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Managing employee reward: benchmarking the reward team

Our first survey of the reward function examines the make-up of the reward team, key responsibilities for reward functions and the most important reward issues in the year ahead.

On this page:
Managing reward
About our survey
The reward team
Taking responsibility for reward
Outsourcing reward
Reward consultants
Employee costs
Time-consuming reward activities
Tasks for the year ahead
Challenges ahead
Additional resources on XpertHR
Table 1: Responsibility for managing reward activities
Table 2: Outsourced reward functions
Table 3: Use of reward consultants
Table 4: Most time-consuming reward activities over the past year
Table 5: Most important reward activities over the next year
Box 1: Key reward challenges for the year ahead

Key points

  • The majority of organisations carry out their reward functions within the HR department or team.
  • Pension scheme administration and flexible and voluntary benefits packages are among the reward activities most likely to be outsourced to an external provider.
  • Reward consultants are widely used to advise on specific issues, most commonly salary benchmarking, executive remuneration and pensions.
  • Benefits and the annual pay review take up the most of reward professionals' time, while the most important activities for the coming year are benefits provision and job evaluation exercises.