Businesses will have to work harder to align their reward and remuneration process with that of their nomination/talent management capability if they are to secure and retain the services of highly qualified and talented personnel. This is the view of many Reward Management experts affiliated to the South African Reward Association (SARA) who suggests that it is not enough to simply hire a talented individual, there must be a proactive process involving a seamless approach to ensure a consistent balance between job responsibilities and employee expectations.
Dr Mark Bussin, one of the keynote speakers at this year’s SARA conference in October and an executive committee member, says, “We need to constantly check expectations, how things are tracking and, at least once a year, conduct ‘stay interviews’. The talent and reward team need to work seamlessly to ensure this, and not work in silos.
“Finally, the HRIS (Human Resource Information System) needs to track progress of performance, promises made and general engagement of sought-after skilled personnel.”
The advantage of fostering a uniform, streamlined co-existence between reward and recruitment in business is that it offers the ability to instantly and effectively manage newly appointed personnel and those that leave. “It is like keeping your finger on two pulses,” Dr Bussin adds. “When there is a problem with either pulse, it is picked up quickly and efficiently and if required, corrective action can be taken.”
According to SARA while the country’s top performing companies are not far off their global counterparts in terms of progress made in establishing seamless reward and talent management, there are simply not enough top performing companies. The consensus is that there is a need for every company to integrate talent and reward management, which then needs to filter throughout the business.
Dr Bussin says that politics and ego represent the most significant inhibitors to achieving greater success in this arena.
“We are talking about possessive experts who hold on to their ‘turf’ and do not want to share information … of course, I appreciate that some remuneration information is confidential, but that aside, there should be a much greater flow of information and ideas across Talent, Reward and Line managers.”
Technology is available and can certainly be used to improve the situation. SARA advises that a good HRIS system is integral to the seamless environment because this technology enables Talent and Reward specialists to access the same information and share this information, irrespective of location. It also allows line managers to access the same information, which, given their responsibility over top talent, is of vital importance.
“We need to start looking at human resource management more holistically. It is the only way HR will become more proactive instead of hearing about HR problems from line managers and reacting to it,” Dr Bussin concludes.
