Career development opportunity is the top concern in reward fairness, according to new research by World at Work, Hay Group and Professor Dow Scott from Loyola University Chicago.
The Reward fairness: slippery slope or manageable terrain? report identified the criteria that have the biggest impact on employee perceptions of reward fairness.
After career development opportunities, respondents cited merit increases, base-pay amounts, non-financial recognition and employee development/training as top concerns.
The research also found that the top three criteria that impact reward fairness are individual performance, work responsibilities and overall organisation performance.
Issues that did not rank highly included team/department performance, seniority/tenure with the organisation, time in job and the potential of the individual employee.
Respondents identified effective reward communications, external benchmarking, reward strategy and design, and non-financial recognition programmes, as factors that can help improve the perceptions of reward fairness in organisations.
The survey was conducted among reward professionals from the UK, United States, Canada, China, Germany, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Switzerland, and Russia.
Kerry Chou, compensation practice leader at World at Work, said: “Communication is king in improving perceptions of reward fairness.
“The best organisations focus not only on the core messages to be communicated, but also the most effective messengers and channels.
“In addition, these organisations devote significant energy to determining how to sustain core messages and equip managers to effectively communicate them.”
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