The ongoing integration of total rewards

A growing number of organizations will claim that they attract, motivate, and retain their key talent with a total-rewards approach. But this deliberate integration of compensation, benefits, work-life, career development, and recognition is often less than total, especially at companies where the elements of a total-rewards program may be managed in disparate functions -- sometimes even outside of the human-resources realm. The good news is that more companies appear to be recognizing this and moving in the right direction, according to a recent survey, "The State of Total Rewards Integration," by Mercer and the Worldatwork association, which polled 741 multinational companies in early 2010 on how far they have come in adopting total rewards. Regardless of how they define it or how fully integrated their total-rewards programs may be, there's sufficient clarity as to the organizational goals for implementation of the program.