Reward and performance management programmes are not keeping pace with the demands facing businesses, according to a study by Towers Perrin. 

The research found that despite enormous shifts in the business landscape over the past decade most companies have made minimal changes in the design and delivery of their base pay, incentive and performance management programmes. 

It found that as a result, current programmes do not appear to be meeting talent and people management needs effectively, especially in an environment increasingly focused on attracting and retaining people at all levels in an organisation.

Jim Crawley, principal at Towers Perrin, says: “Overwhelmingly, we found that companies are making incremental changes in reward and performance management programmes and they’re doing so year in and year out.

“Our data confirm what amounts to a pattern of ‘tweaking’ at the edges of programmes, rather than creating the more systemic and integrated approach required to address the scope, intensity and magnitude of change on the business side.”