Share the knowledge - October 2011
In this month’s Share the Knowledge, I have curated some great content for you. So get ready to dive into interesting reading !
General Compensation & Benefits
- Rosario Longo on balancing between basic and variable pay - don't get deterred by the white letters on balck background or the relatively academic tone, Rosario's posts are usually ery interesting and worth the effort to read...
- Thailand best place for expats, Bahrain 2d… as per the results of an extensive HSBC survey
- Dan Ariely, in How to Pay People, explains how too many metrics (and the wrong ones) deter your employees from giving their best
- A great article from Ann Bares, reminding us to think of the consequences of our compensation decisions… what looks straightforward may have unintended consequences
- Read this to keep abreast on Executive compensation changes linked to greater scrutiny on how top management is paid and the recent Say on Pay focus in the USA, with similar changes taking place in Europe, and I suspect, spreading across the world soon
MENA Compensation
- A report exposes corporate pension fund abuse by pension fund managers (Nigeria). Unfortunately it seems this kind of abuse is not so rare in developing Africa… what a shame if you consider that Nigeria is the fastest growing economy in Africa and is the 7th country in the world by population.
- Strike by postal workers in Egypt. For the purpose of this blog, what is interesting is the section of the article relating to the demands of the workers regarding their pay.
- I have not tried this free app calculating retirement in Kuwait. Can anyone let me know whether it is indicating correct information ?
- UAE thinking about unemployment insurance… and here is another article on this topic.
- The private sector in Qatar will face difficulties to keep up following the recent 60% in government salaries, says Hay report for 2011
General
- Even though this article has been written about China/Shanghai, I feel the comparison stands for GCC countries just as well - the large numbers of expats in the region certainly has some similarities in terms of tenure and being "Bobs" in their organisations… Yes, employees are key in emerging markets...
- An excellent article on diversity. It focuses on bringing more women to leadership positions, but "women" could easily be replaced by "GCC local Nationals" and most of it would still hold true, from the mindset holding back on promoting them, to the potential corporate approaches to address the situation, to the advice on mentoring. This article should be used as a blueprint for many companies' nationalisation efforts.
- This great post reminds us that organisations need to be consistent between what they say they want from their employees, and the actual conditions and environment at work which may lead to completely different behaviours…
- I encourage you to take the time to explore this survey's results describing the "megatrends" that will impact organisations in 2030.
- An interesting read on local vs global culture and practices at work
- Beware of jargon in your presentations
- This article has been posted by a fellow blogger from the GCC, Paul Lalovich, so I wanted to show a bit of support. The topic is about how to deal with difficult people.
... And finally, on the non-business related side, I would like to highlight this "green" initiative that is developing in the UAE.
Let me know if you would like me to write a post on any of these topics !