Mercer Rewards Optimizer™ is a powerful tool. It allows you to identify the most effective rewards package to best meet the needs of your employees at the same or lower cost.

The optimization process consists of two primary inputs:

Workforce Preferences

• Measuring workforce preferences through a conjoint analysis survey
• Managing awareness and expectations
• Integrating an employee feedback experience seamlessly

Cost impact data

• Analyzing the cost implications of program changes
• Testing different packages using portfolio optimization
• Identifying the most effective combination of rewards features
• Obtaining detailed reporting and recommendations

Collecting Preferences through a Conjoint Survey

The first step is to measure employee preferences through a custom survey that includes a simple series of trade-off questions. Conjoint is a sophisticated research methodology that allows for a comprehensive understanding of the preferences that drive employee behavior, providing both the rank order and magnitude of preferences for the program features tested.

Bringing Together Preferences and Cost through Portfolio Optimization

The second step of total rewards optimization borrows the concept of the efficient frontier from economics, allowing us to gain insight into the impact that program changes will have on the behaviors of the employee population.

The efficient frontier provides us with a series of “optimized” packages, pinpointing the most efficient way to spend dollars and maximize employee preferences.

By leveraging this total rewards optimization concept, organizations can deliver a total rewards package that better satisfies the needs of employees at the same or lower cost to the organization simply by taking out “wasted” dollars and reinvesting them in under delivered rewards areas.

Mercer Rewards Optimizer™ solution can help your organization use the right combination of tools and services to access the data you need to drive actionable decision making deliver measurable results.

Contact us today to learn more about Mercer’s total rewards optimization solution.

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A large hospital system was having turnover challenges, particularly in the mid-career level nursing population. This was especially true among those with 3-5 years of experience within the system. An analysis on the cost of turnover revealed that not only was the system losing out on the investment they were making in these nurses, but it was impacting engagement and morale amongst the nursing population. Ultimately, this was impacting customer satisfaction.

To address this issue, the system conducted a Total Rewards Optimization project. They sought to understand how to invest resources in order to better retain this specific talent group. Results uncovered the need for extended family support for this nursing population both to allow them to care for their own families and child(ren), but also to support them in caring for aging loved ones who needed specialized medical care. As caregivers by trade, many of these nurses were also taking on the primary caregiving responsibilities in their extended families but were running into roadblocks in getting access to the specialized care their loved ones needed.

To address this need, the system implemented a program to allow workers to take advantage of annual visits to specialists within the hospital system. Implementing the program allowed nurses to better support their families and in turn offered a differentiator that helped impact the turnover numbers within the experienced nursing population.