Benefits & Compensation International

The Obama health-care reform is so far reaching in its implications that Richard Lawrey and Colin Bullen are following up on last month's article with a piece that focuses especially on the impact of the reform on the US operations of non-US multinational companies. They explore the issues involved in developing an effective response strategy.

Our special Report features joined-up – or integrated – global management. This allows companies to consider where a global perspective pays off and where a local or regional approach is more appropriate. Nigel Bateman kicks off with a section identifying the advantages of an organization being joined up globallly, namely cost synergies, profits and sales growth, a more strategic focus and risk management aspects. He also explores the undoubted challenges. Maria Alejandra Harttig, Magdalena Strozik and Animesh Mukherjee consider global workforce planning and provide examples of talent shortages among acturies (including in India and China), IT professionals (particularly in Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Poland) and engineers. They have a good story to tell on strategies being developed to compete for available talent. In looking at global mobility, Tom Flannery, Noam Lakser and Mike Piker find 10 trends that they believe spell change. These include the power of emerging markets, the search for value and cost control in HR delivery and the trransformation of the gloabl mobility manager. Doug Ross and Phoebe Dunn take a look at external and internal shocks and how companies can 'plan for success but prepare for a bumpy landing'. They provide a few cogent examples of where organizations have gone wrong but equally where they have turned a disaster into a success. Mark Sullivan addresses the Report's theme from the perspective of reward, providing two case stufies, one of a financial services firm implementing a global bonus plan and the other a major diversified multinational exposing its managers to the business by encouraging mobility. Tom Dolan focuses on the management of risk benefits, namely life assurance, survivor, accident, income protection and medical benefits, offering a perspective on why a number of multinationals are using a global broking approach.

July/August 2010