The retail grocery and food and beverage manufacturing industry is rapidly approaching 2022. We want to provide some important things to consider as you are crafting your executive compensation plans to attract the industry’s most sought-after leadership talent.
Here are some of the current trends that indicate what the future may bring, even with so many unknowns still up in the air. We hope you find this helpful and informative when searching for your next executives.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Various Compensation Plans
What does your executive compensation plan look like?
Ideally, the most attractive plan will balance the support of your company’s goals and align with your corporate strategy. But a great benefit and compensation plan will also discourage self-serving tendencies and instead incentivize your executives to contribute to the long-term growth and profitability of the business.
The variety of packages you may offer could differ dramatically depending on your business, your desired outcome, and the executives you seek.
Compensation Plans For More Immediate Results
Some compensation plans are geared to produce immediate results but are not sustainable for a longstanding growth strategy. Some brief examples are bonuses tied to production and cost-reduction benchmarks, and overall effectiveness
Many executives prefer these benefits because they have a more noticeable impact on the executive’s paycheck and are easier to quantify according to performance and growth metrics.
While these compensation plans can be useful in motivating productivity year over year, they are less effective in increasing overall value and sustainable growth.
Additionally, there is a conflict of interest that should be considered: many executives have oversight to the metrics to which their compensation is measured, and ultimately, tied. Therefore, safeguards should be taken to eliminate the inherent temptation to manipulate the results in order to receive a higher bonus.
Win/Win Compensation Plans
The most effective compensation plans are based on a win/win model: their ultimate purpose is to incentivize the executive to act on behalf of your business and work to increase value and drive the long-term growth and profitability of the company.
Examples of these could include incentives such as deferred compensation and profit-sharing plans or compensation that is ultimately higher but matures over a longer period, such as phantom or restricted stock options with appreciation rights and profit interests.
These incentives may not be the shot-in-the-arm that your immediate packages could offer. But ultimately, they are far more effective in getting the executive’s buy-in to act on behalf of the company as more of a contributor with a long-term strategy, rather than according to their self-interest with more short-sighted goals.
You could choose to offer a variety of incentives. You could even diversify to include some more immediate results that could motivate an executive today, mixed with other compensation that will incentivize higher performance and retention over the long term. Ultimately, it’s important to keep in mind how the success of these plans pivots on two important details:
- How strategically aligned their mechanics are tailored to your overall business goals.
- Highlight and clearly present how your plan translates to the executive’s own personal wealth.
Increased Benefits and Perks
The wave of employer confidence in hiring is fueling competition for top employees. This, in turn, is fueling a need for increased benefits to attract the top talent.
In 2021, 48% of employers took a strong stance on attracting the industry’s top executives by offering a signing bonus. But it doesn’t stop there. Today’s executives are savvier than ever. We can presume employers who don’t offer a signing bonus will either be asked for benefits of equal value, whether that’s more flexibility or other financial perks.
These days, we’re hearing from executives in the retail grocery and food/beverage manufacturing industries that attractive benefits packages and perks can be just as important, if not more important than their base salary when considering a new position.
In 2022, businesses can expect some of the top benefits executives will be looking for are an increase in health and dental insurance, paid time off, retirement savings plans, as well as robust signing bonuses and relocation allowances. While we may see an increased demand for better benefits, we feel 2022 will be known as the year when perks became a priority for all the industry’s top talent.
Of the perks today’s executives are looking for, the foremost is flexibility like remote work options or flexible schedules. Indeed, flexibility and the ability to have more of a work/life balance was one of the main reasons our CEO founded Curtis Food Recruiters in the first place.
Today’s executives know they can run a household and raise a family, all while contributing to a thriving career as long as their employer recognizes the importance of a work/life balance and makes proactive steps to support their employees in that regard.
Other perks we can expect will be front and center include:
- Child Care assistance
- Employee discounts
- Wellness programs
- Paid parental leave
- Stipends for home office equipment
- Mental health resources
Holistic Wellness Benefits
It is probably not a surprise that during a time when so many people faced an abundance of difficulties and so much uncertainty, executives would want better wellness benefits. Wellness benefits are becoming so popular, we predict that in 2022 wellness, specifically holistic wellness programs, will be at the forefront of an employer’s hiring strategy.
These benefits would include perks such as:
- Gym memberships and other physical wellness programs
- Retirement planning for financial wellness
- Stress reduction programs and other mental wellness programs
- Work/life balance initiatives like a compressed workweek or permanent, part-time arrangements
For employers whose hiring strategy focuses on long-term retention and growth, wellness benefits are especially important. They contribute to the long-term care and health of your executives, who, in turn, will be more capable and motivated to care for and grow your company for the long term as well.
Main Takeaway
Employers, if we could impress one thing you should take away from this, it would be the following statistic: starting salaries for executives across all industries are expected to increase by 3% in 2022.
Executive candidates are willing to look at the total package where salary is only part. It’s important to offer a robust compensation plan, as base compensation, bonus, relocation, LTIP, flexibility, overall benefits, as well as company culture are collectively important in attracting top executives.
If you need a retained partner who has up-to-date, first-hand knowledge of recruiting executives in the food manufacturing and retail grocery industries, contact us. Curtis Food Recruiters can be your advocate in searching for and recruiting the top executive talent you need. Make the most of 2022. Contact us today!