Build It

10Pay & Benefits

Chapter Objectives

In this chapter, we will:

• Discuss pay and incentives focusing heavily on fairness and transparency.
• Look at a simple model that explains the four reasons benefits can add value for you.
• Highlight how the complexity of benefits hampers communication and uptake.

Key Points

• Many issues with pay are about fairness. The “monkey and the cucumber” experiment tells you almost everything you need to know.
• Pay is rarely private and is becoming less so, meaning unfairness gets uncovered more frequently and faster than ever.
• Cash is the most expensive way to pay someone. Effective benefits should amplify employer money.
• Creative use of benefits is key to building an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that helps you stand out.

Introduction

Pay and benefits on their own cannot create engagement and must be used as part of a broader effort involving several elements of the Engagement Bridge™ model. That does not mean they are unimportant—pay is a key disengager, especially if not handled fairly, and benefits can have a positive impact because they are highly visible and tangible. They can serve as a quick‐and‐easy first move when starting to build a more engaging culture; a bit like offering an olive branch to your workforce to say, “Hey, we're here, we value you and we want to start a better relationship.” They're also a tangible and publicly visible signpost to your culture—as long as you follow through with the rest of the Bridge™.