"Total rewards is the combination of benefits, compensation and rewards that employees receive from their organizations. This can include wages and bonuses as well as recognition, workplace flexibility and career opportunities," defines Garnet.

Every company has employees with different needs and expectations regarding total rewards. While there are many benefits employers can offer, it's important to acknowledge that companies have different resources. Some organizations have bigger budgets and can give more appealing benefits; others don't, so they need to be more creative.

In order to properly design a Total Rewards plan that fits your company, you should follow these steps recommended by Indeed.


1. Assess Your Current Compensation and Benefits Strategies

The first thing to do before completely redesigning or introducing a new rewards system is to evaluate your current incentive program. You can build off what the company currently offers as incentives to create something significant for everyone. For instance, if you notice your company offers a monetary bonus to employees who exceed a monthly sales quota, evaluate additional incentive strategies that can make this more meaningful to everyone who contributes to accomplishing company goals.

One approach might be to provide paid training opportunities for both teams and individuals to benefit from their accomplishments. Essentially, you should develop rewards strategies that can fill in where your current incentive program is lacking or can provide additional motivators to keep employees happy and productive.


2. Ask For Input During Planning and Development

As you assess your current incentives and brainstorm new ideas, get input from your teammates. This can give you insight into what is working and needs improvement within your current incentive program, along with new ideas you can implement when you design the rewards strategy.

After using your team's input and your assessment of your company's current incentives, you can plan how to implement each incentive within the reward system and identify when team members earn them. Consider specific milestones employees must meet to qualify for compensation and the methods you'll use to determine when an employee reaches the milestones you set. Additionally, effective rewards strategies combine individual and team incentives to recognize both individual efforts and team achievements.


3. Integrate and Monitor the Total Rewards Strategy

Initiate the new rewards strategy by communicating the changes to your team, supervisors and other professionals in the workplace. Ensure your team understands the expectations and objectives they'll meet to earn a reward. Additionally, communicate how employees and supervisors will measure team and individual progress.


4. Evaluate and Measure the Effectiveness of the Strategy

Once you've initiated a rewards strategy, you need to monitor and evaluate the program's overall effectiveness. Several key things to look for when evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy include increases in employee performance, productivity and overall growth and achievement of important company objectives. Over time, a meaningful and motivational rewards strategy will show you gains across various processes across the organization.


A well-designed Total Rewards program not only can be used to attract new talent but also will positively impact your current employees' motivation and retention. If you’d like to know more about what fellow colleagues are offering as benefits and rewards, you can start a conversation in our forum.


Does your company have a Total Rewards program in place? Let us know in the comments how it impacted your organization. 


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