Mark Glinwood, Partner at Distinctive People, is joined by Mark Strong, Reward and Benefits Manager at Riverside, to reflect on how reward has evolved over the past decade. Coinciding with Distinctive People’s 10-year anniversary, they explore shifts in pay structures, culture, leadership, and the innovations shaping future reward strategies.
Reward focus has moved from predetermined structures to outcome driven strategies aligned with business goals. Economic pressures have highlighted that reward extends beyond pay to culture, flexibility, and employee experience, with retention now central. Traditional incremental pay is being replaced by bespoke structures valuing behaviours, outcomes, and flexibility, while wellbeing and engagement have become integral to leadership thinking.
Regulation, including equal pay audits, has encouraged innovative approaches, balancing flexibility with fairness. Technology has transformed reward management, from large-scale benchmarking to global recruitment, while remote work, mobility, and AI are reshaping roles and skills, demanding evolving reward strategies.
Total reward has emerged as critical. Employees increasingly value time, flexibility, and purpose driven initiatives like volunteering leave. Many organisations now use a balanced scorecard approach to design reward strategies that serve the organisation, workforce, customers, and future talent.
Reflecting on a decade of change, Mark Glinwood sees reward as more strategic, flexible, and people centre, a key enabler of culture, retention, and organisational success. Celebrating 10 years, he concludes: “Reward strategies today are about flexibility, fairness, and outcomes, helping organisations succeed by valuing people in the ways that matter most.”
