Supporting the business strategy is the most important role of the reward function, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Its fourth annual reward survey of 477 organisations shows that the second most important reward role is developing a reward strategy, and providing reward support for line managers is the third most important reward activity.
However, the most time-consuming activity is reward administration, cited by 63% of the respondents. This is followed by the implementation of reward policies (58%) and providing specialist input to the wider business (49%).
The findings show that 45% of the responding employers either have, or are in the process of creating a written reward strategy, highlighting the importance of aligning business and reward goals.
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The key aims of such strategies included supporting business goals (79%), to reward high performers (64%), to recruit and retain high performers (62%) and to link pay to the market (53%).