Employees are regularly reminded of their salary via paystubs; however, what’s most beneficial to maximize your investment in your people (your largest expense) and ensure high employee engagement is communicating their total rewards. But what exactly is “total rewards”? Learn more about total rewards and how to effectively communicate them to your employees.

1. S T R A T E G I E S
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Article reprinted from Summer 2021
Employee Benefits
Total Rewards – Much More Than Compensation
E
mployees are regularly reminded of their salary via
paystubs; however, what’s most beneficial to maximize
your investment in your people (your largest expense)
and ensure high employee engagement is communicating
their total rewards. But what exactly is “total
rewards”?
We sat down with Blanca Avetrani,
Director of Client Services in our Mid-
Atlantic office, to answer that question
and discuss the impact COVID-19 has
had on the value of rewards, how to
ensure employees understand their total
rewards and more.
Here are the highlights of our Q&A
session:
1.
When I think of total rewards, I
think of prizes or winning something.
What do you mean by total rewards?
Companies will vary in how they define total
rewards, but generally it consists of compensation
(the obvious component), benefits and the employee
experience. Benefits include those outside of the standard
health plan – things like 401(k) plan matching contributions,
access to mental and financial wellbeing resources, paid gym
memberships, student loan payback assistance, and so much
more. Access to financial and mental wellbeing resources is
really important right now, more than ever, and employees are
coming to expect it.
The employee experience is anything outside of
compensation and benefits that would be seen as a reward
for working for your organization. This includes things like the
quality of employee-supervisor relationships, opportunities for
growth and development, a sense of purpose in one’s work,
amenities and perks within the physical workplace, etc.
2.
How has COVID shifted what employees value when it
comes to a total rewards package?
COVID has highlighted the awareness, use and value
of employee assistance programs (EAPs). It’s free face-to-
face counseling services, not only for yourself but also for
your dependents. And this is such a great benefit that has
previously been underutilized because employees didn’t
know about it, forgot about it or didn’t need it. But COVID
caused many to seek out counseling due to stress, anxiety,
depression and other issues. COVID also got people to
embrace and utilize telehealth. They like that they can
see a doctor sooner from the comfort and safety
of their homes, and they’re saving time.
3.
So a company’s invested in a
comprehensive total rewards program
– how do they make sure employees
know all that they’re getting?
Constant and effective
communication is the only answer.
What I mean by constant is you
can’t just send out that total rewards
package to them once a year and
never talk about it again. There has to
be year-round communication in more
digestible-sized messages. And what I mean
by effective is to find out how employees like
to receive communication and do that. Survey your
employees, review your communication analytics and develop
your communication strategy accordingly. One thing that
we’ve found out through research is that, typically, people
prefer watching a video rather
than reading that beautiful
compensation statement you
created for them.
To find out what benefits
organizations like yours across
the nation are offering their
employees as part of their total
rewards, download the 2021
Employee Benefits Benchmark
Report.
CBIZ EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TEAM
2021 Employee Benefits
Benchmark Report
CBIZ Employee Benefits
CBIZ Employee Benefits