Lovewell’s Logic: Five generations driving reward agenda

A hot topic at last month’s Employee Benefits Summit was how to engage and reward employees from the five different generations that, for the first time, can be found in today’s workforce.

Debbie Lovewell, deputy editor, Employee Benefits

Differing life experiences, advances in technology, shifting consumer trends and a changing economic environment mean each of these generations will have very different expectations of their employer.

Listening to employers’ experiences while at the Summit, it became clear that this is having a fundamental impact on reward. 

Expectations in benefits are increasingly being driven by factors such as employees’ desire to get the best deal and their expectation to have choice.

As the economy continues to improve and the workforce becomes more transient, these attitudes will influence how employees select an employer.

And with websites such as employer comparison site Glassdoor.com gaining prominence, no organisation wants to be publicly identified as lagging behind its competitors in terms of its pay and benefits packages, corporate culture, job satisfaction, and so on.

Tools such as total reward strategies and flexible benefits schemes have often been used to cater for increasingly diverse workforces, will these be sufficient going forward?

As evolution in this space continues, it begs the question: what will reward packages of the future look like? Predictions on a postcard/email/WhatsApp message, please.

Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Deputy Editor
Employee Benefits

Twitter: @DebbieLovewell