Hi Dawn,

A few trends we’re seeing that recognises organisations are flatter, there is less traditional career progression and of course, we know that financial incentives don’t improve performance! 

1. Pay well to begin with and have a broader reward band (within the market rate) so that managers have the flexibility to increase as and when they need to rather than once a year (as long as they keep within their salary budget).

2. Show recognition through spot rewards/thank you’s that encourage the behaviours you want to see.  It might be team bonuses, a gift to say thank you someone doing a project in a different team, or taking a risk in a new sideways role.

3. Keep career movement/development separate from pay.  Career development on its own is recognition.  Focus on getting managers really good at having regular one to one career conversations and encouraging development and movement around the organisation through talent discussions 

4. Encourage employees to own and drive their own career and development and view everyone as talent and unique rather than elite programmes and anything one size fits all.

5. Remove internal processes that impede movement (e.g. “has to be in role 2 years before…”)

some external articles here..

https://disruptive-leaders.com/topics/reward/external-reward/

Hope that helps!

Disruptive HR