Research to be published next month by people management experts, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), will show a large increase in the number of organizations who have carried out pay audits in the past year. Encouragingly, an even greater proportion of employers plan to carry one out in 2004.
The CIPD’s annual reward survey of more than 500 organisations, to be published at the CIPD’s reward conference on 10 February 2004, will also show that a significant minority of employers plan to raise their retirement age at their organization over the next two years.
Other findings will reveal that:
-Despite the pension ’crisis’, the vast majority of employers still contribute to the pension arrangements of their employees. However, employers are restricting final salary schemes to existing staff and introducing money purchase schemes for new staff, typically with lower rates of contribution. Most private sector organisations now offer money purchase schemes to new hires.
-Many employers are failing to communicate to staff about their pension arrangements on an on-going basis.
-Despite cost concerns, employers are more concerned with ensuring their benefit offering (excluding pensions) makes them an employer of choice, with more employers planning to introduce benefits than reducing them.
-’Cafeteria benefits’, which give employees a choice over the mix of cash and benefits they receive, are becoming increasing popular among employers.
Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, will consider the role that reward can play in developing a democratic organization in her keynote address, while Duncan Brown, the CIPD’s Assistant Director-General and David Smith, the Economics Editor of The Sunday Times, will open the conference by discussing the recent trends in reward management.
CIPD research to show large increase in pay audits
CIPD Annual Reward Conference, 10 February 2004, Millennium Conference Centre, London