Share the knowledge – June 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 :

  • This excellent post from Steve Boese explains why the “hack month” at 37signals, or any other free time given to employees to work on their own ideas at work, is a great idea from an HR and talent management perspective. Enlightening !
  • … And here is another one from Steve. He covers why people can’t relate to metrics when it comes to implementing a company strategy. The post is very relevant, and reminded me of one of my posts where I covered what to think about before jumping into a technical compensation answer. Always keep in mind the fact that you are trying to convey a message that will lead to a result – so you shouldn’t focus on the medium, but on the goal when trying to rally the troops.
  • Cathy Martin from Profitability through Human Capital reflects on a recent report highlighting the 4 elements with most positive impact on employee engagement.
  • Fill in this form and receive a great white paper on how to fix HR. Cy Wakeman from Bullet Proof Talent focuses on the concept of accountability, both from the employee and the manager. Worth reading ! Also don’t miss her short video (4 and a half minutes) on the home page at Bullet Proof Talent.
  • John Sumser at HR Examiner expresses 6 things that irritate him about HR. He does mention reward, but I was mostly interested in the point that “People are our greatest asset” has a different meaning for the CEO and for the HR function. Read the post – and my comment – and let me know what you think !
  • Cathy Martin guest posts at HR Examiner and produces a very interesting article on how to remove the roadblocks to HR Analytics. It’s time to move away from metrics and start adding value to the business through understanding correlations and causalities ! Check out her own blog too while you’re at it !
  • In this Ask a Manager post, Allison Green reacts strongly about companies that do not want to put in writing anything at all related to how they offer to pay you. Her view is that it denotes a lack of commitment to what the company is claiming. (Please note that some of the comments are very US-centric and their legal (or even cultural) aspects  may not apply to your country).  I recently addressed a similar topic and gave out some suggestions on how to establish or maintain the engagement and trust of employees when your organisation does not want to publish compensation information in writing – you may want to check it out.
  • Interesting and to-the-point post from Warren Heaps at International HR Forum about why two surveys are better than one.
  • Well, this one is really going to make you think. The Big Mac theory of development contends that geography (where you live) has a big impact on how much you earn. This is something, on the surface, that we all understand, especially those of us who are expatriates in the GCC. Most of us who moved to the region did so not just because the region is more dynamic than Europe in terms of job opportunities (at least for the moment) but also because, let’s be honest, we earn more here than we would at home for the same job. However, the reasoning in the article seems flawed to me. Also, there are some excellent arguments in the comments (most of them against the stance of the article, but not all of them). I’d love to read your thoughts on the topic !
  • In The future of Total Rewards, Derek Irvine looks at the results from a World at Work survey and shares his views on the 4 trends.
  • Some statistics on the profile of expatriates around the globe, and the quality of their experience making a lot of them recommend expatriation to others.
  • Multinationals appear more worried about talent shortage than revolution or recession. Findings of a recent survey for global benefits provider network Maxis.

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

Best of the rest :

  • Here is an analysis of some proposals by the UK government on binding shareholder vote on executive pay. The post indicates the advantages and some of the challenges related to the proposals. I like to follow-up some of the executive pay proposals in various parts of the world. Sooner or later some of them will reach the GCC. And anyways it’s good food for thought !
  • Here is a post from Steve Boese, On gates and gatekeepers. It is about career advice for the young graduates, he mentions commencement speeches and links to one from Neil Gaiman (author of one of my favourite books, American Gods). Read the post and take 20 minutes to watch the video. Food for thought for all of us. Make good art !
  • And finally, something really special : H.H Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid allows everyone to vote for their favourite branding logo for the UAE. There are five designs to choose from, with simple explanations of what each one represents and how it ties to the identity of the nation. The process is open until July 18. Now go express your choice !

 

Thanks a lot for reading Share the Knowledge ! As you know, I compile this list once a month and share with you the best articles I have found on Compensation & Benefits in general, HR and C&B news for the Middle East and Africa, as well as a few other gems.

The list of links is usually quite long, and I would like to see if you would prefer for me to post this kind of curated list more frequently so that there would be fewer links to check each time, or if the current format suits you fine.

Please select your favourite timeline below so that I can see whether to make some changes or not. Thanks !

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