Teresa Bayewitz, Partner in Mercer’s Career business, joined our Integrated Talent Management class to discuss Total Rewards. She brought with her a wealth of experience designing Total Rewards solutions in different contexts across numerous industries, including financial services, life sciences, technology, consumer goods/retail and manufacturing.
Teresa took the students through a discussion on how the Total Rewards landscape has evolved over the years, and how recent external factors like the pandemic and greater attention to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are continuing to shape it further. Key take-aways from Teresa’s discussion include:
- Compensation and benefits are “table stake” elements that employees have come to expect.
- Organizations are now differentiating themselves in attracting, engaging and retaining employees by utilizing higher order elements like careers, well-being, and purpose, which are very much part of the Total Rewards package.
- One of the areas that is drawing increased attention is Wellness, as many organizations have experimented with special benefits during the pandemic like extra time off for working parents and flexible working hours.
- Some companies also differentiated themselves and built significant employee engagement by committing, sometimes publicly, that they would not lay off employees during the economic uncertainty.
The class had a spirited discussion about taking these big ideas on Total Rewards and translating them into a roadmap that can help engage employees and build trust. Teresa shared some real-life examples that also helped bring these concepts to life.
Teresa ended the session with one of students’ favorite parts of these speaker sessions, career advice for our students. The discussion was spirited and engaging, and embedded with relatable personal anecdotes. Teresa told students:
- Don’t ever limit yourself; always say yes to opportunity, and
- You don’t know what you don’t know, so make an effort to listen and understand the context.
Our students were very appreciative of this opportunity to hear from a role-model HCM practitioner.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any other person or entity.
