Its all about the “Benjamin’s” …??!!

Research after research, survey after another survey indicates that the most important element of talent attraction is the remuneration, it’s all about "Benjamins" - is a regular cliche! More research outcome indicate between 50-60% of talent are influenced totally by pay, above any other consideration. 

If you get into the details of the research outcomes, the identified top 5 elements that influence talent attraction include:

1.     Money

2.     Good benefits e.g. health insurance

3.     Work-life balance

4.     Professional development & Career advancement opportunities

5.     A sense of purpose

As a talent looking for career opportunity, if the main element that attracts you to an organization is money, then why do HR practitioners and leaders spend so much time developing a reward philosophy and implementing a reward strategy to drive strategic initiatives? 

It is simply because of the 40%! Majority of these 40% are possibly your top talent. They get to look beyond the remuneration and are looking for much more from the organizations they work for. They are willing to push reward boundaries because they have confidence in the value they can deliver.

The reward philosophy and compensation strategy considers a lot of things when it is being developed, but most importantly it’s also about value – creating value to the shareholders of the organization via a high performing organization. 

The reward philosophy and compensation strategy delivers value by helping to attract top talent (who usually look beyond remuneration and look towards development, fulfilment, work-life balance etc.). The reward strategy attracts talent in a competitive market via organizational reward differentiation – this means providing competitive remuneration, specific benefits components which are flexible, which meet the talent needs and rewards the required talent behavior (driving the talent to deliver the strategic objectives). You may conclude that this reward differentiation attracts the best talent to the organization. 

Furthermore, reward strategy is the basis on which organization develop policies around work-life balance, professional development and career advancement initiatives which human resources uses to motivates talent to go the extra mile or stay with the organization. These initiatives help to create the right organizational work culture. As an addendum, there is consideration for internal and external pay equity – to avoid demotivating the talent and keep reward (either remuneration or benefit) to continually be competitive.

A personal talent experience/story to bring to life how a total reward strategy can give competitive advantage: 

As a Talent Manager in an energy company earlier in my career, I had a need to hire a bunch of Management Trainees (MTs). These MTs had to be acculturated, to have the future-fit skills/competences developed and be exposed at different levels, to varied experience(s) within the energy industry. These talents were identified as the future of the company. In line with the organizational vision and need, it was required that they be developed via experience and exposure using Talent Management principles for core roles.

On an occasion, I tried to recruit a very young promising talent of African origin from the diaspora, who amongst other things, stood head and shoulder above her peers in the quality of her education. She easily was recommended after going through the recruitment process, geared to source for exceptional talent that can exhibit a lot of creativity, determination and exceptional ability.

Immediately after the recruiting process before we could even make her an offer, she received an offer from another multinational energy corporation (competition) which may be summarized below:

1.     Double the compa-ratio of the compensation for the role we were to offer her – all cash!

2.     Some basic benefits

3.     Opportunity for international cross posting depending on her performance

4.     A very routine job that did not require critical or strategic thinking

5.     A very light workload

This talent, still interested in my proposed offer, presented this situation and insisted on receiving our counter offer before she made a final decision.

The reward team and I had to collaborate to develop an offer. She was a talent we did not want to lose.

Firstly, a Realistic Job Preview (RJP) was scheduled to give her an opportunity to see the employee life cycle of current MTs within the firm (we were confident of our work culture, the quality of our current trainees {like begets like} and the work environment). 

She also had a chat with 2 different MTs:  an MT who was supposed to handover to her and was currently on her proposed role (critical role at the core of the energy business) and another MT in Human Resources who was responsible for her recruitment process.

Then we made her an offer as summarized below:

1.     Guaranteed compensation which was about 60% of the guaranteed compensation offer she had in hand

2.     Fantastic Bonus (if achieved @ 100%) would be approximately 50% of guaranteed compensation 

3.     Other non-monetary benefits including work-life balance, health insurance, branded vehicle, opportunity to represent the flourishing African brand, recognized as a talent scout amongst other things. These benefits, when converted to monetary values made our offer also competitive

She accepted the offer and has gone on to be a high flier with that organization – I have pursued other career aspirations away from said organization!

A few years after my exit, we ran into each other during a flight lay over in an airport. Our conversation drifted to circumstances around her hiring and acceptance of offer and we discussed at length about her decision on that day. I asked her why she decided to go for the lesser monetary offer and the under listed as summarized by me indicated the reasons for her decision:

Factors that influenced her to make the choice she did:

·      She had friends, contemporaries and other millennials on social media who spoke very well about the organization and its culture

·      The unique recruitment process was an indication of the creativity within the organization – she wanted to be a part of it!

·      The RJP revealed this (social media) talk to be true because she observed culture, youth, learning/growth opportunities and welcoming environment, confirming what she had heard

·      The organizational brand and employee branding initiatives were a strong pull for her. The brand focused on differentiation (from the ordinary). Also, she was made a brand ambassador which had its perquisites!

·      The benefits and work-life balance suited her needs as a millennial who was single (at the time)

·      The role gave her some status and recognition for her individual achievements on the job – unlike the offer from competition which was focused on rewarding of group effort

·      The fact that she was recruited for a career and not a job, which was solidified by a clear career and development path driven by the Talent Review Management

·      Organization provided cross functional opportunities and projects

Some years after she had accepted the offer, the under listed convinced her she made the right choice:

·      Most important for her was the job itself and variety of challenges therein

·      The organizational culture encouraged talent to take control, take responsibility and deliver business goals. There was exposure and the workload was just right and challenging

·      There was a whole lot of performance feedback which at the time (biannual performance reviews and biannual Talent Review Meetings TRM) appeared overwhelming initially but she now appreciates them as they shaped her learning curve

·      Hard work was regularly rewarded with promotions, recognition and bonuses

·      Developmental opportunities including short term assignments to other global location 

·      A significant thing she has never forgotten was the engagement/interaction with the Board once identified as a talent to hire – this interaction helped her understand, buy-in and appreciate org. vision.  This also exhibited Board buy-in to the talent agenda

·      Also, the company had fabulous ways of celebrating – brand lunches, year parties

·      The organization had its challenges but this was outweighed by the advantages

My conclusion from this story and further research indicates that:

ü Pay is important, so firms need to be competitive with their pay strategy

ü Many other factors affect the offer acceptance decision – organization can use total reward to deliver competitive advantage

ü As the talent war continues, talent attraction techniques need to go beyond just remuneration and get more creative with the talent needs.

ü Talent attraction for millennials requires a different strategy

ü We maybe slowly moving to an age where for majority of talent will look to total rewards and not just at remuneration