What are the components of a great Total Rewards package?

According to a Mercer study, 89% of surveyed HR professionals prioritize improving their total rewards strategy.

This raises important questions: How can you attract top talent? How can companies stay competitive in a marketplace that’s constantly vying for the same skilled employees?

The answer lies in offering a competitive total rewards package. Today’s top talent expects a more holistic approach to the overall workplace experience. It’s not just about attracting skilled employees but also about fostering engagement and creating a workplace where they want to stay and thrive.

Role of Total Rewards Package to Attract Key Talent

The Role of the Total Rewards Package in contributing to this is equally important:

• Competitive Salaries and additional benefits: While base pay is very significant in a rewards program. There is also a need for competitive salaries, yet now employees are looking at compensation benefits that the organization provides with work-life flexibility to also get them a feeling of recognition and acceptance.

• Assurance of loyalty: The association of value to the employee from an organization can be made possible through such reward packages. This includes other compensation benefits, like offering stock options to employees is making it rather very significant. This will further ensure that the employees are loyal and engaged.

• Acknowledging employee needs: Moreover, a thoughtfully curated total rewards package acknowledges the diverse needs of employees. It ensures that employees understand the company is invested in their future, which in turn encourages them to pursue long-term goals within the organization. 

• Increased productivity: Whether through mentorship programs, wellness initiatives, the company meets employees' expectations, thereby elevating their overall productivity. This approach also increases employee retention, as employees are more likely to stay with organizations that strive to understand and support their needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and total rewards strategy

A great total rewards strategy when linked with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, will address how employers can truly personalize the total rewards package to a great one by meeting the needs of the employee in the various levels as given in Maslow’s hierarchy of need.

• Physiological: These include the very basic needs for survival like shelter, clothing, and food; they are the lowest level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This can be said to be met with wages and a base salary that is given to the employee by the organization.

• Safety: Safety Needs is the second from the bottom level in the hierarchy; these include job security and more the financial security that it provides. It can be through long-term plans like retirement plans, medical insurance, etc.

• Belonging: A great workplace includes employees that have great interaction and foster a spirit of working as a team. Such a safe workspace gives them a sense of belongingness. 

• Self-Esteem: A sense of appreciation that is given to the employees in any form, like words of appreciation or through bonuses, promotions, and awards, adds on to their esteem needs and ranks literally second in this hierarchy of needs.

• Self-Actualization: This sense of self-actualization can be done through various programs like wellness programs, mentorship, training, and other arrangements that help them grow and elevate themselves as employees. This is the highest level of need in Maslow’s hierarchy.

What Is an Employee Total Rewards Package?

An employee total rewards package offers total rewards, which are often done to cater to the needs of the employees of a company, so having it personalized is indeed a major goal. 

Understanding the different ways or different incentives that can be offered to an employee to keep these talented workers on board is a need.

An employee’s total rewards package is primarily going to be able to address a combination of things with the monetary reward, including recognition and appreciation programs, wellness support, bonuses, and additional benefits, non-financial rewards, providing professional development opportunities.

So, it is not limited to monetary compensation only enabling a more wholesome system of rewards.

What Is Included in an Employee Total Rewards Benefits Package?

Now, we have to look into the core components under the Employee Total Rewards Benefits package. These core components are what make the Total Rewards Benefits Package in its entirety. These components include -

• Compensation

The different types of compensation primarily include wages, salaries, bonuses based on performance, incentives. 

This includes all the financial rewards that an employee receives from the employer. It can come as payments that are made more than just the base salary like bonuses, overtime payment and commissions and more. 

Salary reviews: Also, employers making sure of salary reviews, performance of the employee ensures that they are regularly catching up to the competitive market and have appealing reward programs for prospective employees.

• Benefits

Benefits programs as the name suggests adds to additional benefits apart from the base pay that is already being given to the employees. These benefits can range from leaves or time offs like sick leaves, paid time off and furthermore vacation days.

Furthermore, employee benefits also include recognition programs, other wellness programs that ensure a more long-term benefit to the employee’s overall health and security, including retirement plans or disability insurance. 

This helps give the organization a particular competitive advantage as well, the benefits can also include Health insurance and retirement benefits and other such schemes for employees elevating the overall employee experience.

• Work-life Flexibility

A healthy work-life balance is clearly the goal for most employees. Achieving a sync between their personal and professional lives in the organizational culture leads to greater productivity, as everything is in harmony. 

This balance creates a sense of belonging and ease, especially for working parents or employees who take on caregiving roles in their personal lives. To foster this healthy balance, companies can offer remote work options, sabbaticals, and more. 

Flexible working hours and other such facilities can greatly contribute to creating this work life balance, keeping employees more content and aiding in employee retention.

• Performance and Recognition

Employers need to be able to find ways to express that they recognize the efforts of their employees. 

It is not just the need for employees to feel validated and seen, but it's also about an increased productivity rate.

Performance recognition keeps them more engaged and, moreover, motivated, and this motivation leads them to be more productive as well. 

This can include performance bonuses that are given, peer-to-peer recognition platforms, celebrating accomplishments, and tangible rewards.

This can be in the form of –

• Peer recognition platforms

   

• Celebrating accomplishments

   

• Expression of appreciation

   

• Employee of the month awards or other employee awards

   

• Performance based Incentives

Growth & Development

Growth is a significant part of every human being’s life. And anyone with an ambition will know with complete clarity that growth has to become a significant part of their lives. 

Offering opportunities for employee development is what contributes as a very important part of the employee’s life. The total rewards package in its entirety must consist of such career development opportunities as well. 

Employees want to be able to be in a workspace or get involved with a company culture that is not restricted to being just another mere job but supportive of what their potential can achieve in their future. A company that cares for their future as well.

This can be done through various means, like - 

• Mentorship programs and other employee assistance programs

   

• Training Facilities

   

• Skill Development Programs

   

• Tuition reimbursement

   

By making sure to provide such facilities, the company also ensures that the employee gets more opportunities for growth and knows that they care about the employee’s future and their growth and development individually in an organization which will eventually help with achieving the business goals of the organization.

Total Rewards Tool: How CompUp Can Help?

It is clear how complex managing a well-structured total rewards package can get, so to have a tool that simply assists, simplifies, and helps with that process is an absolute boon. 

• The total rewards statement by Compup has a holistic dashboard that breaks down information regarding compensation and benefits in the form of a cash breakdown

• CompUp’s total rewards statement also shows the overall growth of an employee’s income when in the organization, simply encouraging a more structured financial planning. 

• The interactive lobby also has yet another section compartmentalized to show the tracking of past compensation growth to be able to compare with their present and their overall growth in the company. 

• There is a section for all the benefits that are available to the employees to have complete clarity of what the company offers in their total rewards package.

Conclusion

A total rewards package is, especially for companies that aim to attract and retain top talent. Managing such a comprehensive package can be complex, but tools that simplify this tedious process make the design and implementation much easier. 

Click here to learn more about the features of Comp Up’s total rewards statement.