The annual pay reward survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development includes responses from the private, public and voluntary sectors covering 2 million employees.

The survey found that one third of respondents have a reward strategy and a further one quarter plan to create one in 2008. Last year 40 per cent of respondents intended to bring in a reward strategy; most have not succeeded so far, indicating that implementing a reward strategy is far from easy.

The most common approaches to managing base pay are to use individual pay rates, ranges and broadbands. For managing pay progression the most common approach is to use individual performance, either solely or, more usually, in combination with other factors, such as competency. Just over half of employers still make a traditional general annual pay rise or cost-of-living uplift, but this approach is far less prevalent in the private sector and for senior employees.

Ninety-seven per cent of respondents have a pension plan for their employees. The most common types of arrangement are final salary schemes, group personal pensions and stakeholders with an employer contribution. However, outside the public and voluntary sectors, most of the final salary pension schemes are now closed to new entrants, while a significant proportion are closed to future accrual as well. Three in ten employers use salary-sacrifice arrangements for their occupational pension, more commonly in the private sector.

The survey findings are available from the CIPD. http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A0A6B058-0433-4099-948D-0669ACE2F95C/0/rewmansr0108.pdf