The organisation’s report Managing Reward Risks: An Integrated Approach found 15% of respondents think their organisation is poorly prepared to deal with these risks, up from 9% in 2009, while 15% claim their organisation is well prepared (compared with 17% in 2009).
Concerns about the overall effectiveness of the pay and benefits package to attract and retain key talent have increased in significance over the past year, reflecting concerns employers have not been competing effectively in the labour market as the economy has started to show signs of recovery.
The ability to change pay and benefit practices (ranked number four), the ability of line managers to manage reward (ranked number two) and the ability to engage employees through pay and benefits (ranked number three) are high on the list of concerns for 2010.
Pension costs and general reward affordability concerns are higher in the public and voluntary sectors than in the private sector (increasing pension costs are ranked five and three in the public and voluntary sectors respectively compared to 17 in the private sector, while not enough cash to meet reward commitments is four and 11 respectively and 14 in the private sector).
The public sector is also more likely to express fears that their approach to reward was causing poor industrial relations (with attitudes of the trade unions towards the reward strategy is 10, compared to 13 in the voluntary and 32 in the private sector
Charles Cotton, performance and reward adviser at the CIPD, said: "The past 12 months have been a turbulent time for many employers in terms of pay and benefits practice. They are fearful that the way that reward helps them attract, retain and motivate their employees is no longer appropriate.
"While the private sector is concerned that their reward practices will not help them if the economic recovery is sustained, in contrast the public sector is concerned that their reward practices won’t help them as their economy starts to decline.