Share the knowledge - January 2013

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 :

• An old post from one of my favorite bloggers Paul Hebert at i2i, still is relevant as it covers the challenge of explaining how compensation and reward questions usually don't have a totally sure, fail-safe answer.
• Paul Hebert (yes, I mention him twice in the same article this month)also rants about the over-focus on intrinsic motivation. His point : we need to align intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors for incentives to be effective. A good read.
• Don't ask, don't get : how to fix the gender gap in salary negotiations - a good read from The Atlantic.
• Derek Irvine from Recognize This ! Blog highlights a good TEDx video urging us to stop sabotaging recognition. We're as bad at giving it than at receiving it...
• In French ! Les bonus 2012 des banquiers devraient baisser.
• Do bonuses work ? See 12 characteristics of bonuses at high performing organisations.
• Does the Pay for Performance model fall short ? is a 3minute video from Bloomberg looking into the attitudes of executives regarding deferred compensation.
• And here is a very good piece on why deferred compensation at the big banks is a good thing. Not only does the article cover the real risk of losing talent over the introduction of deferred pay, but it also includes some of the common plan features in hedge funds etc.
• Last month I shared a video about capuchin monkeys demonstrating that they understood what "unfair" means, and the implications for rewards. Here is another piece demonstrating that when the rewards are right, chimps will play fair and share rewards equitably. This time the monkeys are the ones deciding how to distribute, not on the receiving end. It's another aspect of understanding the deep psychological reactions of humans to reward systems.
• Let's invert the performance review ! Daniel Tunkelang offers for managers to be submitted to real performance reviews from employees, beyond 360 evaluation, with a real impact on their career, and gives 5 reasons why we should invert the traditional review. I also loved the Dilbert cartoon at the beginning of the article :-)
• From World at Work, some advice on how to set quotas in today's market. Good methodology points.
• At ERE.net, Lou Adler strongly advocates for performance-based job descriptions from hiring managers, instead of the classic list of skills/education, and tasks we normally get (ie moving from person-focused to results and output-focused job descriptions). I've already written on my suspicion of job descriptions as they are meant in most cases and fully agree. Performance-based job descriptions mean the job holder will know what's expected of them, and it will help performance management in the future and reduce the risk of hearing the "I can't/won't do that, it's not in my job description !" excuse that I hate so much.

• Only two pieces on the GCC this month :
  • Mercer predicts 5% increases in the UAE in 2013
  • Progress for women representation in Saudi Arabia : 20% of women in the Shura Council, which acts as some consultative "parliament" in KSA.

Best of the rest :

• 6 paradoxes for women leadership in 2013 from Harvard Business Review blog : a good read for women at the start of the year.
• Although the references are mostly about US cases, the comments about the role of the Compliance function in organisations are valid in many countries. As C&B works closely with Legal, Compliance and Internal Audit, I thought this would be a good idea to share this 10 big moments for Chief Compliance Officers in 2012.
• Shared by Cole Nussbaumer from Storytelling with data, here is a simple post showing why a graph used in US hospitals is great - you can apply some tips to your data presentation.