INVITATION to the 1^st  Congress on Global Leadership / Global Business IQ™  in Stuttgart on June 11th at the Mercedes Museum click, review info

TIME TO ENSURE A LIVING WAGE WORLDWIDE

Geoffrey Matthews, 

Vice-President, Head of Corporate Total Rewards

Nestlé Group

Mr Matthews is a well-known writer and consultant on Employee Engagement, Rewards, Strategic HR and OD. He is also responsible for employee engagement and international mobility; and, he will be a featured thought-leader at the GLOBAL BUSINESS IQ / GLOBAL LEADERSHIP CONGRESS in Stuttgart, 11 June

In various countries there have been different initiatives to ensure that workers receive a Living Wage, but progress remains stubbornly slow. Just in the UK alone, only one-third of the top 100 listed companies have signed up with the Living Wage Foundation, and much more generally needs to be done across the globe. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for countries to “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

A Living Wage can contribute significantly to this. Without it, workers cannot provide for their own basic needs and those of their families, leaving them to face poverty and hardship.

Nestlé’s recent 2017 Nestlé in Society report shows how the company has made a Living Wage a reality for its employees across the world, through an exhaustive 3-year exercise covering 111 countries where it operates. This was a tremendous project, and I’m proud to have been part of this initiative while working at Nestlé.

Local legislation may be absent or insufficient to deliver a Living Wage, so if progress is to be made, employers need to take the lead in filling this gap. Paying a Living Wage not only shows that employers want to ensure better lives for their workers, it also shows consumers the organisation’s fairness in dealing with others. It makes business sense too in stimulating consumer demand and economic growth, so benefitting society as a whole.

While shareholder return is a focus for many companies, it’s vital that other stakeholders are not overlooked, especially those on the lowest incomes.

So far Nestlé and a few other pioneering companies have tackled this globally, but isn’t it time more employers took action here too?   (Editor’s note: 1st published on LinkedIn March 28, 2018)

GDPR

May 25:

3 Steps for Everyone

The deadline for Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) readiness is fast approaching, and many are getting their affairs in order. Businesses around the globe will have to act now to ensure that they do not run afoul of the European Union’s new data protection legislation.

As we draw towards 25th May, every company that handles personal data should be looking internally to confirm compliance and improve their internal security procedures.  Many, however, are still struggling to catch up with the new laws.

Get Informed

If not already done, now is the time to begin to research what GDPR means to you and your business. In human resources, a significant amount of personal data is frequently shared and processed to perform day-to-day functions. Educate yourself on what information the EU regards as ‘special’ as this needs to be handled with extra security, as a breach could lead to discrimination against the individual, and hefty financial penalties for those responsible.

The web is currently full of excellent resources which cover the possible impact of GDPR on virtually all industries across the globe. Remember, that much of your response needs to be risk-based, so take a careful and considered approach when researching the possible implications. What is right for one business may not be the same for yours, although you should always rest on the side of caution.

Review Your Practices

An extremely wise step for all organisations considering internal changes in response to the new legislation is to perform a full internal data audit. This process involves taking a fine comb to all of the data you store and process as a business, and recording what it is, where it came from, what it tells you, and who you share it with. The answers to these questions can then be used to form your next steps of response.

Holding a proper understanding of the personal data you store allows you to accurately consider how to change your processes going forward.

Do you stop collecting some data?

Do you scale back on your sharing with third-party service providers?

Do you need to be more explicit in your privacy and consent statements?

All of these questions and more will be greatly informed by this exercise.

Integrate Compliance

Finally, look towards the future, and consider how you can insulate your organisation from personal data-related problems of the future.

This will require some thought to how you can shift your current workflows to ensure compliance is at the core. GDPR places a considerable onus on data accountability, and you should too.

Ensure that you have the mechanisms in place to efficiently track the flow of private data into, through, and out of your business.

Every company should ensure:

1. They have unambiguous consent to hold and process individuals’ personal data.
2. They have the ability to completely delete personal data if requested by an individual
3. They have the ability to securely transfer personal data to another location of company
4. They have strict data security in place, with special data encrypted.
5. They have processes in place for individuals to object to the use of their data
6. They have a plan in place for reacting to and reporting personal data breaches
7. They have appointed a data protection officer or ‘GDPR owner’ to drive data security

This can be a mammoth task, especially for any sizable business which handles significant quantities of personal information, such as those in the human resources sector.

Thankfully, there are now many technological offerings for all budgets on the market which are specially designed with these issues in mind.

As such, platforms offering full workflow management with internal tracking will soon become essential tools of the human resources professional.

This article was written by ReloTalent for GlobalBusiness HR News. If you would like to continue the conversation about GDPR, CEO and Co-Founder Sebastien Deschamps would be happy to discuss the issues raised in this article. Please email seb@relotalent.com

Guest Editorial

TAKE  2

minutes

Understand Why Xpat Gender Diversity Matters

… do something about it

… it’s time to accelerate

 PARIS

June 14

click… review agenda, sign-upPARIS

JUNE 14 

Corporate Talent Policy Roundtable 

leaders will include

Jean-Francois Rage, Partner

 Come learn a new approach to problem-solving

Paris, June 14 (click to register) http://bit.ly/2GLDF36     

June 11th

STUTTGART, GERMANY

Invitation

1st Global Leadership / Global Business IQ™ Congress

Venue: Museum at Mercedes-Daimler

The global mobility of executives and employees is becoming increasingly important for corporations and international medium-sized companies. In the US, but also in Germany and other countries, this issue has long been a top priority.

Through a partnership with the US business portal, Global Business News, and it’s Publisher, Ed Cohen, a unique congress on this topic takes place for the first time in Germany on Monday, June 11th inside the Museum at Mercedes-Daimler.

We suggest you use the opportunity to obtain information on current trends and developments, and to exchange ideas with experts and colleagues.

Johannes Klemeyer (Managing Director of crossculture academy, President Globiana, Inc.),

Prof. Dr. med. Wilfried Mödinger (Leading The Future)

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