Pensions top list of company reward concerns

REWARD MANAGEMENT

Pensions top list of company reward concerns

Six in ten organisations say their biggest pay and benefits headache is to ensure their pension fund investment arrangements are cost-effective and operationally efficient, according to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

The 600-employer survey asked respondents to rate the importance of a range of reward issues to their organisation.

• Across all respondents, the top four issues were pensions-related. Preparing for new pension tax limits next year, pension fund asset allocation strategy and pension risk and governance were all voted very important by more than half of respondents (56%, 54% and 52% respectively).    
• The need to develop efficient measures to link employee pay to performance was also identified as a crucial issue by 51% of organisations.
• The desire to communicate the value of total rewards to employees was ranked very important by half of organisations (50%).  

Heads of company

• The survey found that the most important concerns for company heads (chairman, chief executive officers and managing directors) related to executive pay.  Achieving responsible executive pay and board governance was rated very important by 62% of respondents, while aligning executive pay to long-term business performance was considered crucial by 55% of company heads. 
• Improving sales force effectiveness was also a prominent issue for this group, with 55% considering it to be very important.   

Finance directors

• The most salient issues for finance directors were maximising the cost and efficiency of pension fund investment and setting and adapting pension fund asset allocation strategy, both ranked very important by 55% of respondents. Managing pension debt and supervising closed defined benefit schemes were also deemed important by 45% and 42% of finance directors respectively.  
• Four in ten finance directors (41%) said communicating total rewards to employees was an issue.
• As many as 38% thought linking pay to performance was important.

Want to know more?

Mercer Human Resource Consulting is the "global leader for trusted HR and related financial advice, products, and services". It has more than 14,000 employees serving clients in 145 cities and 41 countries and territories worldwide. To find out more visit www.mercerhr.com

Posted 9 June 2005