Total Rewards is the new way to describe fundamental contract between the employer and employee. In exchange for providing time, talent, effort and results the employee can expect a broader range of financial and psychic compensation designed to touch every need on Maslow’s hierarchy.
So with companies investing more aggressively in HR systems and scrutinizing their returns shouldn’t the real ROI test include developing leadership? Its tempting to overemphasize some of the more tangible metrics when measuring the impact of your Total Rewards strategy; productivity, customer equity, market valuation, employee attrition, but what about the most precious of all corporate assets—leadership?
The pipeline of available workers is thinning and companies looking to sustain future growth will need their current crop of employees to embrace challenges, complexity, and change.
The displaced nature of the modern workforce underscores the need for leadership. Virtual work teams physically removed from headquarters are more likely to develop their own social networks. Policies, procedures and practices are adopted and utilized faster when they are supported by role models. In today’s business model leadership needs to sprout as much from the local cubical as the corner office.
All HR systems must be geared to promote leadership, ownership and engagement at all levels and in all situations. That’s the long term ROI for each plank in your Total Rewards platform.
You bring up some great points. What gets measured gets done... but what gets recognized and rewarded gets done more often.
I believe that all great leaders first begin as intelligent followers who were engaged in the process. Simply put, great leaders see their primary job as empowering others to lead.
Posted by: Brian Carroll | June 29, 2006 at 12:47 AM