When developing remuneration and rewards packages for employees, organisations should be mindful not to take a blanket approach to benefits, as they don't serve the needs of a diverse workforce — especially women.
Rather than viewing tailored benefits as perks, organisations must see them as vital to improving individual experiences and career advancement.
“Historically, reward systems were shaped by male-centric standards, leaving women’s needs marginalised," says Lindiwe Sebesho, master reward specialist and South African Reward Association (Sara) spokesperson. "Now, it’s essential to shift the focus: by recognising varied needs — such as gender, financial literacy, age, ethnicity, disability, and family status — companies can create inclusive total reward packages where everyone feels valued and supported.
"Moving beyond generic frameworks and thoughtfully evolving them is key to truly empowering women and fostering a thriving, diverse workforce."
While the following remuneration and HR practices address women, they can also be replicated for other workforce segments.
Help women get fair pay
Advancing fairness within organisations involves fostering an environment that recognises women leaders as capable professionals, rather than mischaracterising assertiveness as bossiness, especially in the context of advocating for fair and equitable pay.
According to Sebesho, providing transparent salary ranges for applicable positions should be standard practice, empowering women with the information necessary to negotiate fair remuneration based on how well they fit the requirements thereof and their performance.
Andrew Solomon and Lianne Booth 23 Dec 2024 Furthermore, it is important to promote women into roles that offer genuine strategic and decision-making authority, accompanied by appropriate benefits, rather than assigning additional responsibilities without corresponding authority or support.
Organisations should also address disparities in the allocation of non-promotable or value adding tasks — essential duties that do not facilitate career advancement or pay progression — which research from Harvard indicates are disproportionately assigned to female employees.
Offer career-linked incentives
“Some organisations reserve a portion of the short-term incentive or bonus pool for targeted interventions such as recognition or specific talent pools,” says Yoli Mqoboli, master reward specialist and Sara spokesperson.
“One shift could be the standard introduction of a percentage of this pool to fund talent pools for women in senior positions to address issues of pay parity to males, or to fund role pauses or sabbaticals.”
Pauline Magoxo and Shaun Raizenberg 11 Feb 2025 Role pauses aren’t demotions, she explains, but transitions based on life circumstances with an agreed timeline for returning to the original role. Sabbaticals, meanwhile, enable long-term study or the pursuit of professional career interests.
Organisations are also creating sponsorships programmes, where women identified as talent or high potential are shadowing senior executives or CEOs for exposure. Mqoboli says, “It’s a powerful way to fast-track female participants into C-suite roles and one of the least expensive to implement.”
Make flexibility a standard benefit
According to McKinsey research, 20% of women say flexibility at work enabled them to stay in their roles or avoid reducing their hours. It also found that women who work flexibly are equally committed to their careers as office-based employees.
Janine O’Riley, chartered reward specialist and Sara spokesperson, says performance needs to be tied to output or outcomes and not the number of hours in the office – built around flexible time, flexible work design, and targeted support that removes practical barriers to progressing.
"For example, you work where and as long as you need to, but deliver on time, to the agreed deadlines, keeping the quality of work intact as agreed,” she says.
It could also involve flexible working hours, with asynchronous mandatory collaboration time. More options include sharing jobs (where practical to do so) or leadership tracks – where two colleagues share a project or leadership role for a period ensuring flexibility and continuity.
Shaun Raizenberg 10 Dec 2024 Normalise shared parental leave
Flexible parental leave, shared between both parents, is still a novelty for SA organisations. Historically, women have been legally entitled to four months unpaid maternity leave in SA, which generally sets back their career and financial prospects.
Flexible parental leave policies are a valuable asset for a company’s employee value proposition, fostering an atmosphere where employees want to come back afterwards, says Carmen Arico, chartered reward specialist and Sara spokesperson.
Be creative with benefits
SA companies could follow a similar approach to the UK ‘salary sacrifice’ scheme, where an employee gives up part of their salary in exchange for non-cash benefits, some of which could be tax-exempt, suggests Arico.
Employees can also benefit from group purchasing power benefits. Employers utilise their buying power to negotiate better terms with suppliers which they offer to their employees, who can purchase the goods, often at a lower cost than if they had purchased individually.
Another option could include the introduction of a ‘flexible and responsible benefits’ model. This approach considers structuring the employee’s cost to company (CTC) by offering a catalogue of benefits that can be built into the CTC in a tax-efficient or beneficial way, allowing employees to select benefits that address both their short- and long-term needs, while the cost-to-company remains the same.
Employers that think out of the box when designing these reward packages and empower women with essential information, real authority, flexibility, appropriate to their specific life-stage and career aspirations, unlock loyalty and female leadership potential that will benefit the entire organisation.
