As we near the end of 2024, we asked some of our expert consultants to share their thoughts, key learnings and points of note from working across our broad range of clients this year.
Pay Transparency - Justine Woolf, Director of Consulting
As the EU Pay Transparency Directive implementation deadline of mid-2026 moves closer, I’ve spoken with a lot of clients about what pay transparency might mean for their organisation in practical terms. I also enjoyed talking about this at the REBA Future Forum. It is apparent that there is a lot of willingness and appetite but still uncertainty and trepidation about how best to proceed.
For businesses serious about this, they have been getting levelling structures in place, underpinned by robust Job Evaluation, reviewing pay policies to ensure they are reflective of practices and thinking about how best to collate the required data. We are building up a strong body of work in this area now and are in place to help and advise. More on Justine >
‘Making work pay’ - Sarah Lardner, Director of Business Innovation, Senior Principal Consultant
The geopolitical landscape has posed challenges for business and ongoing conflicts are affecting the global economy, impacting businesses and individuals. In the UK, the new government has made a pledge to ‘Make Work Pay’ and the Autumn budget has given UK businesses a lot to consider - primarily, how to juggle rising personnel costs with retaining talent and continuing their planned hiring efforts.
It is a balancing act that we anticipate playing out all through 2025 and it will be fascinating to see how our clients manage it. More about Sarah >
Wage compression and offsetting business costs - Cathryn Edmondson, Lead Consultant
Costs have increased significantly over the last few years due to inflation and the recently announced increases to NMW/NLW have kick-started the debate again around how to manage those costs. One hot topic has been how to mitigate and manage wage compression, and many clients have been reviewing their pay frameworks and pay progression approaches.
In cases where costs have to be absorbed, the conversations have been around how to drive performance and productivity so that business performance offsets increased costs. In some cases, this has been about variable pay but often focuses more broadly on recognition, culture and maximising the EVP. More about Cathryn >
Focus on Job Evaluation - Holly Coe, Senior Reward Consultant
From my perspective there has certainly been a greater focus on Job Evaluation in 2024. The organisations we work with want to do the right thing for their employees, and make sure that they can assess individual jobs in an objective and defensible way, avoiding bias, prejudice or discrimination.
It does feel like UK companies are preparing themselves for an inevitable wave of Pay Transparency rules affecting the EU from 2026, and a resulting change of mindset here. More about Holly >
Renewed focus on Benefits - Simon Cook, Senior Consultant
All the recent focus on pay has meant that many employers have neglected benefits. With pay awards not able to match inflation, many companies have opted to revisit the relevance and vitality of their benefits packages in the post-pandemic working environment.
Successful companies have been able to clearly communicate the total value of the package offered, and even enhance their benefits offering. More about Simon >
Pay Structures - Spencer Hughes, Reward Consultant
Pay Structures are currently front of mind in helping to tackle pay inequity and enabling greater transparency in processes and communication.
Often, clients have experience of designing or implementing Pay Structures from their previous organisations, but crucially lack expertise managing that structure going forward, or knowing how employees best operate within it. Some clients are needing help and guidance with future-proofing the structures they put in place. More about Spencer >
