It’s Wednesday, and I’m on my way to conduct the opening and closing keynote speech at the Compensation and Benefits Conference in Mexico City

I’m speaking with some excellent folks representing some of the best consulting companies in the world.  Even better, I’ll be presenting to some of the biggest and most progressive companies in Mexico.  A great stage…

Anyways…

While In Mexico, Learn about Mexico…

• §12rd largest global economy
• §GDP of  $1.2 trillion
• §Annual national income per capita: $7,870
• §Rapidly growing economy, the “informal” economy has a sizeable presence
• §Mix of modern and outmoded industries; GDP: 70% services, 26% industry, 4% agriculture
• §Working age population (ages 15-64) expected to jump from 66.1 million in 2005 to 86.4 billion in 2030
• §Median age: 25.6 years
• §Life expectancy at birth: 75.4 years

Comp and Benefits in Mexico

In my presentations tomorrow (opening and closing the conference), I am speaking on the importance of Compensation and “Benefits” here in Mexico during “times of crisis”.   Just like in the states, compensation has been cut, hours have been cut, and jobs have been eliminated.  And there is no benefits package as we have here; not many companies provide health insurance or life insurance to their employees.

So, I am speaking about expanding the definitions of benefits  to include concepts of daily satisfaction (ensuring that skills and interests of employees match their job), providing expanded work-life balance (especially in times of crises), offering training and development opportunities, and making sure that their best and brightest employees receive the greatest rewards and recognition.  In terms of Rewards, I feel strongly that 80% of the rewards should go to the top 20% of employees, the employees that employers can least afford to lose.  These top 20%, the A players, have the biggest impact on the success (or failure) of a company. so it makes sense they should receive the greatest benefits from the organization.

Employee Hold’em in Mexico City

I spoke with Teresita, my contact in Mexico City on Facebook last week.  We spoke for almost an hour (ok, chatted on line with Instant Messenger) and our discussion was wide ranging.

She agreed to let me conduct the Hold’em Seminar, so this will be the fourth country I have played the card game in, however the first time that English isn’t going to be the native language of the attendees.  The game is highly interactive and we’ll see how it goes.  Hopefully the two phrases I’ve learned so far will be helpful…

“The boy is under the airplane” and “The girl is on the horse”.  Not sure how I will work those in, but I remain hopeful.