Share the knowledge – February 2012

Like every month, here are some of the best or most relevant Compensation & Benefits, performance management, HR and/or global mobility articles that I came across recently :

…. But let me start by sharing this job ad for a Manager of International Reward and Benefits for Qatar Airways, posted a few days ago. Good luck !

• At Davos, bankers resist regulatory restraint on bonuses
• A Business Week analysis of how HR helped the transformation at IBM in the past decade…
• …And the other side of the coin : HR biggest failure comes from over focusing on processes
• TLNT explains how HR can support a culture of innovation
• From Forbes, a very interesting (if controversial) take on why “maximising shareholder value” may not be such a great idea
• Again from TLNT, a great idea about an unusual use of performance appraisals… for recruitment purposes
• This HR Magazine article highlights different types of employee engagement, and how it can tie with your performance management system
• Draft white paper details European Commission’s plans for pensions
• Al Gore recently published a white paper on sustainable capitalism through his company Generation Investment Management. During the presentation to the press, there was a lot of focus on long-term investors and especially pension funds. His recommendations are discussed in this Investment & Pensions Europe article.
• Suzanne Lucas gives some answers to Why does your salary offer stink ?. The one reason I would add is that maybe there is a relatively wide salary difference between her current pay and that that should be associated with the new grade, and the employer could very wll have a cap on salary increases for internal moves.

For those of you who are interested in GCC and MENA articles, here are some regional pieces :

• Saudis who turn down jobs in order to stay on Hafiz nemployment benefits may be penalised
• The Wall Street Journal on how Saudis push young people, including women, into jobs. The article covers a number of initiatives and provides some insight on salary differentials between Saudis and expats.
• UAE confirms transfers of salaries. A view of the numbers of UAE Nationals who benefitted from the salary revisions for federal government employees announced in December.
• An overview of challenges and expectations of managers in the Middle East
• New income tax regulations in Oman – this one is a bit dry but may be useful. Don’t forget to consult with a specialist !

Best of the rest :

• As usual, great example from Storytelling with data. This time  Cole describes what NOT to do when communicating using a table. The example is from a newspaper article, but the advice definitely applies to anything you can present in a table in Compensation & Benefits.
• In this HBR blog, the authors challenge the notion of an open talent market for CEOs, and the reliance of compensation committees on peer benchmarking to justify high CEO pay. Even if, as a human being and a compensation professional, I like their notion and think that CEO pay should be driven by more factors than simply external benchmarking, I posted a reply to this post as I feel that the idea needs to have more data to substantiate it. Check out the comments to see some of the most immediate questions that came to my mind.
• This Fistful of Talent post tells a story of how small things can have a big, long-lasting impact – read it and write a note and ask for input  today !
• This article relates to a new (and still small – but enough for a book to be published) trend of consumers choosing where they eat based not only on the quality of how the food was produced (was it free range chicken ?) but more importantly on how the employees are treated in that restaurant. An interesting concept !
• Meeting Smart People, Rejecting Starbucks, and Making Memories : an interesting reminder from Victorio Milian.

… And my special for the month : how to change the world with unusual ideas. Interviewed by Wharton, Simon Berry wants “mothers throughout the developing world to be able to buy an anti-diarrhoea kit to stop her child dying of dehydration from diarrhoea in all the places you can buy a bottle of Coke.”

Enjoy your reading !

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