Total Rewards Virtual Summit 2021

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Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

Opening Keynote Presentation

Updating Your Total Rewards Strategy to Successfully Respond to Sudden Business Challenges

Trying to predict what lies ahead for your business has always been a difficult endeavor. Never has that been truer than right now, when the COVID-19 global pandemic has thrown the business landscape into chaos – every business is feeling the impact of the COVID-19. This unprecedented global pandemic has disrupted supply chains, consumer spending, business productivity, employee well-being — and the foundations of the way we work. While companies are responding to the ongoing challenges of this crisis, executives and HR leaders should also be thinking about how to proactively adjust their total rewards strategy for the year ahead.

Join this enlightening session as we discuss some of the top concerns leaders should consider when updating total rewards strategies, such as:

• Improving communication and being transparent with employees to ensure that they are informed about changes to the business, as well as how the company is responding to sudden shift
• Considering short-term actions for employees in order to sustain operations: executive pay reductions; unpaid sabbaticals; shifting bonuses to hourly wages for furloughed workers; supplemental lump sum payments
• Adjusting annual incentive plans to determine if across-the-board merit increases and bonuses should be reduced in order to reward high-impact employees
• Developing and continuing a formal remote working policy, while trying to maintain routines, data security, work expectations, and effective communication

Keynote Presentation

Implementing an Effective Compensation Management Program to Motivate, Engage and Retain Top Talent

As we look ahead beyond the pandemic and into 2021, compensation management will play as important a role as ever in attracting and retaining the best talent for your organization.With the competition for top talent heating up, figuring out a way to keep your best people motivated and productive at work is rapidly becoming one of the top priorities for employers. Compensation packages have a huge impact on an employees’ level of engagement, and positively affects employees in job satisfaction, retention, recruitment and productivity.

Join us in this engaging session as we discuss best practices for implementing an effective compensation management program, such as:

• Defining your compensation philosophy
• Linking compensation to your overall business strategy
• Changing the culture and reinforcing it with compensation
• Rewarding the behaviors that drive the results

Panel Discussion

Making a Transformational Change to Shape the Employee Experience While Advancing the Organizational Mission

In today’s employment landscape, it’s critical for Total Rewards executives to develop a fresh set of skills to effectively create change. Many of today’s total rewards programs are designed using an employment contract that no longer exists, and they treat the masses of their employee population similarly across the board. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, total rewards leaders should be building new programs that foster innovation and provide their people with the freedom and agility for success.

Join this engaging panel as we talk about how to employ a fresh set of interpersonal, advisory and analytical skills to create change, such as:

• Creating a collaborative work environment that demands an understanding of departments outside the rewards domain
• Implementing Artificial-intelligence applications that help facilitate the onboarding of new hires, and eventually perform job evaluation and market analysis
• Increasing the presence of contingent workers and independent contractors
• Developing a culture that ties diversity, inclusion and wellness into TR practices, programs and philosophies

Networking Break | Solution Provider Research Meetings

Keynote Presentation

Optimizing Total Rewards with Collective Analysis

Given the significant investment organizations make in Total Rewards programs, it’s crucial to have an accurate measure of the financial return and people impact. Companies that have measurement technology in place and are using it well are also conducting more comprehensive measures of ROI. In addition, the right analytics and modeling tools enable organizations to quantify the critical relationships between Total Rewards expenditures and the employee behaviors they are intended to promote.

In this enlightening session we will discuss how organizations can improve the use of metrics in assessing Total Rewards programs in order to:

• Develop an understanding of what rewards employees value most and least
• Identify differences in employees’ reward preferences
• Break down data silos by moving to centralized platforms or linking systems so that they interoperate
• Assess your results by measuring costs as well as impact of Total Rewards programs on attraction, retention and engagement
• Determine how much to invest, and where, to get the best possible result for the smallest possible investment in rewards programs

Keynote Presentation

Meeting Employees’ Total Rewards Expectations and Delivering a Consumer-Grade Experience

The design and delivery of Total Rewards programs must keep up with changing employee expectations, particularly when considering the dramatic change in the landscape due to the ongoing pandemic. Among the key expectations of employees as we advance past the crisis, is that rewards will be designed to reflect employees’ preferences and delivered via a personalized experience that is similar to what they’ve come to expect in their personal lives. Unfortunately, many employees feel that their compensation and benefit packages fail to offer sufficient choice and flexibility.

Join this informative session as we discuss five areas that are critical to meeting employees’ Total Rewards expectations, such as:

• Understanding what employees value, in order to make expenditures on programs that are likely to succeed – and avoid programs that will result in a poor return
• Addressing the needs of the whole person through well-being initiatives, in order to improve the talent experience through physical, financial, emotional and social well-being
• Utilizing technology to improve employee insights, communication and decision-making, which will allow your organizations to better understand what employees value
• Measuring the cost and impact of the programs in order to assess the return on Total Rewards investment, as well as the impact of the programs on its workforce
• Prioritizing fairness, purpose-driven benefits, and inclusion and diversity, which is critical when considering the civil unrest in the nation and the world
• Aligning their benefit programs with their talent value propositions that will articulate an approach that is aligned to business goals and accommodates a changing workforce

Networking Break | Solution Provider Research Meetings

Panel Discussion

Compensation During a Crisis: Setting Your Organization Up as Leaders in Challenging Times

How companies react right now can set them apart as leaders focused not only on the health of their organizations, but also as examples of stewards for their employees through the continuing turbulence. The COVID-19 crisis has been devastating for many industries, and not all organizations have the deep pockets to implement complete work-at-home programs, and offer immediate and continuous bonus payments.As such, what can organizations do right now to ensure workers on the front-lines are taken care of, and what can be done to brace for the impact of continuing economic struggles?

In this highly interactive panel, we will discuss compensation strategies during a crisis, such as:

• Implementing unlimited or extended PTO for employees to give ample time off to avoid exposure, and allow for discretionary time off when necessary
• Instituting hazard pay policies for vulnerable and/or exposed employees – especially for those in the essential business category
• Increasing the standard hourly rate during times of high volume and demand
• Accelerating incentive plans and performance reviews in order to put money in the hands of vulnerable workers and those that are performing at a high level
• Adjusting performance metrics and communicate these changes transparently throughout the organization with managers and employees alike, to allow for original performance goals that may not be met due to circumstances beyond employee control

End of Day One

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

Opening Keynote Presentation

Re-Assessing and Modifying Your Total Rewards Programs

Given the high level of uncertainty in today’s work environment, the Total Rewards design and delivery process will remain an ongoing journey that will require regular course corrections to address the changing needs of your workforce and your organization. As such, it’s critical to have the ability to make changes quickly when needed – to ensure that you stay ahead of the competition when drafting tangible and intangible rewards programs.

In this thought-provoking session, we will discuss the steps that need to be taken to “future-proof” your Total Rewards programs, such as:

• Measuring the cost and impact of your Total Rewards programs to assess different aspects of your programs, like: technology, communication, transparency and flexibility
• Identifying which of your programs are working well to ensure that your organization continues to take full advantage of the technology and tools that are successful
• Determining the changes that will have the biggest potential impact, in order to differentiate your programs from competitors and deliver the highest possible value to your key talent groups
• Measuring the results and assessing your progress on the Total Rewards journey, in order to determine the next steps for continuous improvement

Keynote Presentation

Human Sustainability: Factors Affecting Employee Health and The Role of Employers to Adapt

Employees are exposed to more harmful situations than ever, whether working remotely or as an essential employee. Remote employees may be facing over-exposure to the stresses of home and family, or overwhelming feelings of loneliness. Essential employees are risking their health daily through exposure to germs, and accompanying stress. Employers must act to ensure the health and well-being of their workforce.

Join this presentation to learn how you can create a human sustainability program in your organization that addresses:

• Giving remote employees a sense of connection to the outside world and escape from stresses within their home, including mental exercises and team activities
• Consistently communicating new information to essential employees on how to stay safe
• Creating or enhancing mental health care benefits to foster employee happiness, well-being and engagement
• Helping employees achieve a healthy work life balance under unstable circumstances

Panel Discussion

Creative Compensation: Exploring New Approaches to Compensation That Reduce Costs and Improve Employee Satisfaction

In these hard times, everyone is facing new challenges and we all have new needs. Companies and individuals alike are confronted with new expenses. This presents an opportunity to provide non-traditional forms of compensation that benefit both employees and the bottom line.

In this thought-provoking session, hear how total rewards leaders have taken new approaches to compensation that create a win-win scenario for both employees and companies, including:

• Providing new opportunities for employees to learn and develop new skill sets
• Establishing a job board for side-gigs inside the company
• Identifying partnerships with external peers that can provide mutual benefits through resource or service sharing to employees

Networking Break | Solution Provider Research Meetings

Keynote Presentation

Financial Well-Being: Guiding Employees to Financial Security

The cost of goods and services are fluctuating by the day, investment opportunities are soaring and spending habits are changing in turn. At the same time, many Americans are not pulling in as much money as they had pre-pandemic. Employers have the means to guide their workforce to make the most of these opportunities, as well as guidance on cost-effective ways of managing their money and saving in other areas of their life.

In this session, learn how to create a financial wellness program for your employees to make the most of their new circumstances, including:

• Understanding employees’ long-term and short-term financial goals to align them with the right strategies and tools to prosper
• Offering courses on the how-tos of investment with resources to help them on the way
• Creating a platform for employers and employees to share advice on ways to save on day-to-day costs
• Empowering employees with information to make better financial decisions

Keynote Presentation

Boosting Loyalty and Performance Through Revamped Recognition Programs

In the current environment, many people are feeling low morale which poses critical problems for organizations including productivity and commitment of employees. It is more important than ever to recognize employees for their hard work in meaningful ways. At this point in history, creating an impactful performance and recognition program, requires a detailed plan that accounts for the factors affecting the daily lives of employees.

Join this session to explore fresh new ways to create a strategic recognition program, including:

• Different ways to use recognition to engage employees online and offline
• How to communicate the ROI of your recognition program
• Methods for engaging leaders, employees, sales partners, and customers in recognition
• Assessing the individual conditions of employees as a crucial factor in performance metrics
• Engineering and enacting a training program for managers to carry out successful recognition practices
• Instituting a continuous feedback loop of employee surveys and additional fresh ways of gathering feedback to evaluate the effectiveness of the program

Networking Break | Solution Provider Research Meetings

Closing Panel Discussion

Reinventing Total Rewards: Where Do We Go from Here?

As we look to the future, there is uncertainty about the state of the economy, and there are many questions about how a total rewards program is to be designed and deployed. Building the right rewards and recognition programs remains a highly relevant means to retain and accelerate talent within companies. However, to truly leverage the potential benefits of having a robust and well-tuned rewards system, Total Rewards professionals need to look at how candidate preferences are evolving, and match their rewards and recognition program that manages the expectations of the employee and the demands of the company. This is where the difficulty lies, and it’s critical for TR executives to get it right, and fine-tune their programs on a continuous basis.

In this highly interactive panel, we’ll explore some ideas and strategies for developing highly adaptive Total Rewards programs, such as:

• Leveraging technology such as AI and big data analytics to assess performance better and design rewards programs accordingly
• Designing rewards programs that offer employees a unique value proposition that emphasizes flexibility, pay fairness, extended maternity/paternity leave, and other benefits that go well-beyond statutory mandates
• Developing a better and holistic method of assessing performance that shifts from an individual approach to a team approach
• Personalizing the Total Rewards programs to become more agile, and improve alignment of business goals and talent management strategy
• Driving employee performance with rewards strategies that: optimize distribution to the right talent; account for future potential, growth and advancement; and, provide incentives for experiential learning and development to close skills gaps 

End of Virtual Summit