REWARD FUNCTION
IRS survey of reward function
Four in ten employers surveyed by IRS have a specialist department or team that deals with reward management issues.
The majority of the remaining organisations carry out their reward functions within the HR department. Among those organisations incorporating their reward staff within the HR team, the vast majority (85.7%) arrange for HR generalists to deal with reward issues, with the remainder employing reward specialists within the HR team.
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Key survey results
The IRS survey investigates where responsibility for key reward issues lies, as well as the key reward tasks being undertaken.
Among the main findings are:
Outsourcing: Pension scheme administration and flexible and voluntary benefits packages are among the reward activities most likely to be outsourced to an external provider.
External consultants: Reward consultants are widely used to advise on specific issues, most commonly salary benchmarking, executive remuneration and pensions.
Reward activities: Benefits and the annual pay review take up the most of reward professionals' time, while the most important activities for the coming year are benefits provision and job evaluation exercises.
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Title: “Managing employee reward: Benchmarking the reward team”, IRS Employment Review 892, 6 March 2008.
Survey details: The findings are based on survey returns from 132 organisations, with the majority of respondents being HR managers and directors.
Respondent organisations collectively employ 588,000 people. Six in ten of the sample are private services organisations, while 13.5% of respondents are from the public sector.
Availability: The journal is now available as part of a subscription to XpertHR. Go to www.xperthr.co.uk to subscribe.
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