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What’s your Labor Affiliation?

Unions, Works Councils, Collective Bargaining Agreements, Employment Contracts all represent the rights of the worker.   Traditionally, in the US, we find Unions primarily in manual labor positions unlike in the rest of the world where we find labor representatives in knowledge worker positions as well.    As a result, we have seen a decline in the US of union membership over the past 50 years.   The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual summary of unionization in the US and stated that members of unions were at 11.3% - no change from the previous year.   After the decline from 11.8% in 2011 due to changes in the collection of union dues in many states.    It is important to note, in the US, members of unions represented 30% of the working population fifty years ago.    What does this really mean for Unions and Union jobs looking forward?    Potentially a little grim for those in Chattanooga working for VW. ...
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Privacy - Word of the Year 2013

dictionary.com has selected "Privacy" as their Word of the Year in 2013 Interestingly enough, despite the very specific definition, data privacy is interpreted very differently by country, culture, region and even by organization. The Ponemon Institute conducted benchmark research analysis on the cost of global data breaches in their 2013 study .  The highest data breach cost in 2012 by individual incident was in the US at $5.4 million and in Germany at $4.8 million.  Most of the data breaches were as a result of malicious or criminal act, not technical errors.    With this, there is no fail safe technical solution to support data privacy, except deny data access all together - which is obviously not an option,  but rather education and required accountability to minimize risk.   The European Commission stated it best: "Sharing data has become crucial for economic growth. Privacy protection and the free flow of data are complementary not contra...
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Keep it simple

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."  Edmund Burke We all know that understanding history is key in not repeating mistakes.   In the past, many organizations deployed multiple Human Capital Management solutions from varying vendors or multiple instances of a single vendor solution in order to comply with global and local processes, rules or security. This type of strategy results in multiple challenges at both a corporate and local level.   They stretch from inaccurate headcount and compensation reporting to out-of-date data and inconsistent human resource process administration as well as risks to data privacy and lack of global planning capabilities.   As a result, global corporate culture is not defined and supported with this nor is the global workforce engaged as a single organization.    In hindsight, many of the same organizations are now seeing the benefits of deploying and maintaining a single solution by providing exte...
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Who is the Global Expert in the room?

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“If you can’t explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough.”      Albert Einstein Every time I visit with a customer who has plans to deploy their HCM solutions globally, I always find it interesting how everyone in the room becomes the global expert.  Typically, when asked the question “Have you deployed a global solution in x country?” - the response is typically “No” followed by “but I understand the opportunities of consolidation and standardization”.    This does not make you an expert. As organizations explore their opportunities to expand globally, beyond their borders, they will find “global experts” emerge from every corner but not always with the best advice.  They will claim global expertise to support a global enterprise and express the complexities involved and how they are able to help.  This can be overwhelming and daunting for those responsible for planning.  This is also the reason many projects f...
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