Societe Generale has rolled out total reward statements to employees in 35 countries in a bid to demonstrate the value of the investment bank’s reward package and to make it stand out as an employer of choice.
The roll out, which began in the Asia Pacific region on 11 May and culminated with eligible countries in mainland Europe towards the middle of last month, involved sending statements to approximately 5,000 employees.
The statements were issued in a paper format and online depending on the preferences of each country. All were issued in the local currency, even if staff in some locations received bonuses paid, for example, in euros or US dollars as standard.
Lindsay Hawkins, pensions and benefits manager in the UK, said that the project co-ordinators based in France drew on the experiences of the UK, which launched total reward statements last year, and the US, which has compensation statements. They worked with communications consultancy Talking People to build the global system for total reward statements and to collate the necessary information contained within them.
“The UK and US have a very bespoke paper-based statement as well as an online statement and both geographical locations tailored the statement very much to their own objectives, whereas most of the other countries in Europe and Asia had much more basic information,” she explained.
The launch of total reward statements globally posed several challenges for the organisation including overcoming issues of cultural fit. However, in the Asia-Pacific region the online statements received a 45% hit rate on the day they were launched.
Hawkins added that, so far, the statements have been a success in the UK, where they were issued to just under 1,500 staff, although she admitted that it has been difficult to demonstrate a link between the statements and factors such as staff retention.
But she said they helped with “increasing employee engagement and increasing employee understanding of what the employer is spending” on staff.