Publications

This report sets out the findings of a qualitative study of organisations' experiences of conducting equal pay reviews (EPRs). It is based on findings from 15 case studies which involved interviews with employer, trade union and line management representatives who had been involved in conducting an EPR.

This paper advises employers and HR practitioners about approaches to managing 'knowledge workers'. The author defines knowledge workers, discusses their importance, and discusses how best to manage them, covering potential issues and problems such as performance management, reward systems and work organisation.

This report is the second volume of research papers on reward issues produced by IES. It deals with flexible benefits and total reward, non-financial recognition, market-determined pay and variable pay.

What are job families? Why are job families used in reward systems? What are the advantages of reward-linked job families? What do job families look like? This paper addresses these problems and discusses the practical issues and problems associated with job families.

Local base pay or local allowance systems face common issues compared with using national renumeration structures but there are differences. We consider both the general cases for and against localised pay, and specific points of difference between the alternative routes. We conclude with a checklist of points for employers to consider before they proceed down the local pay route.

The report critically examines why organisations choose to introduce team, skill or competency based pay. It looks at the evidence of whether many organisations are operating these practices. It considers what benefits they have found, but equally what difficulties they have faced. This involves reviewing the mechanics of how organisations operate such devices and the sort of design decisions they have to make.

This paper describes the use of competencies in reward systems and highlights both the attractions of such an approach and the potential problems and pitfalls that may have contributed to its limited application.

This paper outlines the nature of total reward and flexible benefits. It describes how common such schemes are in the UK and sets out the reasons for introducing these remuneration initiatives. Common problems and obstacles are reviewed and some practical questions are looked at.

This research examines the extent of gender equality in the pay structures and pay practices of larger organisations. It focuses, in particular, on equal pay reviews. This publication is no longer available.

This paper describes how IES has helped employers to make changes to their reward strategies and payment systems, and highlights common 'pressure points' and solutions.