2012 Latin America & Caribbean HR Forum - Miami

  • Women in Leadership: A Key Leadership Development Issue

    Leading the session “Women in Leadership: A Key Leadership Development Issue,” Mercer’s Andira Borgo and Marisabel Ribeiro noted that “the status quo dies hard,” and that Latin America was falling behind in developing women in leadership roles, with less than 15 percent women as function heads in such countries as Argentina, Chile, and Nicaragua, and only 15 to 25 percent in Mexico and Colombia. “Women are under-represented and underpaid in such economies as Brazil, especially as they age—with women dominating the Latin American workforce up to age 25, but vastly outnumbered by men during the prime working years of 36 to 45.” The session discussed what women most value in the workplace, and how female leaders can be developed—through executive sponsors, acquiring skills, and best practices for hiring and promoting female leaders.

  • Workforce Planning: Why It Matters More in Today’s Environment

    Mercer Mexico City-based consultant Benjamin Lynch and Washington, DC’s Matt Stevenson led a session on “Workforce Planning: Why It Matters More in Today’s Environment.” They explained that workforce planning is “a systematic process that identifies and addresses gaps between current and future workforce resources and needs,” and described the various pathways to actions that ensure the right people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time and at the right cost. Using a case study from the oil and gas sector, Lynch and Stevenson stressed that Latin America HR leaders must match human capital strategy to their companies’ business models, ensuring access to reliable internal and external data, segmenting key employee groups (and re-examining their rewards), and training managers on performance coaching.

  • Latin America Compensation & Benefits: A Perspective for the Coming Year

    Mercer Miami-based consultant Adriana Espinosa joined Mexico City’s Benjamin Lynch for a session on “Latin America Compensation & Benefits: A Perspective for the Coming Year.”  They cited data from Mercer’s recent What’s Working™ survey, which showed that, globally, employee loyalty is declining, as is satisfaction with pay and benefits in many locations. “In Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil, career advancement, base pay and training opportunities are the top three things employees are looking for,” Espinosa said. In addition, the Total Rewards approach to compensation and benefits is taking hold in the region, with compensation and benefits more closely tied to performance and attraction/retention needs.

  • The Impact of Culture on M&A

    FedEx Express HR leader Esperanza Lopez-Virtue, Managing Director of HR, Latin America & Caribbean, joined Mercer Mexico City consultants Paule Desaulniers and Julie van Waveren for a session exploring “The Impact of Culture on M&A.” They explained how people issues remain the most significant challenges for companies making acquisitions, due to cultural differences, lack of employee engagement and leadership / management retention issues. Desaulniers and Van Waveren described Mercer’s strategic approach to the cultural challenges of M&A, through the assessment of  organizational behavior and designing key drivers of behavioral change. Fedex Express’s Lopez-Virtue then offered a case study FedEx’s successful cultural integration with MultiPack in Mexico, partnering with Mercer to analyze “organizational fit” and assess the cultural framework of the merged organizations.

  • Mobility: Managing Health Care for International Assignments

    Mercer’s Laura Roldan of Buenos Aires and Sandra Huertas of Mexico City led a session on “Mobility: Managing Health Care for International Assignments,” explaining that Latin America had become an important area for expansion of multinational companies, even as multilatina companies expand beyond Latin America. As a result, Mercer clients have concerns about their mobility programs and policies. Roldan and Huertes noted the differences between “an emerging global mobility strategy” and “a mature mobility program,” and the various types of expatriate health care coverage. Participants discussed which employees to cover with international health plans, local plans, and what specific benefits are provided in these plans in order to ensure the most competitive policies for expatriates.

  • Organizations shared their experiences and insights

    Several case studies from Walmart, Tetrapak, Arcos Dorados, Boehringer Ingelheim, FedEx and Arcelor Mittal shone a light on the HR challenges and solutions of the region. Pablo Rodriguez de la Torre and Martin Ibanez-Frocham of Mercer in Buenos Aires led a case study about the process of taking the multilatina, Arcos Dorados, public with an IPO, and the “before and after” HR challenges. Sergio Torres of Mercer, Mexico City, joined with ArcelorMittal HR executives Dale Laidlaw and Cynthia Arredondo to discuss how local and corporate priorities were successfully blended in the global steel company’s acquisition of SICARTSA in Mexico’s port of Lazaro Cardenas. And Diego Ramirez and  Fatima Ramirez of Mercer, Mexico City, led a session featuring Miguel Gurrola, Latin America HR Director  of Boehringer Ingelheim, who described how the global pharmaceutical company’s wellness programs are not only a key aspect of its Employee Value Proposition but also are segmented for maximum effect.
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Event summary

The 2012 edition of Mercer’s Latin America and Caribbean HR Forum welcomed more than 200 senior HR leaders from 16 countries to Miami’s Fontainebleau Hotel. The Forum remains the region’s preeminent event for exchanging ideas and learning new strategies about critical workforce issues, and in 2012 it focused on the talent challenges ahead.

As Latin America’s economic and technological growth outpace Europe and the US—and as the Baby Boomer and Millennial generations mix together at work—the region’s HR leadership must confront the urgent challenges of recruiting and retaining talent, compensation and benefits, retirement planning, workforce metrics, and performance management.

We’d like to share with you some highlights—in words and images—of this year’s event, as we prepare for 2013 and look forward to your participation once more.

The Tech Connection
The 2012 Forum was truly innovative in its use of supporting technology to render the event practically paperless—and very “green.” All delegates were issued specially configured iPads at registration and a special Mercer app was available for downloading to smart phones, containing all conference materials. This new approach to delivering content made it easier for delegates to collect information, connect with each other, expand the conversation globally through social media, and provide feedback about Forum sessions.
HR’s Three Biggest Issues
Mercer Canada/Latin America Region Head Jacques Théorêt welcomed Forum delegates and introduced Mercer CEO Julio Portalatin. He pointed out that Mercer recently asked more than 400 Latin America HR leaders what they saw as the major human capital challenges for 2012. “You told us that issue number one was a desire to transform employee productivity and performance,” said Portalatin. “That includes everything from enlarging the leadership pipeline and career development to rewards and performance management.”

Mercer is helping its clients in the region to develop “high-impact talent” capable of responding to new opportunities and making decisions in real time, said Portalatin. He also stressed Mercer’s focus on health and wellness by helping employees make “smart benefits choices—sometimes too many choices are as bad as too few.” And he noted Mercer’s capabilities with regard to taking pension risk off the table. “Though many companies have adopted DC plans, the liabilities from legacy DB plans remain on the balance sheet.”
From Capitalism to Talentism
In the Forum’s opening plenary session, Mercer’s Jason Jeffay and Alberto Mondelli explored how the critical issues of human capital risk, employability and mobility were moving the business world from its emphasis on capitalism toward a more focused concept:  “Talentism.”

Unleashing talentism relies on solving the challenges of talent pools—marked by skill scarcities, widespread unemployability and mobility gaps—and talent pipelines, which often suffer from slowness, chokepoints and inefficiencies. Case studies from Mercer clients were provided by Roger L. Cude, SVP of Global Talent Management for Walmart, and Aluisio Fonseca, VP of HR Central & South America for Tetra Pak.
Hard and Soft Trends
In another session, technology forecaster Daniel Burrus (one of America’s top business “gurus,” according to The New York Times) explained that there were two types of trends: “hard trends” that will definitely happen—such as demographic shifts and the aging workforce—and “soft trends” that might happen, and on which too many decisions are based. Burrus urged Latin America’s HR leaders to focus on hard trends; for example, the increase in video conferencing logically requires more training in effective video communication, and should begin with companies’ sales organizations.

“This is the first time I have participated in Mercer's Strategic M&A Ready workshop and the Latin America & Caribbean HR Forum. I cannot overstate the importance of attending these events. The Forum truly exceeded my expectations.

The Forum content was extremely valuable and the ongoing efforts of Mercer's consultants to facilitate networking opportunities and answer participants questions was remarkable. The overall logistics of the event–from the accommodation to the content provided–were very well organized and made this Forum the superlative meeting place for HR executives from across the continent. The breakout sessions were also a great opportunity to come face-to-face with state-of-the-art tools and how to apply these to our organizations. Same again next year!”

Humberto Gerardo Cicia, Sr. VP Human Resources, TIBA S.A

“I have recommended the Mercer Forum to some of my HR colleagues in the region in the past, however, this is the first time I have attended myself. I discovered what a great opportunity this event provides for getting invaluable updates on the most compelling HR trends. The Mercer Forum has become a traditional meeting point for top Latin American HR executives with whom you can exchange ideas and experiences, and interact in an ideal environment.”

Eduardo E. Franck, HR Corporate Director, Techint Group, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“I attended the Mercer Forum 2012 for the first time this year and found it to be a great learning experience. Interacting with colleagues from a diversity of businesses and industries across the region and sharing views on new trends was extremely beneficial.

The event format was particularly well structured, such that each participant was able to choose from multiple workshops to suit their individual needs and expectations.

I have no doubt that I will be attending the Mercer Forum 2013!

Marcelo Rodriguez, LAM HR Mgr, SKF, Buenos Aires , Argentina