2. Correctly brand the statement
Your statements should reflect your brand as an official form of communication from your organisation. In terms of format and messaging, this needs to reflect the correct tone of voice and brand guidelines. We will often work closely with communications or marketing departments to design the statements as an important tool to drive employee engagement.
3. Highlight all reward elements
Statements should include all cash elements including salary, bonus, overtime, shares and pension as an annual figure. This can be very powerful, particularly in sales environments, to show the potential income available for meeting targets and have a positive effect to motivate, retain and engage the individual if all reward elements are outlined in one place. Managers can produce these if they think certain members are at particular risk of being recruited elsewhere – showing the true financial value of what they receive as a powerful incentive to stay for their market-leading reward packages.
There is no shame in promoting all the reward elements that you provide to your employees and being as transparent as you can. Organisations are often tempted to exclude non-financial elements that are difficult to quantify. However, by leaving out this detail, it undermines the true value that employees receive from their full rewards package. We often include a glossary/explanatory section as part of the statement – describing a subsidised canteen or free car parking. Going beyond details of monetary benefits to underline the intrinsic benefits to which values might not be easily attributed, such as holiday entitlement or training or free fruit and coffee, can be just as effective.
4. Consider initiatives that reflect key organisational values
Many employers focus on the value of their culture – such as specific wellbeing initiatives on offer to employees to free fruit, volunteering days, and hybrid working options, to show how they as the employer care for their employees. Certain industry sectors place greater emphasis on some reward elements compared to others, such as a car provision being widely offered within the construction industry. This also addresses different generations of employees who might value different benefits, appealing to as much of the workforce as possible.
5. Include graphs and imagery
It may sound obvious, but statements made purely of text and numbers is likely to deliver less impact than those which highlight the benefits beyond base pay in a visually appealing way. Include branded pictures to brighten statements and a graph to highlight to employees that they do not just receive a salary.
6. Timing
This varies from organisation to organisation – although many choose to produce and distribute statements to accompany the pay review for maximum impact.
7. Plan ahead
Do not underestimate the time and resources required to produce Total Reward Statements. To maximise engagement and for the launch of these statements to succeed, they must be embedded in all employee-related aspects of the business which takes time to map out. Designing, producing and distributing the statements takes time and we can help to minimise the impact on internal resources.
