“Reward and performance is all about understanding people.” says Jenny Craik. In this episode of The People Agenda podcast, host Chris Howard is joined by experienced HR leader Jenny Craik, who shares insights from her career in reward and performance at organisations like HSBC, Standard Chartered and Barclays.
Jenny talks about what it really takes to succeed in the world of reward, highlighting that it’s not just about technical expertise, but also about understanding people. She offers practical reflections on building influence, managing change, and staying relevant in an evolving landscape.
How do you break into and succeed in reward roles today?
Jenny believes to succeed in reward HR leaders need to combine technical understanding with strong interpersonal and critical thinking skills. While tools and AI are changing the way we work, how can we keep the human touch? Jenny suggests that we:
What are the biggest challenges in a reward career?
The most difficult challenges involve high-stakes decisions, stakeholder tension, and managing people dynamics. According to Jenny, HR leaders can avoid these challenges by:
What makes a career in reward meaningful and rewarding?
The most rewarding part of this work comes from making a real impact on people and seeing tangible change across the organisation. Reward has a direct influence on employees’ experiences, which makes the work feel meaningful day to day. In some cases, the consequences can be deeply personal. “We make decisions that are going to change somebody’s life,” Jenny says, this highlights the emotional weight that often sits behind pay, benefits and fairness decisions.
There’s also a lot of value in coaching and developing future leaders, as well as gaining broader perspectives through international experience. Jenny notes that designing policies that genuinely improve people’s lives, and then seeing that reflected in employee feedback and engagement data, is what makes it especially worthwhile.
How do reward professionals balance business and people priorities?
Success comes from aligning commercial outcomes with employee experience through strong partnerships, especially with finance. Reward sits at the intersection of cost and value and must be able to:
What is the future of the reward and performance function?
The future of reward lies in strategic partnership, enabled by AI to provide personalised employee experiences. While administrative tasks will reduce significantly, the need for human skills in navigating emotive issues and challenging business leaders will increase. Jenny notes that the profession must adapt to increasing transparency and a shift toward skills-based compensation models.
If you want to hear the full conversation and dive deeper into these insights, listen to this episode of The People Agenda podcast. It’s packed with real-world perspective you won’t get from theory alone. If you want support on how to build an effective reward strategy check out our Reward and performance services page to learn more.
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