EXCLUSIVE: NHS Employers will discuss how to implement a total reward strategy locally from within a wider, national context at Employee Benefits Live 2016.
Andrea Hester, director of people and assistant director of pensions and reward at NHS Employers, will speak alongside Simon Arden-Davis, head of NHS pensions and employment services policy at the Department of Health, as part of the communication conference stream on day one (Tuesday 11 October 2016) of the London-based industry event.
The session, entitled ‘How to communicate and implement a total reward strategy’, will provide a case study on the National Health Service’s (NHS) total reward strategy, outlining the business case for the strategy, and its implementation across the organisation. It will also examine the challenges involved, the next steps, and what success might look like.
It will detail how local NHS trusts can devise and implement an effective reward strategy that suits their respective workforces while also staying within the guidelines and boundaries of national NHS policies, which cover pay and terms and conditions of service, for example.
Hester said: “We talk about the NHS as independent employers but we operate within national collective bargaining machinery as well, so in the context of national pay, how do you then develop a local reward strategy that actually supports what you need to do on a day-to-day basis at a grass roots level?
“You’ve got multiple NHS organisations who obviously want to develop their own workforce strategies and ensure that they can meet their own requirements in terms of labour supply and demand, so how do you shape that within a context that is driven by national pay and how do you develop a competitive edge, in terms of your ability to attract and recruit and retain people?”
Hester added: “One of the key benefits of developing a strategic approach to reward is around engaging [the] workforce; engaging [the] workforce in debate about what’s important for them at particular points in their career and their life cycle is what helps to generate commitment and engagement to [an] organisation, and that is a real, strong benefit of this work.”
Employee Benefits Live 2016 will take place on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 October at Olympia National, London. Register to attend here.