Continuing on the theme of preparing for the recovery, Mercer’s global look at Human Capital Planning 2010: Resetting the Talent and Awards Agenda covers much the same ground as Watson Wyatt/WorldatWork for alignment concerns and recommendations:

Quotation

“A significantly changed employment deal. It’s been a tough year for employees. Trust in and connection to the organization have diminished. Attitudes toward success, rewards and work have shifted. Employers must find ways – within the current cost-constrained environment – to reconnect and reengage their workforces for the challenges ahead. … Employers today have a daunting task: focusing their limited resources toward reengaging key talent in ways that will drive performance and profits.”

But Mercer then goes on to look at a global compounding factor:

Quotation

“In certain countries, pay equity practices, executive remuneration and unionization are among the areas undergoing significant change. Looking ahead, many economic and political observers foresee more direct government involvement in shaping the business decisions that affect a company’s workforce.”

This potential leaves many companies at risk in their recognition and rewards practices. Too many have no true concept of the myriad of recognition efforts that happen all over the company. Whether it’s a local manager trying to do the right thing by giving a hard-working employee a gift card to a local restaurant and then paying for it via the company expense form, or more formal but distributed recognition practices that vary by department, country or business yet, companies are at a tremendous governance disadvantage.

A key tenant of strategic recognition is a clear, global strategy to encourage consolidation of these many recognition initiatives into a single platform that can be tracked, measured and governed to ensure compliance with new and changing global requirements around compensation and rewards.

What level of insight do you have into your distributed recognition efforts today? How confident are you that you are in compliance with all local laws regarding recognition and rewards?