Here is a gift for my readers: one year ago I wrote a piece describing the challenges facing HR and Compensation professionals in the UAE. I have compiled the most relevant articles published since, in order to update you on the latest trends affecting the work environment in the UAE. The information is compiled by…
One day with Dave Ulrich at the IIRME 2012 Middle East HR Summit
So… My friends from IIRME organised the 2012 Middle East HR Summit and Expo in Dubai last week. It was by far the largest HR event in the Middle East, with a few hundred delegates from all over the region attending the conference. Unfortunately, other commitments prevented me from attending, but 2 of my team members…
Use the Left or Right function in Excel to extract text from a cell
The Left and Right functions are very useful for managing text in Excel files. Let’s imagine you have text in a field and you want to retrieve from it only the characters on the left. To give you an idea, the field has grades which are composed of 2 digits indicating the level of the…
The 3 types of employee engagement at high performing companies
In this 9-minute video from WorkspanTV, Max Caldwell of Towers Watson discusses employee engagement. (RSS readers may have to click through). He starts by defining 3 types of engagement : rational, emotional and motivational and explains how engagement is a predictor of business performance as engaged employees are willing to go the extra mile. He…
All you need to know : from compensation surveys to salary ranges and salary review
Frances, one of my readers, recently commented to me as follows : I have to create salary ranges and compare the current salary to market data. This will allow me to make the determination if the person’s pay is within the acceptable range. Year-end is approaching and I am starting to get more questions around…
An interpretation of Seth Godin’s “The End of Should”
Seth Godin’s posts are notoriously short and to the point. The End of Should is a recent one that I thought Compensation and HR professionals could use : Banks should close at 4, books should be 200 pages long, CEOs should go to college, blogs should have comments, businessmen should be men, big deals should…


