Human resources has successfully partnered with various functional areas for many years. Finance and HR partner to manage costs and optimize the value of compensation packages and other employee rewards. Operations and HR partner on devising solutions for work design, scheduling, and staffing. Marketing and HR partner to convert the firm’s brand into organizational culture and an employer brand.

Navigating the ever-changing global HR, Law & Tax, and Communications maze: An interview with Guy Abbiss, Managing Partner of Abbiss Cadres LLP and one of the founders of the CELIA Alliance of professional service firms

Depending on health insurance plans is a common reality in Brazil. According to figures released by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE) in June, 27.9% of the population had some type of health insurance plan in 2013, and more than one-third of the monthly payments were made by the policyholder’s employer. If we consider that this data is from 2013, we can assume that the total amount of private health insurance purchased by companies for their employees is even higher today.

The 2015 IGP Conference held in Boston, MA, IGP’s hometown, included three presentations that provided unique perspectives on otherwise well-known topics. GBV reports on the impact of a changing workforce and on adherence to a global benefits structure in this issue and will cover progressing from a wellness program to an integrated wellbeing approach in the March 2016 Special Issue about Wellness.

The MAXIS Conference devoted to sleep, “Sleep, a Business Case for Bedtime: The hidden Global Health Issue Impacting Employee Performance,” took place in November 2015 in Amsterdam, with the support of Zilveren Kruis, the health insurance division of Achmea.

Demographic factors and the current socio-economic context present major challenges to the statutory (i.e., state) pensions system. Lowering the statutory pension age is not an option, nor is increasing contributions. These two factors together inevitably lead to a tightening of the conditions for access to statutory pensions and to early retirement, as recent government measures in this area confirm.

While Mexico’s principal mandatory pension system began as a Defined Benefit (DB) program in 1973, in 1997 it was changed to a Defined Contribution (DC) plan, with individual accounts managed by financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies. This DC system is still open to new members, while the DB pension one is closed.

As soon as I received the proposal from the Editor be part of the next issue of this magazine, I started wondering: “Coming from Argentina, what kind of article could be interesting enough for a worldwide perspective”. I toyed with many different ideas in my mind, until realized that sharing my latest experience of changing from the consultancy world to the corporate one could turn out to be a universal theme, regardless the market you come from. Thanks to this request, I have started an introspective journey that I would like to share with you. Here we go!