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Last updated: 23 November 2008
The Cabinet Office's Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat hosted a seminar to discuss 'total rewards' in the public sector on Thursday 7 December. Representatives from across the public sector attended the event, which was opened by Paul Britton, Head of the Domestic Policy Group at the Cabinet Office.
Paul said:
'The public sector is well placed to make pay and reward deals that were as good as if not better than many in the private sector. In particular, public sector employers had a lot to offer in respect of pensions, training and development and flexible working. Private sector employers find these benefits hard to match and public sector employers could do far more to draw attention to the many attractions of working in today's public services.'
The main speaker at the event was Duncan Brown, the Assistant Director General of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the author of many books on reward strategy. Other speakers included Christopher Johnson, the director of Civil Service employment and reward, Emma Lochhead and Kim Worts, the Central Office of Information's Director of Human Resources and Head of Strategic Consultancy and Stephen Moir, the Director of Human Resources at Cambridgeshire County Council.
They covered the philosophy behind the total rewards concept and how it had developed and been applied in the UK's public sector. But while total rewards thinking was generally accepted, putting it into practice was far from routine. Emma Lochhead, Kim Worts and Stephen Moir talked about how they had done just this in their organisations, and the many benefits it had brought.
Iola Goulton of the Hay Group, which had worked with the Cabinet Office to develop a Total Rewards Toolkit, explained how it worked and showed how easy it was to use.
The seminar then split into groups to look at the main obstacles to adopting a total reward approach in the public sector and how those obstacles can be overcome. Each group was asked to focus on one of the following areas:
In closing, the seminar's chair, Paula McDonald, Deputy Director for Pay and Workforce Reform at the Cabinet Office, paid tribute to participants' enthusiasm for greater use of a total rewards approach and their commitment to making changes in their organisations. She also thanked them for the suggestions they had put forward to help others make best use of the total rewards concept and Toolkit. She said:
'This event has shown the value of making greater use of total rewards theory and practice. We need to ensure that it is realised through better knowledge of the rewards available in our organisations and across the public sector and through better communications between human resources departments, line managers and staff. For its part, the Cabinet Office will take away today's suggestions and messages and bring forward new ways providing practical support, for example, through the Toolkit and the Workforce Matters web site. It will also look to see that total rewards thinking and practice are reflected in public sector pay and workforce strategies and in the comprehensive spending review.'