Research and Surveys

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Recent Surveys

Total Rewards Implementation and Integration
A Report by WorldatWork and Mercer
August 2010

Total rewards is a term that has now been used by HR professionals for more than 10 years to describe the concept that several employment factors (such as compensation, benefits and work-life amenities) can be strategically applied, in unison, to deliver desired employee attraction, motivation and retention. Although the concept has been adopted in companies across a wide variety of industries and countries around the world, many organizations have chosen to define and implement it in their own way.

In early 2010, WorldatWork and Mercer conducted a survey of WorldatWork members with the specific intent of examining how organizations are both adopting and adapting total rewards today — more than 10 years into the life of the concept.

View the complete results

WorldatWork Sponsored Research: Organizational Culture and Total Rewards — Person-Organiztion Fit
Michael M. Harris, Ph.D., University of Missouri-St. Louis
July 2010

Despite a relatively large body of academic literature on the subject, important questions remain regarding the general fit between a person and his/her environment (P-E fit) as well as person-organization fit (P-O fit). More specifically, one area that has been relatively unexplored is the relationship between P-O fit and total rewards systems.

The minimal research that has been conducted on the subject seems to support a link, but details are lacking. This study:

• Used a broader measure of P-O fit than was used in earlier research on total rewards systems. This comprehensive evaluation has helped to more fully explain the overall fit between an organization and an employee as it relates to reactions to the total rewards system.
• Examined more parameters of total rewards.
• Included employee engagement, a relatively new construct that has been defined in a variety of ways, as a potential outcome in the research model.
• Using a 40-item organizational cultural profile (OCP), research participants rated:
  • Their own values
  • Their perceptions of their organizations’ values
  • The importance to themselves of each of the major rewards elements included in the WorldatWork Total Rewards Model as well as their satisfaction with each component
  • Their overall work engagement.

View the complete results

The Impact of Rewards Programs on Employee Engagement
A Report by WorldatWork, Dow Scott, Ph.D., Loyola University and Tom McMullen, Hay Group
July 2010

In response to the economic crisis, employers are concerned about keeping employees
engaged after they have suffered through wage freezes, lost bonuses, increased work demands and downsizing. Motivating employees under these circumstances while recognizing that once the economy improves top talent may leave for other opportunities has created a new corporate battle cry: employee engagement.

This survey determines how total rewards programs and employee engagement are related. It also helps determine whether total rewards programs are associated with organization performance by focusing on the following:

• Which reward policies and practices are associated with employee
  engagement?
• Does involvement in the development of pay programs enhance employee
  engagement?
• Is employee engagement associated with organization performance?

View the complete results

Paid Time Off Programs and Practices
A Survey Brief by WorldatWork
June 2010

Organizations are regularly faced with the evaluation of various paid time off programs. Traditional paid time off systems separate time-off categories between vacation, sick, personal time etc. Managers and total rewards professionals are subsequently obligated to track employees’ time off and the reasons for their absences. Many employers are instead adopting a paid time off (PTO) bank giving the employee a cumulative number of paid days off that employees use as they wish for sick days, vacation and/or other personal needs.

WorldatWork conducted a survey to examine the prevalence and practice of various paid time off programs in the United States to better understand the practices of organizations with either PTO-bank style or traditional systems (e.g. vacation time, sick time, personal days, etc.). This report summarizes the survey on paid time off programs.

View the complete results

The State of Work-Life 2010
WFD Consulting and Alliance for Work-Life Progress
June 2010

Work-Life is alive and well. Senior management commitment is robust and budgets and staffing are holding their own. Yet, there is a curious mismatch between the most serious workforce issues companies are facing and where they are investing their resources in 2010.

View the complete results

WorldatWork Sponsored Research: Beyond Compensation: How Employees Prioritize Total Rewards at Various Life Stages Margaret Leaf and Rebecca Ryan, Next Generation Consulting April 2010 In 2008-2009, Next Generation Consulting (NGC) teamed with WorldatWork to study how employees at different life stages prioritize their rewards. It was hypothesized that the relative importance of the five total rewards elements (compensation, benefits, work-life, performance and recognition, and development and career opportunities) is based on life stage, including age, work experience, parental status and other demographic variables. View the complete results

Watch an interview with Rebecca Ryan, Next Generation Consulting.

WorldatWork Sponsored Research: The Relative Influence of Total Rewards Elements on Attraction, Motivation and Retention Stephanie C. Payne, Ph.D., Michael K. Shaub, Ph.D. Allison Cook, Margaret T. Horner, Wendy R. Boswell, Ph.D., Texas A&M University April 2010 This research examined the relative influence of WorldatWork's five rewards elements on individual attraction, motition and retention, as well as the boundary condition for these relationships. It was proposed that the relative importance of each element would differ depending on the outcome of interest. View the complete results

Watch an interview with Stephanie C. Payne, Ph.D., Texas A&M University

Retirement Plan Options in the U.S.
A Snapshot Survey by WorldatWork
April 2010

Due to interest from members relating to the Department of Labor’s xploration of ways to enhance the retirement security of workers by promoting the use of annuity options in employer-sponsored plan, WorldatWork conducted a snapshot survey to quickly gauge current practices and opinions.

View the complete results

Executive Compensation Case Studies: A Supplement to the WorldatWork Executive Rewards Questionary
Diane Vavrasek and WorldatWork
January 2010

In 2007, the all-volunteer Executive Rewards Advisory Board of WorldatWork, a group of practitioners working in the executive compensation field, came together to produce the WorldatWork Executive Rewards Questionary: Optimize Executive Compensation Design. This WorldatWork sponsored research report responds to a question that was posed since the publication of the Questionary: Would the use of this one-of-akind tool have had any effect on some of the highly publicized and embarrassing executive compensation situations of the past decade. The simple answer, as shown in this report, is yes.

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Broad-based equity plans have been a feature of organizational life for many companies over the past several decades. But how relevant are these plans today, in the aftermath of a major equity market downturn and the expensing of options? Do they still represent good value – either for the employee or the company? Do these plans help align employee and shareholder interests?

This report draws on research conducted during the summer of 2009, including a survey of 800 companies, case study interviews, and a review of academic literature. The report also contains a schedule of the current tax treatment around the world.

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2009 was a very challenging year for the U.S. economy. It faced the worst recession in 80 years. As a result, many businesses implemented reductions in force (RIFs) to bring costs in line with lower sales that were largely due to significant declines in consumer spending. In this turbulent economic market, sales compensation plan designs faced unprecedented challenges in aligning salesforce execution with business strategy.

Nearly two-thirds of organizations reported changing sales compensation plan design in 2009. Yet, the proportion of organizations reporting plan changes this year is consistent with previous years. The recession was just another factor contributing to the characteristic frequency with which organizations make changes to sales compensation plans. Indeed, nearly 80% of survey respondents indicated the typical period between making meaningful changes to sales compensation plans was every two years or less.

View the complete results

Watch an interview with Bruce Spiegel, Principal and Leader of Buck Consultants Global Resource

Weathering the Economic Downturn
A Research Report by Buck Consultants and WorldatWork
September 2009

During these times of economic uncertainty, it is important to understand what organizations are doing to sustain and even grow their business. Buck Consultants has conducted the following exclusive survey in partnership with WorldatWork to evaluate what organizations are doing to save costs during these times.

View the complete results

Due to interest from members relating to the U.S. health-care reform debate, WorldatWork conducted a snapshot survey to quickly gauge current practices and opinions. This brief survey concentrates on only a couple of the focus areas in this national debate: taxation of benefits and wellness programs.

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Watch an interview with Charles Grantham, Ph.D., Work Design Collaborative WorldatWork Sponsored Research: Flexible Work Arrangements for Nonexempt Employees Charles Grantham, Ph.D., Work Design Collaborative Jim Ware, Ph.D., Work Design Collaborative Jennifer E. Swanberg, Ph.D., Institute for Workplace Innovation, University of Kentucky July 2009 Work is evolving at a dizzying speed in the United States. In the past decade, more work has started shifting to service- and information-based industries, inexpensive hand-held communication devices are pervasive, and the face of the workforce has changed dramatically. Today, the workforce is more diverse than ever, and it will include more hourly or “nonexempt” employees as the United States continues moving toward a service- and information-dominated economy. The goal of this research was to develop a better understanding of how a new, smarter management model might be developed for dealing with the challenges of this work environment. Specifically, the study focused on the ability and limitations of nonexempt workers to participate in a work design that goes by many different names: Telecommuting Distributed work Alternative work. View the complete results Reward Next Practices A Global Survey by WorldatWork and Hay Group June 2009 The intent of the survey was to determine how rewards program strategy, design and implementation would evolve over the next two to three years, particularly in light of rapidly changing business conditions. Survey respondents were asked to rate the current emphasis their organization places on different aspects of broad-based reward programs as well as whether they would increase, decrease or maintain their focus on these aspects of rewards in the future. View the complete results Severance and Change-in-Control Practices A Research Report by WorldatWork and Innovative Compensation and Benefits Concepts LLC (ICBC) May 2009 The current economic environment is dramatically different than those of any of the past three survey years (2003, 2005 and 2007), and this is clearly reflected in this year’s survey results. With companies trying to survive what several experts have called the deepest recession since the Great Depression, many have identified their most immediate cost-cutting weapon to be the reduction in force (RIF) or layoff. Several years of stock market gains have been erased in a matter of weeks, for some companies resulting in stock market levels not seen since 1998. Since the RIF/layoff is such a prevalent tool in this recession, knowing how to design an effective and responsible severance and CIC program has never been more important than it is today. View the complete results Alignment of Strategies, Structures and Reward Programs: A Survey of Policies, Practices and Effectiveness A Report by WorldatWork, Dow Scott, Ph.D., Loyola University, Tom McMullen and Bill Bowbin, Hay Group and John Shields, Ph.D., University of Sydney May 2009 A competitive business advantage is derived from the alignment of business strategies and reward programs. For compensation professionals, this is practically an axiom, similar to the saying “practice makes perfect” for the musician or the formula “E=MC2” for physicists. While academicians and consultants place great importance on the alignment of reward strategies and programs with business strategy, research on the topic is limited. As a result, the research team from Hay Group, WorldatWork and Loyola University Chicago surveyed a representative sample of WorldatWork members to determine how they formulate and align their business strategies, organization structure and reward programs. Then the team examined the effects of competitive strategy alignment with organizational structure, pay policies and programs relative to three measures of organization performance. View the complete results WorldatWork Sponsored Research: Implications of Employer-Supplied Connectivity Devices Gayle Porter, Ph.D., Professor of Management Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Business – Camden March 2009 Technology now allows connectivity 24/7, and many employers are — or are considering — furnishing hand-held electronic devices to members of their workforces. In the best conditions, this can facilitate work efficiency and improve work-life effectiveness. In other situations, it may communicate to employees that they are expected to never disconnect from work, and potentially either foster resentment or enable unhealthy work behaviors. Through a survey of 627 employees across multiple organizations and industries, this research explored the prevalence of employer-supplied connectivity devices, along with users’ work habits, beliefs about their companies’ culture and perception of the intended message when their employers supplies these devices. View the complete results Job Evaluation and Market Pricing Practices 2009 A Research Report by WorldatWork . February 2009 This report summarizes the findings from a WorldatWork survey on job evaluation prevalence and market-pricing practices. WorldatWork sought to explore the trends in job evaluation methods, both internal and external, and to provide useful information about the most common market-pricing practices in use today. View the complete results Telework Trendlines 2009 A Research Report by WorldatWork Data collected by The Dieringer Research Group Inc. February 2009 When gasoline prices shot past $3 in mid-2008 on their way to $4 per gallon or more in some areas, both employers and employees began looking for relief. Alternatives immediately were explored and implemented. Transit subsidies, carpooling, vanpooling and, of course, telecommuting quickly rose to the surface because of their relative ease of implementation. But in 2008, telecommuting seemed to be in a different place than it had been before. In the 1980s, 1990s and even in the first part of this decade, the technology required to support remote work seemed to still lag behind the need. The proliferation of high-speed connectivity and the explosion of hand-held devices occurred during the early 2000s and have become a mainstream way of working for many employers and employees. Indeed, history may record someday that the technology required for productive remote working and the urgent need for remote working (due to high fuel prices) converged in 2008. But is there data to support this notion? WorldatWork is pleased to publish Telework Trendlines 2009, the latest in a set of longitudinal data collected by The Dieringer Research Group. View the complete results

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