Five Ways a Total Strategy

Five ways a total rewards strategy can go astray are:

1. Trying to re-engineer programs in pieces. When re-engineering you have to re-engineer the entire program. An organization needs to review all programs and make changes to the entire program not just pieces of it over time. The total rewards strategy focuses on re-engineering the program in its entirety in a specified time frame. The purpose of the total rewards approach is to ensure that all the programs are working together for the overall success of the business.

2. Trying to implement changes all at once. Organizations must not try to change the entire program at one time. While it is necessary to change the entire program, it is important to set a timeline to implement the changes and communicate the changes across the organization accordingly. Change is inevitably one of the hardest concepts an organization can implement so when people are faced with too much change at once they may resist the need to absorb it and adapt to it. It is more effective to enact new programs and changes over time than all at once. This gives employees time to understand the new program and managers can gauge if the process is working.

3. Limiting the number of people involved. Establishing a limited amount of involvement can be disastrous. It is imperative that organization have a vast number of key stakeholders that represent all aspects of the organization involved in the total rewards approach. Each stakeholder can provide input that is necessary to gain understanding of the needs within the organization and how the new programs will impact the organization and its goals/objectives.

4. Not doing an impact analysis. Organizations fail to set up an analysis that measure the impact that the total rewards approach will have currently and in the future. The analysis should look at the impact on the organizations financial state, internal and external customers and organizational mission and goals. If one part of the total rewards strategy fails, then there has to be an account of how it affected other areas of the organization now and what will need to be done to minimize the impact later in the future. It is like the old saying, you don't know where you are going unless you know where are came from. That is true when measuring impact analysis, organizations need an account of how these changes has affected them since implementation and do a forecast for the future.

5. Not communicating effectively. Communication is a key component inside any company. A total rewards strategy will not be effective if the communication is not effective. Organizations have to ensure that changes are communicated out in a timely and efficient manner. There will be little to no success with the strategy is there is too little or too much communication. It is important to define what messages need to be communicated to the organization, the delivery timeline and the most effective method to communicate.

The WorldatWork Handbook of Compensation, Benefits & Rewards. (2007). The WorldatWork

Handbook of Compensation, Benefits & Rewards. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley