A critical skill is a skill or set of skills that are essential to the organization’s mission and objectives. These are the core skills the organization must have to be able to function.
A hot skill is a skill or set of skills that are in high demand and/or in short supply. An example might be experienced engineers in a market where many are retiring and too few are available to take their place.
Any particular skill could be either critical or hot or both. Market intelligence will provide the full picture of market pay conditions in terms of supply and demand. Pay Data typically provided by salary survey providers will provide the price in terms of what the going salary rate is for the skills for varying job levels, industries, and geographic regions. Pay Data is based on what locally employed people who are currently employed are paid.
Although exact data is difficult to establish, there is evidence that most organizations pay premiums for critical and hot skills. Most offer premiums of 5% to 20% of base pay. Other organizations offer sign-on or stay-on bonuses to secure such skills. Such premiums are seen as short term solutions as they do not address the underlying problem i.e. the short supply of skills. In most markets a shortage of skills results in more people gaining the skills. However the lengthy time scale to gain the skills and get experience can often mean that by the time individuals have achieved the required level of experience, the demand for the skill has fallen away.
When critical and hot skills are unobtainable locally in the immediate term, organizations extend their search beyond the “national” market and recruit expatriates. The employment of expatriates is used by organizations in parallel with a development program to develop the needed hot and critical skills locally.
Embark on a journey with Xpatulator, your guide to mastering global living standards. Explore the intricacies of relocating with our insights on cost of living, quality of life, and the unique challenges faced when moving across borders. Our calculators offer essential data for over 780 destinations worldwide, helping you navigate cost-of-living comparisons, purchasing power parity, and tailor international packages. Perfect for those seeking to balance lifestyle and expenses in new locations.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Effectiveness – How you can do more with less time
Your effectiveness is about identifying your most important task and tackling it with single-minded focus until it is completed. The challenge is usually those tasks that you know are priorities, but that you’ve put off for whatever reason.
Focus
Your ability to focus in a single-minded fashion to accomplish your most important task is the prime determinant of your success. The complication comes in, when you lack clarity about your true goals and objectives. Lack of clarity impairs action.
Planned Action
Successful people launch directly without hesitation into the major task that confronts them at any point in the day. However, while acting is better than procrastinating, action without planning leads to failure and disappointment, so learn to plan daily. Remember the 10/90 rule: investing 10% of your time in planning before beginning a project will help you use the other 90% of the time more effectively.
Prioritize
Remember Pareto’s rule. If you have a to-do list of 10 items, two of those items will generate 80% of the return you get from your entire list. Begin with the end in mind. After attending to the urgent and important matters, focus on what is important but not urgent. Failures do what is tension-relieving while winners do what is goal-achieving.
Make a list of your tasks. Prioritize your list by putting an “A” next to those tasks that you must do as soon as possible or face serious consequences. If you have more than one “A” number them “A1”, “A2” etc. “B” tasks are ones you should do, but that carry mild consequences. “C” tasks would be nice to do, but carries absolutely no consequences at all. “D” tasks are those you can delegate to someone else, so your goal is to delegate all of them to free your time for things only you can do. “E” task is one you can eliminate altogether. It may have seemed important once, but it isn’t any more. You can’t do everything and there is only so much time in a day, so start with the 20% of tasks that will generate 80% of the return.
Time
The Law of Forced Efficiency relates to the idea that any job will expand to fill the time you allow for it. If you have two days, it will take you two days (or perhaps more). However, the flip side is also true: If you have only one day to complete a two-day job, somehow you find the time to do it.
Being effective requires a positive attitude and the will to do the most difficult task first. Because you can’t do everything, indulge in creative procrastination – put off the things that do not carry a consequence. Break large tasks down into a series of simple ones. Work with a sense of urgency.
Focus
Your ability to focus in a single-minded fashion to accomplish your most important task is the prime determinant of your success. The complication comes in, when you lack clarity about your true goals and objectives. Lack of clarity impairs action.
Planned Action
Successful people launch directly without hesitation into the major task that confronts them at any point in the day. However, while acting is better than procrastinating, action without planning leads to failure and disappointment, so learn to plan daily. Remember the 10/90 rule: investing 10% of your time in planning before beginning a project will help you use the other 90% of the time more effectively.
Prioritize
Remember Pareto’s rule. If you have a to-do list of 10 items, two of those items will generate 80% of the return you get from your entire list. Begin with the end in mind. After attending to the urgent and important matters, focus on what is important but not urgent. Failures do what is tension-relieving while winners do what is goal-achieving.
Make a list of your tasks. Prioritize your list by putting an “A” next to those tasks that you must do as soon as possible or face serious consequences. If you have more than one “A” number them “A1”, “A2” etc. “B” tasks are ones you should do, but that carry mild consequences. “C” tasks would be nice to do, but carries absolutely no consequences at all. “D” tasks are those you can delegate to someone else, so your goal is to delegate all of them to free your time for things only you can do. “E” task is one you can eliminate altogether. It may have seemed important once, but it isn’t any more. You can’t do everything and there is only so much time in a day, so start with the 20% of tasks that will generate 80% of the return.
Time
The Law of Forced Efficiency relates to the idea that any job will expand to fill the time you allow for it. If you have two days, it will take you two days (or perhaps more). However, the flip side is also true: If you have only one day to complete a two-day job, somehow you find the time to do it.
Being effective requires a positive attitude and the will to do the most difficult task first. Because you can’t do everything, indulge in creative procrastination – put off the things that do not carry a consequence. Break large tasks down into a series of simple ones. Work with a sense of urgency.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Expatriate Engagement
Engagement is a fairly recent term in business. In the past the talk was about “attracting, motivating and retaining” expatriate employees. All three strategies focused primarily on money. A competitive salary that takes into account the relative cost of living, exchange rate and hardship together with global expatriate benefits such as longer vacations, flights home, private school, club membership and the like were typically used to “attract” expatriates to where their skills were needed most. Bonuses, performance based pay, and recognition plans were used to “motivate” expatriates. Shares, retirement plans and tax-free gratuities were typically used to “retain” expatriates using the so-called golden handcuff approach.
The financial crises and recession have in my view provided further proof that money alone is not enough. When money gets tight will your expatriate employees stay and will they be motivated? Money on it’s own will not motivate or retain an expatriate when annual salary increases are reduced, bonuses are negligible if they are paid at all and shares are not performing.
To ensure expatriates will stay when times get tough, an engaged expatriate is required. An engaged expatriate is one who is committed to the organization (i.e. the host organization). An engaged expatriate is willing to exert extra effort in accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of the organizations goals.
Recruitment and Promotion
Ensuring that expatriates are put in the right job is a prerequisite for engagement. In reality expatriates are often hired because their skills are not locally available and because they are willing to relocate to a location that most people would not want to live in. As a result expatriates are often hired for their technical skills and not for their behavior, which in their home country would have been closely analyzed and subject to rigorous reference checking. It is critical that the right expatriate is recruited into the right job taking all aspects into account, including personality, age, culture, attitude, and previous track record through quality reference checks.
High Performance Standards
Average performance is usually associated with easy, low demand work. Responsibilities and accountabilities need to be well defined with clear perceptible differences compared to those they report to and to those who in turn report to them. Where differences in accountability are not clearly defined the result is a “non-job”. It is not possible to perform in a non-job as it is not clear who is accountable for what!
For engagement, expatriates need to be challenged with high standards of performance that will test their abilities fully. Hiring over qualified, over experienced expatriates into jobs that are too small for them will leave them unchallenged. Expatriates often perform badly when unchallenged by the job, but rise to accomplish the most difficult tasks when properly challenged.
Feedback
An engaged expatriate requires feedback. With this information the expatriate can control their outputs, measure how they are doing, guide themselves to reach their goals, and accept complete responsibility for their tasks, assignment and job.
In conclusion I ask again. When money gets tight will your expatriate employees stay and will they be motivated? A competitive salary that takes into account the relative cost of living, exchange rate and compensation for the hardship of living in an unfamiliar/foreign location together with global expatriate benefits will attract and to some degree retain expatriates. However if you really want your expatriates to stay motivated when times get tough you need to ensure you have engaged expatriates. Engaged expatriates are committed to the organization. You can better engage your expatriates by ensuring that expatriates are put in the right job, are challenged with high standards of performance that will test their abilities fully, and by providing feedback on how they are doing.
The financial crises and recession have in my view provided further proof that money alone is not enough. When money gets tight will your expatriate employees stay and will they be motivated? Money on it’s own will not motivate or retain an expatriate when annual salary increases are reduced, bonuses are negligible if they are paid at all and shares are not performing.
To ensure expatriates will stay when times get tough, an engaged expatriate is required. An engaged expatriate is one who is committed to the organization (i.e. the host organization). An engaged expatriate is willing to exert extra effort in accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of the organizations goals.
Recruitment and Promotion
Ensuring that expatriates are put in the right job is a prerequisite for engagement. In reality expatriates are often hired because their skills are not locally available and because they are willing to relocate to a location that most people would not want to live in. As a result expatriates are often hired for their technical skills and not for their behavior, which in their home country would have been closely analyzed and subject to rigorous reference checking. It is critical that the right expatriate is recruited into the right job taking all aspects into account, including personality, age, culture, attitude, and previous track record through quality reference checks.
High Performance Standards
Average performance is usually associated with easy, low demand work. Responsibilities and accountabilities need to be well defined with clear perceptible differences compared to those they report to and to those who in turn report to them. Where differences in accountability are not clearly defined the result is a “non-job”. It is not possible to perform in a non-job as it is not clear who is accountable for what!
For engagement, expatriates need to be challenged with high standards of performance that will test their abilities fully. Hiring over qualified, over experienced expatriates into jobs that are too small for them will leave them unchallenged. Expatriates often perform badly when unchallenged by the job, but rise to accomplish the most difficult tasks when properly challenged.
Feedback
An engaged expatriate requires feedback. With this information the expatriate can control their outputs, measure how they are doing, guide themselves to reach their goals, and accept complete responsibility for their tasks, assignment and job.
In conclusion I ask again. When money gets tight will your expatriate employees stay and will they be motivated? A competitive salary that takes into account the relative cost of living, exchange rate and compensation for the hardship of living in an unfamiliar/foreign location together with global expatriate benefits will attract and to some degree retain expatriates. However if you really want your expatriates to stay motivated when times get tough you need to ensure you have engaged expatriates. Engaged expatriates are committed to the organization. You can better engage your expatriates by ensuring that expatriates are put in the right job, are challenged with high standards of performance that will test their abilities fully, and by providing feedback on how they are doing.
Monday, December 14, 2009
How to analyse countries side by side?
Question: I am the CFO for a company who has staff working on projects in around 20 countries. How can I use your product to put these countries side by side in one analysis.
Answer: The best solution would be to run a report for each location using your HQ as the from location in each case. You will then have detailed cost of living reports for each country and can analyze the data across all 20 in a spreadsheet.
xpatulator.com for more information
Answer: The best solution would be to run a report for each location using your HQ as the from location in each case. You will then have detailed cost of living reports for each country and can analyze the data across all 20 in a spreadsheet.
xpatulator.com for more information
Sunday, December 13, 2009
cost of living per diem rate question
Question: How can I run a report of what a per diem rate should be for a Canadian employee who is traveling on business to the UK. I want the information to cover the cost of food and miscellaneous expenses but not the cost for hotel or transportation.
Answer: We suggest you use the SPPP (Salary Purchasing Power Parity) Calculator. For food use “Groceries” and for miscellaneous expenses use all or some of the following, “Miscellaneous”, “Personal Care”, and “Recreation and Culture”. Please note that restaurants and Meals out are covered in the same category as hotels. Public transport is included in transportation. The way to use the calculator for a per diem rate is to select only the above as “Paid from Salary”. The way to exclude the other basket items is to select them as “Provided”. In the salary field use the local per diem rate in Canada and select the appropriate UK city as the “to” location. The calculator will calculate the amount of per diem needed in the UK to have the same purchasing power as in Canada.
xpatulator.com for more information
Answer: We suggest you use the SPPP (Salary Purchasing Power Parity) Calculator. For food use “Groceries” and for miscellaneous expenses use all or some of the following, “Miscellaneous”, “Personal Care”, and “Recreation and Culture”. Please note that restaurants and Meals out are covered in the same category as hotels. Public transport is included in transportation. The way to use the calculator for a per diem rate is to select only the above as “Paid from Salary”. The way to exclude the other basket items is to select them as “Provided”. In the salary field use the local per diem rate in Canada and select the appropriate UK city as the “to” location. The calculator will calculate the amount of per diem needed in the UK to have the same purchasing power as in Canada.
xpatulator.com for more information
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