HarperCollins UK
Company Profile
INDUSTRY: Publishing
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 1500
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies and the world’s second-largest consumer book publisher. They publish around 1,500 books a year for readers of all ages and interests and have brought some of the world’s most notable authors to the forefront, including the Bronte sisters and Charles Dickens.
“Our partnership with 3R Strategy was centred around the development and implementation of various crucial initiatives in the UK, something we did not have the capacity to do in-house. Having said that, because of the way the reward team at 3R works, we did not see them so much as an external consultancy. It was as though they became part of HarperCollins UK.
Their team demonstrated exceptional competence, deep industry knowledge, and a genuine commitment to our organisation’s success. They seamlessly integrated their expertise with our existing practices, ensuring the entire project was smooth and efficient.
The project has provided our employees with clear pathways for growth and advancement within the company and allowed us to be as transparent as possible with all our decisions—removing a lot of the uncertainty faced internally. We recognise the potential for further transformative projects and firmly believe that 3R Strategy’s guidance will continue to benefit our employees and our organisation as a whole.”
Challenge
Alongside purpose, community, personal challenges and fulfilment, pay is one of the most important parts of the employment relationship at HarperCollins. Because of this, they wanted to ensure that employees feel able to have difficult conversations about pay and that managers are equipped to deal with this.
Even though they are working in a disrupted market with ongoing challenges such as Brexit, it was hugely important that career development at HarperCollins continued. This meant considering on the job training and development programmes so that employees could be ready for new opportunities when they arise.
Solution
3R Strategy recommended new reward principles and a pay philosophy that reflected how pay should progress at HarperCollins.
We also carried out benchmarking for a number of job roles and developed a career framework and bespoke job evaluation process. We ran calibration sessions with each executive team member and their senior leadership to ensure the work carried out was accurate and reflected the complexities & responsibilities of each role.
As well as producing role-specific pay ranges and a pay progression policy and framework, we created a detailed communications plan to enable Harper Collins to communicate this project to their employees. This included employee guides, explainer videos and FAQ documents.
Outcome
HarperCollins now has a more transparent and consistent way of managing pay and reward within the organisation. Their employees also have the advantage of accessing multiple guides and videos that explain every process to them clearly – helping to build a culture of trust and improve retention efforts.
Managers are also better equipped to approach and encourage challenging conversations around pay which will reassure employees and help improve the financial wellbeing of many.