Great to pick up the papers this morning and see that two Australian companies – BHP Billiton and Woolworths have made it to Fortune Magazine’s “world’s most admired companies” list.

The SMH reported in relation to the list, “Hay Group, which each year analyses a particular aspect of the findings, this year concentrated its analysis on how companies across the globe managed employee reward programs. It found the companies that made up the most admired lists did a much better job of leveraging reward investments than their contemporaries.

“When the results were limited to Australia and New Zealand, almost half of the surveyed businesses reporting had implemented clear employee reward strategies compared with almost one in six that made up the top 10.

“On the other hand, 86 percent of the top 10 lists had the confidence to recognise well-performing staff through reward programs, compared with just under half of Australian and New Zealand companies. Hay Group suggested this could be because local businesses struggled with the tall poppy syndrome.

“Just over one in 10 of the local companies measured return on investment of the reward programs in place compared with just over one in six of the companies that made the lists.”  – reporter Adrian Lowe.

Good to know that those who have a formal reward program are reaping the rewards from them, however, the numbers indicate that Australia and New Zealand are behind informal reward programs. I don’t agree with Hays that it ‘s because of a ‘tall poppy syndrome’. What we’ve found is that there is an inertia because organisations know how important it is and there is a fear of getting it wrong, of failure.

Many businesses know that they must do something – but it get’s put off because they’re not sure what to do. That’s when we say – “call in the professionals”. And without wanting to push RedBalloon’s borrow too blatantly  – but here’s the ad…. That’s what we do… we’ve designed and implemented hundreds of programs…

We just need to get to more companies quicker to support them.