Why you need a Fractional Reward Director

You need the brainpower of an expert in Reward, but you probably don't need them forever, and you don't need them full time, all the time. In fact, what you most likely need is a senior Reward Head assigned specifically to your organisation on a fractional basis. What on earth does fractional mean? Is fractional something to do with turning pay review percentages into fractions?? No, read on!

Whilst it has been around for a few years now, fractional working is now increasingly in demand in the HR and Finance space in particular. We have yet to see a Fractional Reward Director offering in the UK, although we already offer something akin to this at a more junior level that we call embedded.

Fractional resource is in demand especially in the established SME, start-up and scale-up markets where businesses don't necessarily require resource on a full-time basis or perceive they have the budget for hiring experienced expertise. For the fractional executive, this enables them to work with multiple clients in a way that is beneficial for both the individual and the businesses they serve. It might be called fractional as the client gets a proportion or fraction of the individual's time, or indeed at a fraction of the cost of a full time or permanent!

Fractional Reward refers to a model where organisations hire Reward professionals on a part-time or limited basis rather than having a full-time, in-house staff. So this could be a part-time, retainer, or contract arrangement. This can be especially beneficial for medium sized organisations that may not have the workload or resources to hire a full-time professional but still need expertise in the area. Reward Heads already provide what we refer to as embedded resources - a Reward person to be part of your team for a certain amount of time each week for a period. We never make them full time as we retail the responsibility for their development. You don't need to provide a detailed project scope - they may ensure that the BAU wheels stay on with levelling and benchmarking roles or carry out a BAU project like pay review, or support on a specific project. But we are part of the team and treat colleagues and employees as if they were our own. We seek to truly understand the organisation and what it is trying to do, we don't present and go. We don't have standard models. Embedded is an extension of our bespoke approach to our client projects.

A full-time Reward Director oversees and maintains all of the BAU activity of Reward from ensuring robust benchmarking and levelling takes place to making pay review happen, agreeing and delivering bonus schemes and ensuring that they are paid, attending RemCo and so on, and an interim RD would typical be doing this between RD hires or sometimes for a specific project. They are there for thinking and leading and not for transactional activity. We can provide embedded resource for that more transactional activity.

Fractional RDs most commonly partner with companies to help overcome specific reward challenges - in the recruitment, retention, motivation and key talent particularly if there is a major event such as a merger or takeover with differing Ts and Cs, a major piece of legislation or identified risk. They help to support business growth and profit, succession planning and ensuring an organisation can get the most out of what is typically its greatest cost or asset - its people. Hiring a fractional Reward Director for startups, or for established businesses, is a smart move!

So what would a Fractional Reward Director do? The remit is wide but could be:

• Creating a reward strategy to increase profitability and growth
• Reviewing org design to ensure roles are logically set up and have the appropriate reward packages - managing people cost with strategic workforce planning
• Leading post-merger integration Reward plans e.g. on harmonising or grandfathering
• Reducing risks and increasing equity with values-aligned Reward practices such as pay policies, benefits offerings and equal pay reviews
• Improving the HR function with coaching, mentoring and developing in-house reward capability
• Being an expert thinking partner for the CEO, CPO and wider Exec team

Why fractional not interim?

• Flexibility - could be cyclical, could be related to an event but interim is still most days for a fixed period and not as flexible as fractional which could be only a few hours a week or extra if there is a specific project or event
• Cost saving - not full time and outside IR35 - not paying holidays, sickness, training, development as someone on the payroll would be
• Expertise - Reward is a specialist area
• Address specific needs and knowledge gaps in a technical area - most HRDs and CPOs do not come from a Reward background so we can help develop your internal team, be they HR or more junior Reward
• Broader perspective from the market and other clients - an interim could do that but would not have a large team with a range of client experiences behind them
• The end is in sight - fractionals are on our books not yours and their employment rights sit with us. And so if you need to end the contract, we need 4 weeks' notice not the 3-6 months that would typically be the case with someone at this level.

The end is in sight - fractionals are on our books not yours and their employment rights sit with us. And so if you need to end the contract, we need 4 weeks' notice not the 3-6 months that would typically be the case with someone at this level.

Interested? Please contact our CEO, Victoria Milford at rewardsolutions@rewardheads.co.uk.

Claire Williams - Consulting Director