As a recent study from CV-library shows, 59.7% of professionals aged 25-34 and 44.9% of workers aged 18-24 years old expect a pay rise in the coming year. Employees seem keen to recoup lost income in the future, following measures which may have impacted them during lockdown (e.g. furlough / other reduction in pay).
Perhaps the pay rise expectation is following their loyalty, hard work, multi-tasking (picking up additional roles in the workplace) ….but what if employers are struggling to justify a pay rise next year based on current and forecast performance. What if the historic cash buffer pre-COVID has been burnt through in the last 6 months and just isn’t there anymore?
As Lee Biggins, Founder and CEO of CV-library suggests, there are other ways to improve company culture, incentivise, reward and retain employees for their efforts. This can include voluntary benefit portals (offering retail discounts and other savings tools for your weekly/ monthly supermarket shopping), reward and recognition systems for departments, branches, teams and individual level with delegated authority to line managers.
As we have mentioned in a previous blog, the investment by organisations in mental and physical wellbeing, was already increasing in the period to March 2020 but has jumped exponentially year to date. This can include; employee assistance programmes (confidential advice and support), discounted access to gyms, discounted healthcare providers, virtual gym offering with online fitness classes, free eye tests, mindfulness and emergency childcare cover and elderly care advice line. It can also extend to financial health and associated resources.
At Polestar we know businesses that are market leaders in this space, who may be able to help you and your organisation. If any of the above is of interest, please get in touch and we would be delighted to make an introduction.
“If you’re unable to offer pay rises in the coming year, but want to retain staff, it’s important that you do what you can to make your employees feel valued in another way. This can be done by offering better training opportunities, initiating a reward system for hard work or by promoting a supportive company culture.”
