The Hay Group		Development Dimensions International		PricewaterhouseCoopers
Blessing White		Mercer		Source Renaissance, LLC

2006 Report on Leading Technical Professionals

Technical professionals are experts. These highly skilled individuals work in a wide variety of functional disciplines and industries. Some are clustered in specialized teams and secluded R&D labs; others are woven into the fabric of the workforce, interacting each day with colleagues across every department. They may be programmers, software developers, engineers, scientists, analysts, mathematicians, statisticians… the list goes on.

Organizations worldwide rely on technical professionals to keep every facet of their businesses running smoothly, to reach far-flung customers, to help manage information overload, and to rapidly transform new ideas into faster, better, cheaper, smaller, or easier products and processes. Build Your Own Field of Dreams: Lessons for Managers on Coaching

At BlessingWhite, we've studied what makes for coaching success - and what doesn't. We've also talked to managers in various organizations who've made coaching work. We've discovered that when coaching isn't effective, it's often because well-meaning managers operate on misguided assumptions. Here are the five top coaching mistakes that get in the way of coaching effectiveness and employee success.

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Coaching Conundrum 2 - The Heart of Coaching

In the fall of 2005 BlessingWhite conducted its second annual survey on how managers and employees view coaching. BlessingWhite periodically conducts surveys such as this one to investigate workplace and alert business leaders to potential implications of the results. The following pages describe what we found: higher expectations and awareness of the importance of coaching, coupled with the persistence of many of the same issues that affect its ultimate impact. This paper also offers a specific recommendation for organizations to address the conundrum so that they can close the gap between coaching’s promise and its results.

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Employee Engagement Report 2006

As organizations realize they can’t force, beg, or buy the type of workforce performance they need to differentiate themselves, many look to employee engagement for a competitive edge. This topic headlines publications and conferences across industries and functions as CFOs and line managers — not just human resource professionals — now understand the impact that engaged employees can have on productivity, customer loyalty, and even shareholder value. For the third consecutive year, BlessingWhite chose to explore this topic. On our minds: Is all that attention making a difference?

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LEADERSHIP IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD
It is one of the great business ironies as organizational structures have become flatter, leaner, and simpler: the business of leading those organizations has become harder and more complex.

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Start with 1 team of engineers, add 1 engineer-turned-manager, multiply by a list of assignments to the 10th power, divide by the time frame for achieving results, and there you have it – an equation that describes what it's like to lead one of the most complex and critical populations in the workforce today – technical professionals. 

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Managing Around The Sun – Tips for Successful Virtual Management

So you think managing is tough? Try doing it when your employees are located around the globe. Alma Vigo-Morales, Director of Global Collaboration at Agilent Technologies, knows what it's like firsthand. "I don't get to see my employees' amazing work in action. When we talk, I only hear the highlights, so I really extend myself to get an accurate picture of what they are working on." So what do managers like Vigo-Morales do to handle their unique remote management challenges? We've talked to managers in various organizations who have made remote managing succeed.

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WINNING THE TUG OF WAR: THE CHALLENGES OF LEADING TECHNICAL PROFESSIONALS
Like in a game of tug-of-war, success in the world of leading technical professionals requires strategy, not just trying harder. Instead of strategizing when to dig in heels or let go of the rope, today's leaders need to choose where to spend their time and how to best guide and motivate each member of their team.

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Calculating Return on Investment for Selection

Organizations that analyze and improve their selection systems can quickly realize a high positive return on investment (ROI). While calculating and ROI can seem daunting, organizations that take the time to lay out their costs of selection will find it easy to estimate the overall value of any proposed improvements. Improvements in selection procedures can incorporate both direct and indirect benefits. Making the system more efficient produces an immediate direct benefit by reducing costs to replace employees. Indirect benefits appear when the system does a better job of choosing the right candidates (i.e., higher validity), thus reducing turnover and improving the quality of hires. In the following discussion, I show how a set of basic improvements can yield a significant ROI over time for a hypothetical selection system.

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Measuring Employee Engagement

Many studies have shown that investments in people (i.e., HR-related practices) have a reliable impact on organizational performance. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov) conducted a comprehensive review of more than 100 studies and found that people practices have a significant relationship to improvements in productivity, satisfaction, and financial performance. The DDI research profiled in this summary shows that when engagement scores are high, employees are more satisfied, less likely to leave the organization, and more productive.

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  Methods for Calculating ROI and Bottom-line Impact

There are many methods for measuring the impact of a training program on bottom-line

company performance. Many studies have repeatedly demonstrated the value of training, and there is no doubt that training can have many positive benefits. All ROI calculations involve converting change into a dollar value (benefit) and comparing it to the investment required to produce the change (cost). The methods described in this white paper describe variations on how the benefits and costs may be calculated.

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  Taking Your Succession Management Plan into the 21st Century

Having moved into the new millennium, virtually every executive faces the same daunting dilemma: The demand for leadership talent far outstrips the supply. In fact, the dearth of people qualified for important leadership positions has become one of the foremost challenges facing managers today. While most growing organizations typically will need more leaders, during the next 10 years an increasing number of companies will face an unusually large shortfall in executive talent.

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  Striking the Right Balance - Total Rewards: An Old Idea Becomes The New Approach

Early labor negotiations converted benefits, pensions and other employment terms into a measure of cents per hour. Yet this concept of total rewards – the taking into account of all aspects of the employee-employer relationship – was not embraced as a unified approach. Until now. The time for total rewards has truly arrived.

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Sweeping Deferred Compensation Reform Requires Immediate Action

The recently enacted American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 includes sweeping reforms of the rules governing nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) arrangements. While NQDC will continue to play a role in compensation strategies, the reforms significantly limit plan design options, increase the importance of upfront planning for employers and

participants, add considerable administrative complexity, and impose harsh sanctions for noncompliance. Employers will need to identify and review all arrangements potentially subject to the rules; most plan documents and administrative procedures will require changes. This Perspective summarizes the reforms and implications for employers and suggests steps employers may take in the near term.

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  Tackling the challenge of aligning pay with performance

How should companies align executive pay with performance? Until recently, share price appreciation was the definitive guide for the "right" performance - that is, anything above the strike price - which explains the heavy reliance on stock options. But times have changed: options are falling out of favor in part because stakeholders perceive that executives are benefiting from market performance rather than underlying corporate performance. While there is no silver bullet for selecting measures and performance targets, a comprehensive and rigorous approach can create a rational and defensible link between pay and performance. This Perspective describes the tools and processes that compensation committees can use.

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  HR Innovation - Winter 2005

Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s annual thought leadership journal which takes a closer look at recent trends and how HR and other executives can take the initiative by proactively addressing those trends with innovative approaches that provide their companies with competitive advantage.  We address topics as diverse as the efficacy of pension plans; determining a cross-border compensation philosophy and trends in expatriate compensation; effective strategies for communicating benefits changes; the impact of FASB’s position regarding the expensing of stock options; HR’s role in corporate governance; compensation strategies for private companies seeking top talent; the myriad complex issues surrounding IPOs, from compliance with intricate and arcane federal and state securities laws, to negotiations with underwriters, to developing shareholder relations capability; avoiding alternative minimum tax obligations, and effectively measuring HR performance.

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HRS Insights

PricewaterhouseCoopers real-time reporting on US accounting, legislative and regulatory developments related to compensation, retirement, health and welfare, and other employee benefits issues.

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International Assignment Solutions Global Watch

PricewaterhouseCoopers real-time reporting on tax law changes, visa and immigration changes and other topics related to international assignment management.

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Key Trends in Human Capital: A Global Perspective

During the last year PricewaterhouseCoopers acquired Saratoga Institute in the US and EP-First in the UK to complement our existing Human Resource Services practice. To launch our global offering, Saratoga has produced a briefing paper – 'Key Trends in Human Capital: A Global Perspective' - which represents, for the first time, our combined thought leadership on HR measurement matters.

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Sourcing Strategy: Knowing When to Outsource

Companies often treat outsourcing as a de facto solution, without evaluating or understanding the true strategic rationales for pursuing it. Yet many forge ahead, making significant structural changes to the enterprise without a cohesive master plan. Building a corporate "Sourcing Strategy" is a straightforward exercise with a very high ROI, aligning the outsourcing agenda with corporate strategy and creating a context for success - hopefully, before it’s too late. This paper defines an approach for constructing the needed Sourcing framework, so executives can know when it’s time to outsource, and when it’s not.

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Communication: The Foundation for Successful HR Program Implementation

From development to implementation, introducing a new HR program is a tremendous challenge—and sometimes an insurmountable one—for many organizations.

Designing a quality program that meets the demands dictated by business goals, the existing HR framework, and the organizational culture is only half the battle. In this paper, Hay Group identifies the common communication failings that foil new HR initiatives and the six key goals of strategic communication plan that are integral to implementation success.

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Hay Job Evaluation Foundations and Applications

Our new working paper helps clients to reassess the tenets of job evaluation and its applications. We have not only found that job evaluation continues to be a critical tool for establishing organizational clarity and effectiveness, but that its applications are more valuable than ever in today's fiercely competitive, highly scrutinized business environment. The Hay Method of Job Evaluation continues to be the most widely accepted worldwide, in use by over half of the world’s 50 largest companies, as well as in government, public, and not-for-profit institutions. This paper provides an overview of the Hay Guide Chart®-Profile Method of Job Evaluation and provides insight on how job evaluation can facilitate organizational clarity, build capability, and establish commitment through culture and rewards.

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Managing the Competitiveness of Total Remuneration

How would your employees feel if they suddenly received a 38% raise? Would they be measurably more committed—ready to go that extra mile—if they knew just how much your organization was contributing to their well being? Do you really know just how much you are giving your employees and whether your generosity is appreciated?

Many employers are starting to ask themselves these tough questions (or are taking a second look) as the cost of benefits programs continues to escalate, and as business conditions continue to challenge virtually all organizations to tighten their belts. However, as the cost of benefits continues to grow, employers need to ensure that their total remuneration package—the sum of all direct and indirect compensation they offer their employees—is competitive and appreciated.

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The Innovative Organization: Lessons Learned from Most Admired Companies

In this issue, we review lessons learned from Hay Group's research with Most Admired Companies. Hay Group partners with FORTUNE magazine annually to identify the World's Most Admired Companies and America's Most Admired Companies. We also conduct follow-up research each year to identify the business practices that make the Most Admired Companies great. This year our focus was on the factors that contribute to an organization's ability to innovate. Our results suggest that the most innovative companies are distinguished by leaders who provide clear direction for innovative activity, organizational climates and cultures that support the development of new ideas and the combination of existing ideas in novel ways, and focused management of investments in innovation to ensure effective implementation.

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Towards a More Perfect Match

It is an often repeated, yet puzzling scenario: A talented, successful executive is promoted following a careful assessment of his or her capabilities. Within months, it is clear that something is wrong: The executive is struggling; the team is frustrated; performance is lagging.

Almost two years ago, an international team of Hay Group experts in executive assessment, development, talent management, and work measurement set out to find the answer. They studied the roles and competencies of 400 top-performing senior executives from some of the world’s most successful organizations, including IBM, PepsiCo, and Unilever. Their findings, reported here, shine new light on leadership roles and the individuals who fill them, and expose some common misconceptions, including the belief that most top executive roles are similar in terms of the leadership skills, behaviors, and experience they require.

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