Introduction

Winning in Asia, Making Pay Equity and Pay Transparency Real & Advancing People Analytics

Across the technology and life sciences sectors, growth is the name of the game and it’s being accomplished through impressive innovation. In a time of global growth and expansion, coupled with market volatility and ongoing geopolitical surprises, innovation-based organizations have experienced great opportunities for growth. At the same time, these high-performing sectors face more and more social pressure to be better, be bolder and lead the landscape of talent and reward practices. These companies have new competition from traditional line sectors in the digital revolution with an imbalance of supply and demand for talent— not just in the United States (US) but a number of global growth markets as well. As all companies look to find ways to improve customer experience, they are also required to innovate the employment experience for five generations of talent with different wants and desires. There is no time to stand still as the competition for talent and market dominance continues unabated in all sectors, and particularly for our technology and life sciences clients. It is time to reimagine how business can move faster with new ways to address talent and rewards strategies.

Human resources, rewards and talent professionals are at the center of it all. They are at the core of a company’s culture and pulse— the bridge between leadership and employees and between perception and reality. We must reimagine our roles, and be bold in three key areas: understanding the global landscape, addressing pay equity and pay transparency, and leveraging the full potential of people analytics.

Winning in Asia

We've all known for years that Asia is a land of great opportunity for technology and life sciences companies, both in terms of accessing new markets and world-class talent. And while searching for growth in Asia is not a new endeavor, in recent years, the conversation around setting up shop in the region has undergone a fundamental transformation. It’s not just about foreign companies looking to expand into Asia anymore. Now, fresh competition is coming from explosive homegrown firms led by Asian-born entrepreneurs. These companies are quickly becoming market leaders, attracting top talent with increasing ease, and setting up shop themselves in the US and Europe.

For HR professionals in the West, this means centrally-managed, top-down approaches to rewards and talent no longer work as well. Nor does using one-size-fits-all country-level data— simply put, nuance matters. What's more, companies born in Asia are quickly adapting to Western-style pay programs as needed, aggravating the competition for talent even further.

These shifts place a premium on the cultural underpinnings of a business to manage the employee journey, from hiring requirements, to career paths and mobility, to development and mentoring as well as pay. Companies need to create more flexibility to meet the ever growing and evolving needs in the markets, as well as room for scale, both in terms of headcount and geographic footprint.

Making Pay Equity and Pay Transparency Real

While it's always exciting to look externally at new opportunities for growth, what’s happening inside your organization today matters a great deal. Employees want to know how their pay is determined and they expect transparency and fairness to be table stakes in the pay-setting process. In some cases, it’s the law. Companies in California, Massachusetts, New York City, the United Kingdom and several other jurisdictions all face new pay equity-related regulations this year. However, in the technology and life sciences sectors, where progressive people policies have long been cultural norms, pay equity and pay transparency are much more than legal issues. They are business imperatives. The market for talent is as tight as ever and employees will increasingly seek out organizations where fairness is part of the core employee value proposition and leaders walk the talk.

As a result, creating sound career architecture and leveling systems linked to reliable market intelligence has never been more important. People managers, HR leaders and compensation professionals all need to be able to answers questions about pay and performance with confidence and clarity grounded in consistent practices and policies. At the same time, in today’s competitive global market, flexibility is needed as well to make intentional distinctions free of bias, particularly unconscious bias that can creep into a company’s culture. Managing this difficult balancing act will be imperative and be the way that companies differentiate themselves in the market for talent. Companies need to take a hard look at how they make compensation decisions, regularly audit their data and policies, and be more open-minded about exploring new ways of doing business.

Advancing People Analytics

In the world of big data, HR professionals must embrace the promises of exacting insights from data. When it comes to topics like pay equity, individually customized rewards, predicting turnover and even connecting the dots between wellness programs and people performance, knowing where to start is a daunting proposition. Fortunately, people analytics can help. Using statistical tools like multiple regression models and clustering analysis— the sorts of things we all hoped to forget after college— every company has the ability to sort through mountains of data to extract game-changing insights. The only question is: which organizations will make the investments in people and tools needed to harness the potential of analytics— moving HR from a cost center to a more impactful business leadership role?

Once companies take the plunge, the results are surprising and empowering. For example, when it comes to pay equity, detailed multiple regression modeling often reveals solutions must go far beyond one-time pay adjustments. Delivering lasting results may start with how pay is set for new hires and promotions, but ultimately it means finding and fixing unconscious bias in all aspects of a company’s culture including how diverse talent is sourced in underrepresented job functions. To some, these remedies are obvious. However, for many others, analytics have the power to move conversations from subjective assumptions to quantitative measurements of the impact of specific variables and policies on pay outcomes. And in many cases, this is what it takes to move the needle in the board room.