ORC Sightlines

September 2009

In this issue:

Updated Pandemic Planning and Response Guide for Businesses

ORC’s Environmental, Health & Safety practice has updated its Pandemic Planning and Response Guide for Business advising companies on how to develop plans that will allow them to remain flexible and ready to respond to the variability and uncertainty of pandemics, whether the threat is the novel H1N1 Influenza A or the H5N1 Avian Influenza or some other yet-to-be-identified virus.

The new edition incorporates the latest research and best practices emerging from last spring’s flu outbreak. That experience taught us, for example, that when determining appropriate actions, businesses should focus on the local/facility impacts of the disease and guidance from local public health departments. The World Health Organization’s “pandemic alert phases” are still very valuable for understanding the progress of an outbreak, but are not as helpful for determining response as on-the-ground local information.

Companies should consider six areas in their planning:

  1. Organization
  2. Communications
  3. Infection Prevention and Control
  4. Human Resources and Medical Policies
  5. Business Continuity
  6. Drills and Exercises

In concise format, the Guide describes what needs to be done in each area step-by-step and provides examples of best practices and links to further information.

For more information on pandemic flu planning, contact ORC’s EH&S experts at +1-202-293-2980.

ORC Weighs in on Choice of Host for 2016 Olympics

If the choice of venue for the 2016 Olympic summer games were made purely on the basis of costs, Rio de Janeiro would have a definite edge. Of the four cities vying for the honor—also including Tokyo, Chicago, and Madrid—Rio is the least expensive according to ORC’s analysis. In fact, it is 18 percent less costly to purchase goods and services in Rio de Janeiro than in London, the host of the 2012 Olympics. Chicago came in second, at 11 percent cheaper than London, and Madrid third, at 3 percent cheaper. Prices in Tokyo are 42 percent higher than in London.

Of course, 2016 is still seven years away, and any number of factors could influence prices between now and then. Exchange rates, for one, play a major role in determining whether or not a location is expensive. For example, although hotel costs in Beijing have dropped steadily since 2007, the yuan gained significantly against the pound in 2008. “Staying in Beijing was pricier for U.K. visitors during the Olympics. At the same time, Beijing prices were rising. As the exchange rate went against the pound, the British celebrating their medals found a significant hole in their pockets,” according to Siobhan Cummins, managing director of ORC’s Europe/Middle East/Africa operations.

Sometimes, the fact that a city is hosting the Olympics can affect prices there. Reviewing the price changes in the last two Summer Olympics cities, ORC found a 15 percent increase in Beijing prices in the year of the Olympics and a continued sharp rise this year, but little effect on prices in Athens. Ms. Cummins suggested that Beijing’s experience might have been due to significant growth in the Chinese economy, accelerated by the Olympics. “It will be interesting to see how London fares in the run up to the 2012 games and beyond,” she added.

ORC is a pioneer and the market leader in gathering and analyzing international cost-of-living data, which underpins our unique expertise in expatriate assignment consulting and administration.

ORC and SHRM Publish Book Series on Managing International Assignments

To help guide HR managers and business leaders through the international compensation maze, ORC Worldwide, in conjunction with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), has published the Global HR Management Series. The 7-book series, written by Roger Herod, ORC senior vice president, explores in a succinct and practical manner the critical issues in managing international assignments, compensating expatriates, and developing compensation and benefits policies for local-national employees. The books are available through the SHRM Store (800-444-5006).

A Road Map for Diversity & Inclusion Metrics

Metrics do not emerge from a vacuum. They are dictated by the organization’s diversity strategy and goals, which in turn derive from the business strategy and the requirements that business strategy will place on the workforce and the work environment.

ORC’s new Diversity Best Practices Guide, For Good Measure: Diversity and Inclusion Metrics, available in the ORC Global Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Knowledge Center, gives step-by-step advice on making this linkage. In the following excerpt, readers are guided through a series of preliminary questions to help set the stage.

As you go about selecting and designing your diversity and inclusion metrics, you should think through several questions:

What are the business goals of the organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts?

The metrics you put in place should allow you to track achievement of these goals.

Will metrics be set at the top level of the organization and cascade down, impacting individual performance objectives along the way, or will individual managers be asked to set performance measures that will roll up to produce organizational measures?

Some companies use a hybrid approach, with certain goals and, therefore, measures set at the top and others decided at lower levels and aggregated for reporting purposes. For example, demographic goals may be set for the corporation, dictating what needs to be measured at all levels, while individual managers or locations may impose additional measures regarding other demographic categories or other kinds of goals not covered in the corporate mandate.

Will you measure outcomes or behavior or both?

The answer will depend on what you hope to learn from your measurements, on the culture of your organization, and, very likely, on the maturity of your diversity initiative. For example, some companies decide not to look at outcomes during the first year or two of measurement, but choose first to emphasize certain kinds of behaviors or activities that will lead to improved outcomes in the future.

Which measurements will be used by the diversity function only and which will be reported to stakeholders such as senior leadership, the non-executive Board of Directors, shareholders, employees, the public?

As a rule, stakeholders—especially leadership—prefer simple, straightforward measures of progress. To understand what is behind those progress measures, the diversity function may need additional, more specific metrics.

What are the key initiatives on which you need data?

Metrics can change over time. While some may be standard, others will change as strategy and goals change.

What will you measure yourself against?

Performance measures only make sense when compared with some standard, such as:

It’s important to strike a reasonable balance between too little measurement and too much. With too little, you will have insufficient data to diagnose and correct problems. Too much, and you will waste resources and, often, alienate executives to whom you report. The trick is to think through what you need to know in order to analyze your organization’s systems and culture, what you need to report to stakeholders, and how you will structure the data.

For Good Measure includes sections on:

and includes instructions for creating an index, guidance on setting targets, and a sample diversity dashboard.

Related Links
Sightlines Archive