CIPD Reward Conference

My last post focused on the need for best fit in performance management.
The need for best fit in reward was also made clear at the CIPD's reward conference recently (echoing a themes from an earlier conference that one size does not fit all). The WorldatWork's blog referenced Duncan Brown's compelling arguments for 'best fit' instead of 'best practice':

"Actually, I heard the notion of 'best fit for the organization' versus 'best practice' more than a few times at the conference, and it's a notion that has stuck with me. Intuitively, it's right on because it just makes simple sense that what might be 'best practice' in one industry or company might be a sub-optimal practice in another industry."

Compensation Force notes this concept is "simply brilliant":

"Because effective rewards are relative and situational; what works 'best' in one organization can be a disaster when force fit to another."

And XpertHR summarises this focus on best fit by emphasising that "reward offerings must be driven by organisational needs and capabilities, rather than by a compulsion to follow trends."

So it's a bit of a worry that the CIPD's 2008 Rewards Survey finds that adopting a formal reward strategy has fallen from top reward priority in 2007 to sixth place this year, leading to a “semi-detached” approach to reward in which there is a “disjoint between what organisations espouse about reward, and what their reward offerings actually achieve".

"Reward specialists therefore need to work on a cohesive and compelling, [best fit] 'vision and mission' for reward in 2008, if reward objectives are to be achieved."