At a senior level the roles are pivotal as pay and benefits with link closely with an organisations ability to recruit and retain the best staff. Particularly in the current climate senior reward professionals are also expected to deliver value and cost efficiencies with regards to staff pay and benefits.
A huge proportion of a company’s expenditure is salaries and benefits. Reward professionals are always under pressure to deliver salary and benefits advice / packages that are as cheap as possible, but that remain appealing to employees and ensure that the organisation can attract appropriate talent to their roles.
Senior reward and benefit specialists have a responsibility to ensure that the pay and benefits offered correctly reflect the business brand and strategic positioning. They will also be required to ensure that benefits are monitored and administered according to the law, linking closely with company secretaries and lawyers and at all times keeping put to date with legislative changes.
At an operational level, reward specialist positions are highly analytical, working with large volumes of data, often through complex IT systems and detailed spreadsheets.
Operational reward specialists also need to be highly personable with strong relationship building skills. They may be involved with managing relationships with benefits providers, answering queries from staff, solving problems and discrepancies in pay and benefits received. Therefore they need to display both analytical skills with strong customer service and people skills - this is a hard mix to find!
They are required to research benefits and salary information from competitors so need to be resourceful and influential at all times. They require strong attention to detail and high levels of organisational skills. Companies and industries will often review salaries and benefits at a certain time of year meaning it is therefore essential that reward professionals are accustomed to working to deadlines and strict timetables. A typical day at an operational level could involve: