5 TIPS FOR DESIGNING A FLEXIBLE REMUNERATION PLAN

You’re probably familiar with the concept of flexible remuneration. That type of salary composed of cash and kind. Whether you’ve already implemented it in your company or you’re looking forward to doing it, there are several things you need to keep in mind for it to truly add value to your employees.

HR teams are always looking for new ways of attracting and retaining talent and implementing flexible remuneration is one of them. While it doesn’t represent a financial investment for the company, it adds value to employees because it basically helps them save money.

As you probably know, the goods and services associated with flexible remuneration are exempt from taxes. So if you design an attractive flexible remuneration program, you’ll be improving your employees’ quality of life.

Another good idea when implementing a flexible remuneration plan is to include training among the flexible remuneration options. Corporate learning is among the top reasons why employees choose to stay in a company.

While your employees will benefit from good training programmes for companies, the organisation will benefit from a trained workforce.

Now, let’s dive deep into how to design a successful flexible remuneration plan for your company.

Flexible remuneration: the key to HR success

Nowadays, employees are significantly different from previous times.

While in the past decades the workforce’s main concern was salary, stability, and the possibility of climbing the corporate ladder, today employees value flexibility, education, and work-life balance.

That’s why flexible remuneration comes as a perfect option for attracting and retaining great talent. There are many benefits when it comes to flexible remuneration. Some of them are:

• Voluntary and personable: each employee can choose if they want to participate in the programme and which proportion of their salary they want as kind, up to 30%.
• Benefit for both parties: both employees and companies benefit from flexible remuneration because the workforce gets to save money on goods and services they would have to pay for anyways while the organisation gets to increase the value they give their people without it representing additional costs.
• Engaged and talented workforce: happy employees build a solid workforce. Research shows that employees that are satisfied with work conditions are more productive. Also, if you include training for companies as part of your flexible remuneration plan, you’ll get a more talented staff.

Make a flexible remuneration research

The first step to building a solid and successful flexible remuneration plan is to make research. How are other companies implementing flexible remuneration? Which are the best options for designing a flexible remuneration program?

Once you make a quick research about this, you’ll probably come up with the first ideas to brainstorm with the HR team.

Then, analyze your company: which opportunities for development are there? What do your employees need?

After that, you should have the first draft of your flexible remuneration plan. Now, it’s time to present it as an option to your employees.

Soft skills training for companies and flexible remuneration

Soft skills are abilities that help people interact effectively with others. In a job, soft skills are highly valuable because while hard skills can be easily trained, soft skills require a more profound development.

That’s why including soft skills training as a form of flexible remuneration will be key to increasing the talent of the workforce and with that, the potential of the teams inside the company.

Some examples of soft skills are:

• Effective communication: people who communicate their ideas effectively are more successful at their daily work.
• Leadership: your managers should be great leaders. Also, leadership is a skill that everyone should have, whether they have a high position or they’re just starting out as Juniors.
• Assertiveness: people who are able to stand up for themselves with respect and clarity are highly valuable to the company, especially for positions that require negotiating with others.
• Coaching: coaching training will help your employees to define and achieve their personal and professional goals.

5 keys to designing and implementing a flexible remuneration plan with success

Now that you know about the first steps into designing a flexible remuneration plan, here are 5 tips to make it successful:

1. Perform an audit: make sure you know both the company’s and employees’ needs. If you’re not on the same page, the programme could be unsuccessful.
2. Provide clear communication: it’s essential to explain to your employees what flexible remuneration is and make sure that they perceive it as a benefit.
3. Offer a balanced amount of goods and services: not all people need the same things. Make sure you keep in mind the different needs of your employees and include a variety of options so they can all benefit from flexible remuneration.
4. Include soft skills training for companies in your flexible remuneration plan: soft skills are fundamental to developing a talented workforce and increasing your company’s potential. Including soft skills training as a form of flexible remuneration is a great way to optimize your resources.
5. Get feedback: people’s needs can change. Make sure you and your employees are on the same page. Get constant feedback on the flexible remuneration plan and make changes as necessary.

Now you’re ready to design a killing flexible remuneration plan. It’s time to get to action!