Vlerick Expertise in Human Resource Management

Hudson and Vlerick Business School publish their HR Barometer annually to identify the most significant HR trends and challenges of the previous year. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the past year an exceptional one for everyone. In uncertain times, it was a challenge to set the right priorities. What impact did COVID-19 have on the performance of HR? Our online survey resulted in 104 organisations sharing their experiences and concerns. This year, the HR Barometer covered no less than 363,631 employees in Belgium through these organisations.

The number of CEOs of listed companies in Belgium and the Netherlands who received zero bonus for their performance last year rose from 1% (in 2019) to 16% (in 2020). One in five of all CEOs even found themselves forced to accept a lower fixed salary. All because of the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. These are the main conclusions of a new study by the Executive Remuneration Research Centre with 41 Belgian and 54 Dutch publicly traded companies, all of which had published their annual report by the time of the study and employed the same CEO. The study focused on the evolution of fixed and variable executive remuneration from 2019 to 2020.

Previous research by the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Rewards has proven that reward professionals consider reward communication to be increasingly important. Moreover, employee satisfaction with the communication on rewards has a positive impact on her/his perception of organisational support. A good Total Reward Statement offers an individualised and comprehensive overview of the financial and non-financial rewards offered by the employer. This white paper which is based on research and examples from practice shows that there are 7 characteristics of a great Total Reward Statement.

The expectations final-year students have of their first job are still high. Good communication with their colleagues, a sociable atmosphere and plenty of opportunities for training are at the top of the list. What is more, these millennials prioritise career security over job security. They consider their relationship with their first employer to be temporary, expecting to work for a whole range of different companies during their working life. However, the Covid-19 outbreak has toned down their optimism about the future. Now afraid that fewer jobs will be available to suit their skills and qualifications, they are once again attaching greater importance to job security.

If companies want to boost their short-term profitability, the best way to do it is to grant a high remuneration level and commit strongly to incentives such as bonuses and share-related reward schemes. It is striking, however, that this has a boomerang effect on the company’s longer-term financial performance. As it turns out, high variable pay and a strong emphasis on profitability criteria have a negative impact on company profits. This is a remarkable finding in the annual survey of top salaries by the Executive Remuneration Research Centre.

Agility is an emerging key dimension of business excellence. Yet, many organisations are still struggling with implementing agile approaches in the area of performance and reward management. That’s why the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Talent Management, the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Rewards and Chair partner Hudson joined forces for a new study that results in 10 key findings, each representing a phenomenon, trend or influence currently playing in agile working contexts.

Belgian companies are very dissatisfied with the fiscal and parafiscal levies on salaries. In particular, they are frustrated with the high taxation on fixed and variable salaries and the approach to taxation of the mobility budget. Only the taxation of supplementary pensions can count on any support. With a view to the future, many companies are arguing for extensive reforms, with as the basic principle a downscaling of the profusion of fiscal and parafiscal schemes for non-statutory benefits in combination with lower levies on the fundamental elements, and in particular, the fixed and variable salaries. These are the main findings of a detailed study by Professor Xavier Baeten on the taxation and social security of various remuneration tools.

In these turbulent times, it is more important than ever for organisations to have the right person in the right place at the right time. However, it is also good for employees to change roles regularly within the organisation: this gives them the opportunity to develop, learn new things and work with new people. In his PhD, Philip Rogiers investigated how the internal mobility of employees could be further improved. Although he studied this in a government context, his conclusions apply to all kinds of organisations.

To survive and excel in a volatile business context, it has been argued that organisations need to adopt a more purpose-driven approach in doing business that transcends profits. Creating and establishing such strong and shared corporate purpose, however, can be a complex process. In the whitepaper ‘The Case for Purpose: Demistifying the field’, Professor Koen Dewettinck and researcher Emmy Defever aim to provide a clear understanding of what purpose is and why it matters.

Vlerick’s Centre for Excellence in Strategic Talent Management has identified five career trends that have changed dramatically over the past few decades. These shifts are forcing organisations to change their approach to career development. A one-size-fits-all career path no longer exists. Instead, HR teams must provide frameworks and structures for people who want to craft their own journeys through professional life.