PARC Programme 2027

This is a demanding time to work in the reward function. Developments in AI are challenging us to think about what work is, how it gets done and how it’s valued. Economic volatility and geopolitical pressure are unsettling assumptions that reward structures were built on. And the questions being asked of reward leaders, about fairness, about worth, about what pay is actually for, are harder than the prevailing frameworks were designed to answer.

That is the context this year’s PARC programme responds to. Our position is straightforward: the value of the reward function to an organisation rests on more than technical excellence. Technical mastery still matters, but on its own it is not enough. Reward is shaped by the wider organisational and external context. The leaders who hold real influence evidence clear reasoning and the confidence to bring constructive challenge, even when it isn’t welcome. The opportunity to build that broader capability, alongside technical depth and an understanding of the political and economic context, runs through PARC’s plans and activities for 2027.

Through your PARC Access there are three kinds of opportunity to engage with us.

1. For those developing their craft and expertise, our learning offering continues to grow. The Strategic Reward Skills Masterclass and Foundations of Reward remain, but we are building further programmes that take reward leadership beyond the technical and into decision-making, influence and impact.
2. For the whole team, our online and in-person events give you time to engage with the forces and issues shaping reward – economic, geopolitical, technological and psychological – and to challenge your thinking against peers wrestling with the same pressures.
3. For senior leaders, our Leaders’ Forums offer something rarer: candid, confidential gatherings where the hardest questions can be worked through, and your thinking tested and challenged.

This year we are also introducing something new: PARC Labs. This is a member-owned research model in which a small group of practitioners works with us, and with our extended faculty, to investigate a real problem over 12 months. The output is co-created and published as a PARC resource. It is thinking and research done with you, and it feeds directly back into discussions and community learning throughout the year.

What holds PARC’s plans for 2027, is our belief that human judgement, developed through experience and genuine deliberation, is the scarce resource in an environment full of easy answers. PARC exists to support and encourage you to develop and test that judgement, and to give you the intellectual company and space to do this.

Your PARC Access works best when you and your colleagues make time for the development and discussion opportunities it brings. The more you bring, to a Forum, a Lab, an event, a conversation over breakfast, the more you and the wider PARC community gain. So come to the events, join a Lab, and bring your questions and your disagreements. Make use of PARC beyond this programme too, in person and online: the resources on our website, the Peer Insights’ Service, the connections and conversations, and everything you contribute to the community are as much a part of PARC as any single session.

We are looking forward to our collaboration in 2027.

Karen, Steve, Tymiah and Lucy