Theme: Human Resources
Features
Pay
and Employee Commitment: The missing link
By
Owen Parker and Liz Wright
Creating
an environment in which employees are truly engaged in their work and by
their companies is imperative today. Research performed and described by
Watson Wyatt clearly shows that there is a very strong link between
employee commitment and compensation. More precisely, it is the quality of
the compensation that counts. As the co-authors point out, a company that
enhances compensation conditions and practices will likely see an
improvement in employee commitment. Moreover, that stronger commitment
will lead to increased employee retention, decreased turnover, and
stronger employee morale.
Good
Pension Governance Follows Good Corporate Governance
By
Jayne Casanova
Pension
governance may not have the profile of corporate governance but it is as
important. In this article, the author discusses the key issues in pension
governance and provides a blueprint for responsible governance. Aspects
such as the process of making policy decisions, constraints on the CEO,
the relationship between the board and the CEO are just some of the topics
in this comprehensive article. The author also provides a detailed outline
for a board policy manual. 988
Setting
Goals: When performance doesn't matter
By
Gerard H. Seijts
Performance-based
goals are commonly used to evaluate an employee, but in certain
situations, goals based on performance may not be appropriate. Those
situations occur when an employee is faced with new or complex task, and
in this case, says the author, it may be better to set goals that are
based on an employee's progress in learning a task, than on his or her
actual performance in completing it. In this article, the author, an
assistant professor of organizational development at Ivey, explains why
setting short-term goals in conjunction with long-term goals is sometimes
the best way to achieve success. 997
Emerging
Issues in the Electronic Workplace
By
Mary Beth Currie and Daniel Black
The
Internet has changed not only the way companies do business but also the
way employers treat employees. The authors, lawyers in the Labour and
Employment department of McCarthy Tetrault, identify the important issues
that have emerged and must be
dealt with by both dot-coms and bricks and mortar companies. Amongst those
issues are the use and misuse of the Internet, and employee privacy, which
has come into question with employers' use of electronic monitoring. Other
issues the authors discuss include the exercise of stock option on
termination and the wording of non-compete provisions. 997
Measuring
and Monitoring the HR Function: A guide for boards
By
Monica Belcourt
In
this article the author, a
professor and the director of the International Alliance for Human
Resources Research, describes her reaction to presentations that HR
directors made to boards on which she sits. "I found the performance
of HR professionals embarrassing." she writes. More astonishing, she
continues, was the fact that board members didn't ask key the HR people to
explain and quantify HR's contribution to the company's strategy. In
outlining a model she has developed, the
author describes how board members can effectively measure, monitor
and manage the HR function. 988
The
Failure of Strategy: It's all in the execution
By
Eric Beaudan
"When
strategies don't work," the author writes, "it is generally
because of poor thinking rather than faulty execution." The author,
an executive at the Bank of Montreal Group of Companies, says that too
many organizations make the mistake of developing strategy in a vacuum or
of giving that responsibility to outsiders. Instead he writes, leaders and
managers should ask employees within the organization what they think
about a particular strategy. When that happens, those leaders and managers
will unleash the innovative power within the organization.
988
Departments
Asian
Influence
The
New Competitive Game in Asia
By Peter J. Williamson
Companies
doing business in Asia today need to recognize that the rules of the game
are different from what they were before the economic meltdown. The
author, a professor of international management at Insead, cites four
major shifts that characterize the new competitive game in Asia: there is
a drive for productivity improvements across a broad front, not just in
the manufacturing sector; business that once competed on price alone are
busy differentiating themselves in other ways; companies that once engaged
in asset arbitrage have recognized the error of their way and are focusing
on their operating strengths; and companies are shifting from horizontal
to geographic diversification. 993
Headstart
Five
Keys to Effective e-cruiting
By Kim Peters
Most
discussions of the Internet focus on how it has changed B2B or B2C. One
area that has not been discussed as often - and that has been profoundly affected by the Internet - is
the recruitment and hiring .of employees. In this article, one of the
pioneers of e-cruiting, suggest that there are five keys, hat if properly
deployed, will lead to successful e-cruiting. For example, since
candidates identified through corporate Web sites have no acquisition
costs,. Companies should make maximum use of their corporate site. 997
The
HR Challenge for the High-Tech Start Up
By Doug Treen
The
work environment in a New Economy company is different than in a
traditional organization. Compared to their counterparts in mature
companies, employees in high-tech firms work with uncertainty, risk,
change and job ambiguity. These are just a few of the reasons why
recruiting and retaining high-tech employees pose a dilemma for the HR
professional. The best way to avoid that dilemma, this author argues, is
to adopt a slightly different approach in the recruiting process. HR
professionals would do well if they followed the author's advice for
recruiting high-tech employees. 997
Redefining
Customer Loyalty, the Customer's Way
By Mukarram Bhatty, Rod Skinkle and Thomas Spalding
Business
that think that deep discount pricing or special promotions will lead to
customer loyalty should think again, these authors say. Write those
authors, "The enticements that businesses usually employ to create
and maintain loyalty are not effective." Only a strong, trusting
relationship between the customer and a business can create that loyalty.
Citing findings in an extensive study their firm conducted, the authors
describe just how a business could - and should - create and maintain
loyalty. 988
Viewpoint
Stock
Market Trouble: Five books for executives
By John S. McCallum
Chaos
and catastrophe are tyrannizing the stock market these days, but managers
and executives can ill afford to be swept up into the prevailing emotions
of the day. Rather than becoming frustrated, fearful or even immobilized
by the events of the day, From these books, the author says, comes a
picture of the emerging business conditions in an over-heated stock
market, and a sense of how to manage in volatile times. 988
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