Creating a new employment deal: Total rewards and the new workforce

Abstract

Few things are as obvious as the fact that individuals differ. They have different genes, genders, ages, skin colors, skills, and motives — to mention some of the key ones! Because individuals differ, when organizations deal with them, they face a number of challenges. These range from taking account of employee skill differences to dealing with their differing preferences and motives. An organization that treats all individuals the same runs the very great risk of treating almost no one in the optimal way. On the other hand, an organization that treats everybody as an individual runs the risk of creating an incredibly complex organization that is haunted by complexity, confusion and potential charges of favoritism, unfair treatment and bias. There always have been large individual differences in the workforces of most organizations and societies. Indeed, the field of industrial psychology (now called industrial-organizational) was built on this very issue. However, the extent and nature of these differences is not a constant over time. There are a number of reasons why the extent to which individuals differ in the workforces of most organizations today is much greater than it ever has been, and why significant new differences have appeared. Further, even more differences are likely to appear in the next decade. As a result, organizations need to move from a one-size-fits-all employment deal, to an employment deal that is based on individualization.