Analysing reward programmes among real estate firms in Sweden from a total compensation perspective

A growing awareness within the real estate sector about how much the business is peopledriven and how diverse the workforce actually is underscores the need for studies on people management within the sector. Remuneration programmes are important tools in this regard; however, studies on these programmes have focused almost exclusively on senior executives, and little has been done on real estate firms in particular. This paper reports a survey of reward schemes within real estate firms in Sweden. The study was done using a postal questionnaire survey. The paper identifies the motives for using reward plans as well as exploring the various types of reward items in use. The reward plans used by the firms were analyzed from a total compensation perspective. The survey points to the fact that while most of the firms use standard pay and benefits packages, there is little or no emphasis on learning and development for non-managers and almost no involvement of non-managers in determining variable pay component of the total reward package. The survey also finds a disproportionate use of financial performance measures among firms that implement some form of variable pay as part of their reward schemes. The conclusion of the study is that firms in the real estate sector in Sweden probably underestimate or may not be sufficiently aware of the motivational impacts of two components of the total rewards package, namely learning and development as well as the work environment. The sectorís ability to retain and motivate critical talent is probably being compromised. In addition, the focus on using mainly financial performance measures, which are essentially historical, may imply that reward programs are not being oriented enough towards ensuring future long-term financial performance of the firms.