4 Key Trends from 2019 UK Reward Management Survey

The window of opportunity to contribute to Paydata’s bi-annual UK Reward Management survey is open and the initial trends are starting to take shape.

Designed to provide HR professionals with the information they need to take an informed view about what is happening in the world of reward management, our report captures trends and hot topics of the moment.

We are building on the successful surveys we have conducted over the past ten years to track business activity, employment challenges, base pay, bonuses and HR agendas.

Organisations increasingly understand the need to visibly embrace Diversity and Inclusion

This is the first time we have examined diversity and inclusion as a broad topic instead of discrete initiatives such as the gender pay gap reporting. Nearly half of respondents are actively considering how they can tackle wider equality issues within their organisations. Whilst 19 per cent have started to look at their ethnicity pay gap, 29 per cent plan to review this. We are welcoming reports of varied diversity and inclusion practices. This is increasingly an area of innovation for businesses who can see this as an opportunity to differentiate their approach and talent pool. Research suggests that diversity and inclusion initiatives are a key consideration when it comes to candidates choosing their employer and these initiatives are critical to the culture of an organisation, having a long-term impact on employee experience in the workplace.

Pay outlooks are conservative and potentially supplemented with out of cycle pay increases

In contrast to the positive outlook for business and pay budgets captured in the autumn edition of our survey, the most common pay budget is retreating slightly from the three per cent mark reported in autumn to between 2 – 2.5 per cent. This may be influenced by the sectors in which the respondents so far operate or indeed the wider political climate where Brexit has been stalled once again. The rise of out of cycle pay increases is a trend that we are tracking and initial indications suggest that the average increase is around 1.76 per cent. This may account for how some employers are overcoming constrained pay budgets. Our report will explore the drivers behind these increases becoming more commonplace and how they affect the true picture of wage growth.

Recruitment and retention challenges remain finely balanced

Respondents are consistently experiencing difficulty retaining people, with 60 per cent reporting difficulties in the past year. An increasing number expect these difficulties to persist, with 70 per cent anticipating retention difficulties in the year ahead. Similarly, 70 per cent have experienced difficulty in the past year when it comes to recruiting people, and this is expected to remain the case for the year ahead for 64 per cent of respondents. This is consistent with the more conservative outlook being reported for pay and bonuses, which may be symptomatic of the uncertain outlook for employee turnover that is resulting from stalled Brexit negotiations. In order to overcome recruitment challenges, a significant 63 per cent of organisations have reported having to offer new recruits salaries that conflict with those paid to existing employees.

HR budgets for 2019: achieving more with less

HR teams are predominantly reporting no change in their available HR budgets (52 per cent of respondents) or a reduction of 20 per cent (20 per cent of respondents). To overcome the challenges raised by recruitment and retention challenges, HR teams increasingly have to be creative in their approach to meet day-to-day activities whilst also wishing to pursue wider organisational objectives.

Take part to receive a free report and sector analysis

To find out more about the key HR and reward challenges facing organisations, how they are implementing effective strategies to support diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the shape of HR budgets over the next 12 months, answer our ten minute survey. You will receive a free analysis of the results when they are published in June. Subject to participation, we will also produce sector reports that compare your industry against the general market practice.

Commitment to confidentiality

We understand that some of the information we are asking for may be commercially sensitive. We give you two assurances:

We will never share your confidential information with anyone else.
We will only produce an aggregated summary report of the results making it impossible to identify individual answers.

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Employee Engagement

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4 key trends emerging in our spring 2019 UK Reward Management Survey

The window of opportunity to contribute to Paydata’s bi-annual UK Reward Management survey is open and the initial trends are starting to take shape.

Here are four key trends that have emerged from our initial results.

Organisations increasingly understand the need to visibly embrace Diversity and Inclusion

Pay outlooks are conservative and potentially supplemented with out of cycle pay increases

Recruitment and retention challenges remain finely balanced

HR budgets for 2019: achieving more with less

Take part to receive a free report and sector analysis

Commitment to confidentiality

Tim Kellett

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