Background to Unit – Reward Management

The reward management unit provides the learner with a wide understanding of how the business context drives reward strategies and policies, including labour market, industrial and sector trends, regional differences and trends in pay and international comparisons; the financial drivers of the organisation, the balance sheet and the impact of reward costs. The learner is required to gather and evaluate intelligence on a wide range of reward data and show how this impacts upon business decisions. The learner will acquire knowledge of the perspectives, principles and policies of reward from a theoretical and strategic focus and learn how to implement them in practice. The learner will be able to assess the contribution of reward to business viability and advise on the appropriateness of policies and practices to line managers to promote employee performance.

Your task (3,900 words)

Using your own organisation (or one with which you are familiar), investigate the reward environment and produce a written report in which you:

1.Assess the context of the reward environment and the key perspectives that inform reward decisions. In this section you should: (AC 1.1, 1.2)

• Use an appropriate analysis tool to identify the internal and external factors that impact an organisation’s reward policy (e.g. SWOT, PESTLE, etc)
• Analyse the particular impact of business drivers and related factors on reward decisions e.g. affordability, market position, etc
• Give examples of different (at least three) types of reward intelligence and how it is gathered and presented.

2.Demonstrate your understanding of key reward principles and the implementation of reward policies and practices. In this section you should: (AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2)

• Evaluate the principle of total rewards and its importance to reward strategy.
• Identify and explain the importance of equity, fairness, consistency and transparency in terms of how they should underpin reward policies and practices. You may illustrate your understanding of these key principles by referring to good practice or relevant legislation
• Assess the contribution of both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to improving employee contribution and sustained organisation performance. Refer to academic research and the literature in this area and illustrate with examples of good practice.
• Explain how reward policy initiatives and practices are implemented in your chosen organisation.

3.Demonstrate your understanding of the role of line managers in making reward decisions. In this section you should: (AC 3.1)

• Explain the various ways line managers contribute to reward decision-making.