Does your organisation believe it pays its staff fairly for their contribution?

It’s surprising that 75% of HR respondents to a survey about pay feel that staff are paid fairly whereas only 33% of all workers have that view.  Or is it?  Maybe management and HR professionals are out of touch?

The reward management survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that less than 40% of employers had carried out a fair pay audit in the last three years. Line managers can play an important role by explaining the organisation’s pay policies and this relies on the HR function making sure that line managers are on board.  In some cases, it could be just a question of having improved communications about pay and supporting managers to have improved communication around pay.

Here are some of the top tips from the CIPD for employers about helping improve real and perceived fairness around pay. Ensure staff know what they need to do to get a pay rise.  According to the research less than half of employees know how to do this.

These top tips include:-

• audit actual pay outcomes
• ensure you pay a liveable wage
• ensure that staff know what they need to do to get a pay rise

Management and HR teams can do a lot to manage perceptions around fair pay.  For example, they can

• seek the views of employees and shareholders/trustees to agree on what ‘fair looks like’,
• make sure staff understand what the organisation expects of them, why it wants it and how the organisation will reward and recognise their efforts.
• support managers to have meaningful conversations with their teams about the fairness of pay outcomes.

If you believe your organisation would benefit from further advice about fairness around pay please get in touch with Hafton by giving us a call or emailing us at info@haftonconsultancy.com.