Firstly and most importantly: Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2023!  I hope you all had a fabulous festive season and got to spend time with the people you wanted, doing the things you wanted to do.

I actually spent some time talking to someone new over the festive season and we inevitably got round to the question “what do you do?”.   When I tell people I am a reward consultant they often ask what that means. So, I tell them I am a management consultant who specialises in pay and benefits. Most people get it and if they look it up on Wikipedia they’ll find something similar to this:

Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives.^[1] 

1.      "What is Management Consulting?". Bright Network. Retrieved 17 June 2022.

I then go on to explain that it's about helping organisations put in place the reward practices (or the salaries and benefit structures) they need to support their business goals . If they’re really interested I explain about an EVP and why recognition and engagement are important. Of course, it is a lot more complex than that - any consultant in any business will tell you the technical stuff is what they appoint you for. But it is the rest of it that makes the difference.

When I set up RRM in 2016 I was adamant that we would be different. I didn't want to be the consultant that came in, did the job, and left you with a thousand questions and a price list if you asked them. I'd worked with consultants in the past where, as soon as the project was finished, then they were gone and they charged you £x per hour to get answers to questions that came down the line.  So, it isn't just about helping organisations put in place the salaries and benefits they need to support their business goals, it is about helping them understand why and how different approaches drive different behaviours, and how to manage their reward practices into the future. It’s about giving the HR team and the business they support, the knowledge they need to make good decisions.

RRM will be 7 years old in June. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. Or that we are now a team of 5, and have an office.   But one thing is for sure, I’ve stuck by my guns on our practice of aiming to ensure that every client gets the support and knowledge they need to make good decisions.

And so my New Year's resolution, is to do more of the same.  Happy New Year.