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 :
- Found through Around the HR world in 40 days, an interesting study from Kenexa that highlights how much our perceptions, as HR, of employee engagement and commitment, is different from that of employees. Is HR really clueless ?
- A simple suggestion at the Harvard Business Review blog to help HR become a strategic partner : whenever you make decisions, consider whether you are causing friction or flow in the business. A quick but interesting read.
- Once again through Franz Gilbert at Around the HR World in 40 days, here is a video of Dave Ulrich where he covers the 4 phases of HR Transformation. He says there are 4 phases : assessing the environment, defining the what/outcomes, the how itself (what do we change) and who owns the change process :
- 5 reasons you need incentives from Paul Hebert at i2i-align… The title says it all !
- … and just for fun, here is the opposite stance. Say no to Pay for Performance is the controversial title of this short paper from a Swiss organisation (free download, no registration required)
- This 3 minute video from Wall Street Journal discusses the results of a survey that argues that pay practices are now worse on Wall Street than they were before the government regulations that followed the global crisis. At aboout 2 minutes, the man in the middle makes an interesting point about influencing pay through other regulations such as limiting the fees that the trading banks get in case of IPO or M&A….
- Dawn Burke at Fistful of Talent explains why it’s sometimes good to go low-tech and test the content of your next HR program (using, maybe, yes, Microsoft Office) before rushing into HR systems deployment – because the latter would get you only feedback on the glitzy new software interface and user experience, not on what you are really trying to achieve. Check it out !
- The first step in moving from metrics to workforce analytics ? Build a compelling business case to demonstrate ROI. Cathy Missildine gives an example and a link to an archived webinar for those who want more details about moving to HR analytics.
- In an approach similar to mine recently, here is a post showing how simple visualisations can be an effective way of identifying correlations between different factors.
- An excellent article as usual from Cole Nussbaumer at Storytelling with data. This one is an example of how to make your point with clarity by choosing the right way to visually present your data labels. Read it !… And more importantly, apply it…
- This short article examines the difference between dashboards and scorecards and how they apply to Boards and their effectiveness.
- An article in HR Magazine describing the increasing pressure on Remuneration Committees regarding executive pay. Executive pay and binding shareholder votes legislation will put internal comms pressure on HR if an expensive leader is not delivering.
- … and here are some real-life examples of how that can translate : an independent compensation consultant to the Board of BestBuy quits after 7 years due to retention schemes being granted without performance target requirements (he disagreed with the approach).
- … and in what appears to be relatively similar circumstances of disagreement about bonus grants, the Head of the Barclays Compensation Committee also resigns. The world of executive pay is in turmoil !
For those of you who are interested in GCC and MENA articles, here are some regional pieces :
- Mercer TRS results show flexible benefits are becoming slightly more common in the GCC, nearing 15% of the companies that participate in the survey. Coming from a background of advanced multinationals which offered such systems, I like flexible benefits. I know that Mercer are happy about these results as it represents a big opportunity to sell their services for designing such flexible benefits schemes…. But, and it is a big but – the reality in the region is, few companies even offer benefits beyond the absolute minimum they need to pay for in order to get people on board, and the companies that participate in compensation surveys tend to be the more advanced ones already. So I think that the reality of the overall market is still way below the 15% they claim…
- An overview of some of the challenges that exist with the current End of Service Benefits system which is in place for expats in the GCC.
- An analysis of the short-term and potentially long-term impact of the recently passed mortgage law in Saudi Arabia. Though this is not directly related to Compensation and Benefits, understanding this can help anticipate trends in housing prices and indirectly impact onfuture housing allowances. Plus, knowing the environment is a great factor in establishing credibility for HR.
- In Saudi, retirement age for male government employees may soon be raised from 60 to 65, while for female employees, they would still be forced to retire after 20 years
- Survey results comparing perceived benefits of hospitality sector between Qatar and Saudi Arabia – it depends if you prefer salary increases and promotions opportunities or a sense of job security and satisfaction at work…
- A comprehensive overview of how End of Service benefits are due in Bahrain, and also how they are actually implemented by some organisations.
- New Egypt president raises public sector pensions by 50%, includes a 15% bonus, both tax-free, but pensioners voice their dissatisfaction and urge for investigation about the pension fund activities under Mubarak.
- The Indian government is planning to open in Dubai its first overseas centre for enrolling NRI labourers into its ambitious new voluntary pensions and life insurance scheme.
Best of the rest :
- Top Chief Executives at 37 banks, investment funds and insurance companies commit to “natural capital” at the Rio+20 meeting. Some small steps in the right direction…
- What’s really holding Arab women back ? This Fortune article questions which one of local culture and religious grounds is the main reason for the low level of female participation to the economy in the MENA region
- And finally, in Flipping Supply and Demand – Lemonade version, Steve Boese makes us realize that sometimes, counter-intuitive decisions from the business standpoint are the right ones from the customer standpoint – and can lead to more sales. Something we should all consider when designing our EmployeeValue Proposition…
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