talent competitively? Do your employees have everything they need to thrive? Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many team members are re-evaluating their values when it comes to work.
Compensation is not just the salary
In Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2022 Study, North American employees selected ten factors they need in order to thrive at work. The salary was not one of them. Considerations such as fulfilling work, feeling valued for their contributions, a sense of belonging, empowerment and fun came first. More and more, employees are looking not only for an organization that recognizes their efforts at work, but also companies that align with their own values. Plus, the work-life balance cannot be forgotten, as many choose to work remotely or on a flexible hybrid schedule.
When designing your compensation package, ensure that these qualitative factors are accounted for — this may require a deeper look at your organization and culture. And for the quantitative aspect of compensation, it does not only have to be the pay either — perhaps you can allocate an individual budget for continuous learning or offer stock options to your team?
How to address compensation in 2022
However, financial compensation is still very important to discuss and consider in your overall package. Yes, employees absolutely need fulfilment and an enriching work environment, but with rising costs of living, retirement considerations, and building wealth for the future, a competitive approach to pay is still key. Especially if you want to attract top talent that may be reviewing a few offers. Hires may take a pay cut to receive desired benefits of flexibility or fulfilling work, but they should still be receiving market-rate compensation or above.
Our biggest recommendation is for a company to focus on creating a good environment and culture for employees that will provide room to grow. A well-rounded compensation structure will address employees’ factors for thriving without overextending the firm’s resources. Start-ups and small companies may not be able to compete with industry giants in financial compensation, but can absolutely compete in opportunity, with a solid organizational structure and career trajectory mapping offering room to grow and future opportunities.
At Humani HR, we develop compensation benchmarking for your organization, based on current industry and marketplace insights. Reviewing a company’s current compensation philosophy, we can determine what adjustments may need to be made to either retain or attract key hires.
