Hyper-Personalizing Compensation and Benefits: 5 Actions to Take

Hyper-personalization is everywhere these days, and the workplace is no different. Today’s employees need to be recognized as individuals in order to thrive, do their best work, and remain engaged. And HR leaders understand that a one-size-fits-all approach to compensation and benefits doesn’t best serve their people or the organization. 

Progressive employers are embracing a hyper-personalized approach to benefits, leveraging rewards regarded as high value to their workforce. 

What is hyper-personalization? 

Hyper-personalization, as it relates to an employee’s experience and market value, means creating an experience, compensation model, and benefits tailored to their needs and preferences as an individual. 

Why hyper-personalization matters 

Traditionally, personalization in the workplace has included things like listening to feedback, providing career advancement opportunities, and recognizing achievements. While these remain valid pillars of a great employee experience, today’s workers want something more — and if they don’t get it, they’re likely to move on to other opportunities. 

Compensation should not be the only reward in your toolkit. Other rewards and benefits can include things that employees actually find meaningful. Among these are benefits that support mental and financial health and, perhaps most importantly, promote inclusion and a sense of belonging — often the most hyper-personalized and appreciated. 

Employees who are offered hyper-personalized benefits are more: 

• Engaged in the workplace culture 
• Productive at work 
• Invested in the organization’s success 

Here are five actions that HR leaders can take now to address their employees’ market value in 2023: 

1. Go beyond compensation 

What we are paid has a short shelf life in our memory and little impact on engagement. Look beyond compensation at what makes people feel welcome, accepted, and included. To better engage employees — and keep them motivated— consider things that people will remember long-term like the feeling people get when they are recognized or when their potential is being realized in their roles. Employees feel seen and appreciated by offering a broad range of benefits and innovative ways to deliver them. 

2. Rethink traditional bonuses 

If a bonus structure is part of your organization’s legacy recognition structure and you need to maintain it, think about recognizing performance in a more personalized way. Consider how much more effective retention bonuses would be if they were tied to milestones or activities that kept them top-of-mind for employees and broadened their sense of completion, engagement, and connection to the organization. 

3. Incorporate a spectrum of compensation into everyday practices 

Compensation, recognition, and benefits are better understood and valued when they are part of practices applied widely and consistently across the organization. Make it part of your organization’s practice to offer a broad spectrum of benefits and embed them into the employee experience, from recognizing micro-performance moments to encouraging team collaboration and development — and everywhere in between. 

4. Be transparent 

An open and upfront approach about the importance and availability of hyper-personalized benefits is far more likely to make employees feel organizational support for their whole selves — their financial health, mental health, and overall well-being.  By highlighting the benefits available, employees are more likely to take advantage of them, feel a greater sense of belonging and value, and be more engaged. 

5. Ensure that your leaders lead by example 

One of the best ways to get at the hyper-personalization of really impactful benefits, such as belonging, is when leaders are seen as openly vulnerable and talk about them. By being the example, employees feel encouraged to mirror that behavior, also showing up as their authentic selves – the most personalized of all benefits of being in a workplace. 

The role of technology in hyper-personalization 

To help hyper-personalize the employee compensation and benefits experience, HR leaders are leaning on technology to do the heavy lifting. 

With the right platform, you can uncover and address the unique needs of your diverse workforce — providing them with a choice in how they’re rewarded so that they feel recognized and appreciated.