The changing face of executive remuneration

The issues causing concern to shareholders, national regulators, the media and the public at large in relation to executive remuneration are converging. Across the globe, the fallout from the financial crisis is continuing to have an effect on executive remuneration. The gap between executive remuneration and broader workforce pay has widened over the last years. Given the austerity measures being implemented in many countries, this is leading to increased scrutiny from shareholders and governments alike. The result is increased pressure for transparency and disclosure worldwide.

Authors: Sophie Black, Bernd Thomaszik, Mattias Klefback, Bruno Fourage, Marco Morelli, Yolanda Gutierrez, Larisa Muravska

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The pay for performance challenge

Pay-for-performance analyses are not likely to be a cure-all, and they won’t eliminate all instances in which outside groups perceive a disconnect between performance and rewards. Instead, they are a tool that should be considered as a supplement to other best practices that represent sound governance and process in compensation planning. Paying for performance, and being perceived to pay for performance in all situations, can be a significant challenge. However, using a structured evaluation process and applying sound judgement and corrective mechanisms can continually reinforce the alignment of pay and performance.

Authors: Piia Pilv, Kimmo Sollo

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Talent mobility good practice to stimulate economic growth

In the latter part of 2011, the World Economic Forum (WEF), in partnership with Mercer, embarked on a talent mobility good practice research project that explores how talent mobility can impact economic development and growth. This article summarises some of the research findings and offers insight into how talent mobility good practice – supported by collaboration amongst governments, businesses and international institutions – can overcome the foundational issues that cause imbalances in human capital markets.

Authors: Pat Milligan, Mike Piker, Anne Schult, Joan Pennington

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How multinationals can engage and retain employees in Asia's fast-growing economies

Mercer experts in Hong Kong and Singapore discuss the challenges facing multinationals in Asia’s powerhouse economies and how they can more effectively engage and retain the talent they need to grow their businesses in these markets.

Authors: Brenda Wilson, Hans Kothuis, Paul O'Malley

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The need for rigorous strategic workforce planning in today's volatile environment

The almost quotidian reports of high unemployment in many European countries make it difficult for many to comprehend the severity of the long-term talent and skills shortages organisations are facing around the world. But the reality of demographic shifts (not least ageing workforces) and economic and operating pressures (causing recruitment freezes) is combining with increasing competition, accelerating globalisation and technological change to pose a major risk for employers’ future competitiveness. This will become particularly relevant at the point when economies start to pick up again.

Authors: Ephraim Spehrer-Patrick, Joan Pennington, Garmt Louw (Royal Dutch Shell)

New insights on global leadership development

At a time when many companies are globalising their markets, many organisations today either lack global leadership talent and a culture of mobility or have failed to build rigorous and standardised performance management systems to assess and deploy their leadership talent across the globe. Thus, global leadership development is, at best, hit or miss.

Authors: Renato Dorrucci, Dagmar Wilbs, Eric Sarrazin, Sue Filmer

Changing trends in talent management: What will make the difference in the decade 2012-2020?

Based on Mercer’s international research and some pioneering work being done by a number of multinational organisations operating in Italy, we have identified several trends in talent management that have emerged as companies deal with major shifts in the current and future business environment.

Author: Renato Boccalari

People management in the Middle East and North Africa: What has changed after the crisis and the 'Arab Spring'

Mercer experts in Dubai share their views on people management developments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and impact of the global economic
downturn and of the “Arab Spring” on economies in the region.

Authors: Larisa Muravska, Tom O'Byrne

Optimising human capital investments: Analysis-based insights to address imperatives for change at OECD

There has been a clear evolution over the past few years in how organisations inform their human capital decisions. They have been shifting focus from the use of market data to benchmark pay “rates” and practices to analysing robust, organisation-level data maintained in the human resources information system (HRIS) and supporting systems to understand the drivers of key workforce outcomes. Through application of statistical models to such data, organisations can obtain strategic insights on human capital priorities. The objectives of such workforce analytics are refining people strategy and optimising organisational performance. This article shows how analysis-based insights help optimise human capital investments and address imperatives for change at OECD.

Authors: Makoto Miyasako (OECD), Brian Levine

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Global grading for integrated compensation, performance and talent management

In a fiercely competitive global economy, businesses face increasing demands to achieve growth and profitability, so it is vital that they have workforces that are engaged and motivated to compensate for resource constraints. For international companies, another essential practice is to ensure transparency in corporate management and have clear comparability of tasks and responsibilities. An efficient, transparent, flexible and easy-to-use job-grading structure can not only help ensure effective and integrated human resource (HR) management, but also aid in the attraction, motivation and retention of talent. This article is a case study of how a worldwide leading sports apparel organisation headquatered in Europe has integrated their HR management system through implementing a global job-grading structure based on Mercer's International Position Evaluation (IPE) methodology.

Authors: Bernd Thomaszik, Antonis Christidis

Stimulating engagement through different reward and enhanced performance: The Maersk journey

It may come as no surprise that the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group is on a journey. With the world’s largest container shipping line amongst its diverse portfolio, the Group has been on more journeys than most. What may come as a surprise is the nature of the current journey – to drive a culture of pay for performance throughout the organisation, starting with its headquarters in Denmark, where an egalitarian culture often prevails.

Author: Alex Perven (Maersk)

Avoiding business risk: The hidden benefit of software as a service

Software as a Service (SaaS) is now the predominant architecture and delivery model for the majority of HR technology and continues to be a very hot sector of the enterprise software industry in general. In this article, we explore the reasons HR and IT, the primary users, have been purchasing and implementing SaaS, and the overlooked primary benefits of SaaS – certainty and the minimisation of business risk.

Author: Brad McCaw

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