Rethinking total reward to deliver total wellness

23 January, 2023

Rethinking total wellness

In the new world of work and value creation, the focus of total reward is on enhancing employee wellness—from physical and emotional to mental, social, career and financial. The resulting people, business and societal outcomes will ensure that organisations not only get a return on their reward investment, but that they also deliver value for their people.

A new approach to total reward

The historical total reward approach provided employees with a blend of monetary and non-monetary rewards using a traditional ‘top-down’ mechanism. In the future, we expect to see a personalised, bottom-up approach that uses total reward as a vehicle to deliver total wellness.

PwC’s ‘total wellness’ approach bridges the gap between employee preferences and the total reward offering, placing the individual employee at the centre of a reframed, broad and flexible approach to the total reward equation.

Implementing this approach that enhances total wellness by aligning reward to physical, emotional, mental, social, career and financial wellness, powered by an exceptional employee experience that leverages a company’s culture and leadership, will enable organisations to attract, engage and retain top talent.

Financial rewards will always be important, but employers need to do more to align non-financial rewards with employee preferences and needs. Employers must understand preferences at an individual level, with the list of options reflecting an understanding of the wellness needs of each employee, not just employee groups.

Key questions

In this context, there are five key questions leading organisations should ask themselves:

  1. Does our total reward strategy promote the total wellness of employees?
  2. Are we effectively engaging and retaining our top talent?
  3. How does our total reward strategy deliver on total wellness in a way that enhances workforce productivity?
  4. What is the return on our reward investment?
  5. Are we considering employee preferences in our total reward decisions?

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The three key actions to take now

  1. Listen to employees to understand their preferences and be flexible in your approach. Individual preferences will change over time, so you need a reward offering that evolves to suit the changing needs of employees.
  2. Review and assess your current total reward offering, focusing on the six elements of total wellness—physical, emotional, mental, social, career and financial.

  3. Create a roadmap for change based on your organisation’s desired vision.

We are here to help you

We help organisations transform their total reward offerings, leading to a greater focus on—and improvement of—total wellness for the individual, the collective workforce, the organisation and its shareholders.

This reframed approach to reward harnesses culture and leadership to deliver on the key people, societal and business outcomes sought by our clients. For more information, contact us today.

Contact us

Gerard McDonough

Partner, Dublin, PwC Ireland (Republic of)

+353 87 224 1517

Email

Louise Shannon

Senior Manager, Dublin, PwC Ireland (Republic of)

+353 86 043 8309

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