Today’s challenging economic environment has put significant pressure on employees, who are feeling the weight of rising living costs, job demands and shifting workplace expectations. This stress is taking a toll on job performance and company profitability: Workers report losing up to seven hours of productivity each week because of financial stress at a cost of $183 billion annually to employers.1

This, coupled with persistent inflation and elevated labor costs, has prompted companies to turn their focus inward to improve employee output. According to HUB’s latest Outlook Executive Survey, 66% of U.S. and 75% of Canadian companies said employee productivity is a top priority in 2025.

But increasing productivity is no easy task in the best of times, and it becomes even more challenging in periods of economic uncertainty. Many organizations struggle to measure productivity and even fewer have total rewards strategies that support and empower their workforce. Organizations may not know where to start, think it’s cost-prohibitive or fail to realize their employees’ needs outside of the workplace.

With the right data that links compensation to clear performance metrics and the right broker support, businesses can boost employee productivity and help ease the financial burdens employees currently face, which in turn increases productivity. In a volatile economy, aligning pay with performance isn’t just about retention — it’s a strategic lever for resilience and results.

The Components of a Total Rewards Strategy

Employee productivity isn’t driven by a single perk, but by making people feel genuinely valued within the organization in both good times and bad through:

  • Personalized and Holistic Benefits
    A strong rewards strategy addresses the full employee experience by offering a flexible, data-driven mix of compensation, wellness benefits and work-life balance initiatives tailored to individual needs and personas.
  • Alignment Between Rewards and Performance
    To be effective, a total rewards plan must align incentives with clearly defined performance metrics by role and business unit. When there’s a disconnect between what’s being rewarded and what’s expected, employee engagement can suffer. Tracking ROI on performance is essential to justifying compensation decisions and sustaining productivity.
  • Data-Driven Trust and Transparency
    Trust is the foundation of any successful rewards strategy, and it starts with data. Organizations must leverage workforce insights to personalize offerings and demonstrate that rewards are meaningful and fair. Without data and trust, your rewards strategy is just another budget line.

The HUB EDGE

There are a variety of actionable strategies that organizations can implement to jumpstart productivity and mitigate risks to profitability:

Leverage the data you already have. Total rewards can be customized based on employee data using employee profiles derived from an organization’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS). HUB’s Workforce Persona Analysis tool allows companies to analyze their workforce demographics and create individualized and/or segmented compensation plans that speak to the unique needs of different generations and personalities to provide every employee a Quality Employee Experience (QEX).

Address universal needs to offset financial distress. As outlined by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, humans are driven to meet basic physiological needs like food and shelter before striving for additional luxuries. Similarly, employees aren’t likely to be motivated by top-tier wellness perks if they’re still worried about the price of eggs. With so many workers struggling to stay afloat amidst a growing cost-of-living crisis, tools like the Total Rewards Hierarchy of Needs can help employers structure plans around necessities, such as setting up employee spending accounts to cover everyday expenses like gas and groceries. Additional resources, such as HUB FinPath, can provide employees with access to digital tools, financial coaching and education to help them make more informed decisions and reduce money-related stress, giving employees the peace of mind to be fully present at work.

Improve accessibility to leadership teams. Bolstering productivity is hard to do when employees don’t feel valued in the organization. While financial and wellness benefits are great, they aren’t a substitute for real, one-on-one conversations between employees and their leaders. Being accessible in person is crucial to driving productivity, which may mean prioritizing face-to-face conversations over mass company emails.

Work with an expert. In hard times, employers need a benefits expert who can not only advise them but offer results-driven solutions. That includes an extensive suite of analytical tools and corresponding support, such as an audit of your total rewards plan with actionable insights on how to maximize productivity-to-compensation alignment. This helps bridge the gap between data, strategy and people.

Ultimately, as emergent profitability threats collide with a workforce under heightened financial distress, creative and forward-looking ways to align pay with performance are good for business, providing a lifeline for culture, retention and resilience.

1 SHRM.org, “Employees’ Financial Stress Is Costing Employers Billions,” June 7, 2024.