Let's Talk About Work is a podcast by Birches Group. Birches Group is an HR consultancy firm that specializes in providing integrated workforce management solutions to organizations around the world. We provide a unique combination of hands-on experience, broad-based knowledge in managing international human resources programs, and designing and implementing innovative and practical policies at some significant global institutions.
20 Questions on Managing a Remote Organization with AMPLIFY Girls
Moving organizations towards virtual work environments is progressing in fits and starts. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have curtailed work-from-home and other virtual work policies. Virtual work raises challenging issues while, at the same time, presenting opportunities for efficiencies, cost-effectiveness, and reach that the traditional place-based workplace cannot match.
In this episode, we explore the concepts and challenges around whether a workplace actually still needs to be a place.
AMPLIFY Girls, since its inception, has been a unique organization in this regard. It has been purposely organized around a virtual structure. Both for efficiency and to extend reach cost-effectively across the members of the organization, being virtual from the outset has enabled AMPLIFY Girls to focus quite simply on how to make a virtual organization work.
16 Jun 2025
20 Questions on the Challenges of Workforce Management with Katrina Sam of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
Katrina Sam of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank discusses workforce management challenges and strategies in a question and answer interview, drawing from her experience in human resources and talent management.
18 Mar 2025
Skills in Action: Transforming How We Hire, Pay, and Grow Talent
Most organizations resort to time as a proxy for experience—time in the job, time in the company, time in the field. But you know that people develop at different rates, so time isn’t a very good measure of experience! But what is the alternative to time? Education? Performance?
We know intuitively that people with more experience are capable of delivering more in their jobs, and are more valuable to their organization. But it’s really hard to measure experience without an objective framework. Many organizations struggle to accurately measure employee knowledge and experience to make fair, data-driven decisions across critical HR areas. These measures drive key decisions across all areas of HR, including recruitment, compensation, development, and more.
In this episode, we will introduce our job-based framework for measuring employee knowledge and experience—Community™ Skills. The framework provides a powerful standard that organizations can use to shift to a data-driven approach to workforce management that is transparent and fair.
12 Aug 2024
Mastering Volatility: Learn Fundamental Techniques for Effectively Managing Compensation During Uncertain Times
In today's dynamic global landscape, unforeseen events like hyperinflation, devaluation, natural disasters, and social conflicts can impact businesses, particularly in developing countries. As HR professionals, it's crucial to be equipped with effective strategies to ensure both employee well-being and organizational resilience.
Operating in developing countries requires proactive measures to address these challenges. By implementing triggers and appropriate responses, you not only foster a sense of reliability and security among your workforce but also empower your organization to adapt swiftly and maintain stability amid disruptions.
However, we understand that formulating specialized policies and strategies to navigate uncertainty can be daunting. Many organizations find themselves unsure of where to begin.
In this episode, Birches Group will cover all things special measures and develop effective responses to volatility. Our team will guide you through the process of developing robust policies, steering through economic turbulence, and bolstering competitiveness even in the face of unpredictability.
1 Jul 2024
Mastering the Basics: Crafting a Strategic and Equitable Salary Scale
Salary scale design is a necessary yet often overlooked skill for compensation managers, who rarely receive proper training. At Birches Group, we bring expertise to the table, having designed salary scales for numerous organizations across diverse sectors and locations. Learn more about our scale design approach and understand the fundamental elements crucial for strategic compensation structures. Discover how to optimize your pay structure through a fair and transparent pay management framework, aligning your compensation program with your organization's goals.
Working in developing markets poses unique challenges for HR professionals due to the complexity and variation in compensation practices across sectors and locations.
In this episode, grasp the importance of comprehensive survey data in capturing nuanced compensation practices commonly observed in developing markets. Explore the significance of a multi-sector approach and learn how Birches Group's survey methodology, utilizing job-based compensation range data, provides a more reliable picture of the developing market landscape.
26 Sept 2023
Distinguishing Recognition & Reward: Learn How to Ensure Clear & Objective Talent Management Programs
Pay for Performance is HR’s biggest epic fail! Using one approach to both recognize the individual growth of an employee in their job and to reward the fulfillment of objectives for the year simply does not work!
Birches Group's Community™ approach provides the framework for organizations to manage salary movement clearly and objectively based on staff knowledge and experience while rewarding achievement in a performance year. Learn how to apply our innovative approach to guide your organization's talent management policies. To learn more about our skills framework and performance management services or consult with our team, visit www.birchesgroup.com (https://birchesgroup.com/).
2 Aug 2023
How to Evaluate a Job Using Only Three Factors
The concept of work has been around for thousands of years, and its fundamental nature hasn’t changed. Job evaluation does not have to be scientific or complicated. Birches Group has developed a simple approach to job evaluation that captures how we all intuitively feel about work.
In this episode, we will cover a topic that is the foundation of everything in HR: job evaluation. We'll cover Birches Group's job evaluation approach, our three factors, and what they mean, and learn how you can achieve a compelling and consistent understanding of work using only three things. To learn more about our scale design services or consult with our team, visit www.birchesgroup.com (https://birchesgroup.com/).
16 Apr 2023
Salary Scale Design 101: Taking Compensation Data to Compensation Design
In this episode, we’ll cover a topic that is always popular among people working in HR, specifically those that oversee compensation, and that is scale design. We'll walk through the fundamental concepts behind scale design and how to begin to take market data or salary data and apply that to your scale design analysis. This session also covers some key things to keep in mind as you start to build your scale, such as your target composition and target market position, why working with salary ranges is more reliable than working with incumbent salaries, and the type of salary scale that fits your organization’s needs, among a few. To learn more about our scale design services or consult with our team, visit www.birchesgroup.com (https://birchesgroup.com/).
27 Feb 2023
Why Birches Group's Survey Methodology Works for Developing Markets
Working with compensation data can be tricky and overwhelming. If you work in developing markets, compensation and benefits practices can vary significantly from one country to the next. With so many survey providers available, it is crucial to have the right market data that can capture all the nuances unique to the countries you work in.
In this episode, learn why Birches Group's survey methodology is the only approach that can capture the dynamic nature of developing markets, provide consistent and accurate job matching across different industries, and provide comprehensive information on all types of benefits provided to staff.
28 Sept 2022
Managing Compensation During Periods of Economic and Social Volatility
When sudden uncontrollable events occur, people need to know that they can count on their employer to help them and their families during the crisis. Having a Special Measures Policy is crucial to guide managers to make quick decisions during difficult times. Learn more about what goes into developing a Special Measures Policy for your organization in your unique market and what you can do to continue paying staff and other ways to cushion the impact of volatility. To know more about what a Special Measures Policy could look like for your organization, email info@birchesgroup.com (mailto:info@birchesgroup.com) or check out our website www.birchesgroup.com (https://studio.podcast.co/birches-group/lets-talk-about-work/episode/skills-is-the-new-currency-are-you-measuring-your-staffs-skills/www.birchesgroup.com).
27 Jun 2022
Skills is the New Currency: Are You Measuring Your Staff's Skills?
When pay ranges were first introduced, it was common to use “steps” or increments granted based on the successful completion of another year with the employer. This is sometimes referred to as “passing the foggy mirror test” – all the employee has to do is to stay alive and show up for work to get a step each year.
But when Pay for Performance concepts was introduced over 50 years ago, steps were then eliminated from pay ranges in many organizations, open pay ranges became the norm and future pay increases were then to be linked to performance. However, lately, there’s been a lot of issues with Pay for Performance and is being called into question.
What organizations need is a way to recognize employee growth in their abilities to perform their job. This type of growth that we’re talking about is long-term and it’s a steady accumulation of skills and knowledge or experience over time. Listen to Birches Group's Managing Partner, Gary McGillicuddy, as he talks about an innovative alternative to Merit Pay and using time as a proxy to inform pay increases. Community Skills uses accumulated skills and knowledge of your staff to inform pay increases guaranteeing clarity, transparency, and equity in your organization. To see a demo of our Community Skills tool, email info@birchesgroup.com (mailto:info@birchesgroup.com) or check out our website www.birchesgroup.com (www.birchesgroup.com).
26 May 2021
The Physics of Job Design
Job descriptions should be the foundational documents of human resource management. The Job description serves as the basis for job grading, establishing the job’s alignment with other positions in the organization. Through this alignment, compensation is established, standards for recruitment, learning and development objectives, performance measures, and a milestone on the career path of the staff member. And yet, with all these core HR functions which should spring forth from the job description, so little attention is given to job design. Listen to Birches Group's Managing Partner, Gary McGillicuddy, as he talks about the key concepts behind creating good job descriptions and their critical role in all other functions of human resources. For more information, head over to www.birchesgroup.com to learn more about our approach and the solutions we provide. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review our podcast, available anywhere you get your podcasts.
A huge thank you to Feedspot (https://www.feedspot.com/?ref=blog&_src=bloghome) for featuring our podcast in their Top 55 Workforce Management Podcasts (https://blog.feedspot.com/workforce_management_podcasts/) to follow for 2021! Please visit their website (linked here) to learn more.
15 Mar 2021
Designing Effective Pay Structures Part 2
An organization's salary budget is its biggest expense and managing it is not easy. The salary scale of an organization is its single most important tool to not only effectively manage pay, but also bring transparency and clarity to its people. Join Birches Group's Senior Marketing Specialist, Bianca Valencia, as she interviews Mancel Francisco, Birches Group's Lead Salary Scale Design Specialist, and Neil Corvite, Birches Group’s Senior Salary Scale Design Analyst as they continue their discussion about why having a balanced and well-designed salary scale is essential for every organization. This episode brings insight to managers and HR practitioners about the importance of having a well-designed salary scale, the cost implications of adjusting the salary scale against the organization’s budget, and how Birches Group’s Salary Scale Design Report helps organizations better understand compensation design.
To learn more about Birches Group's Salary Scale Design service, visit www.birchesgroup.com
15 Mar 2021
Designing Effective Pay Structures Part 1
An organization's salary budget is its biggest expense and managing it is not easy. The salary scale of an organization is its single most important tool to not only effectively manage pay, but also bring transparency and clarity to its people. Join Birches Group's Senior Marketing Specialist, Bianca Valencia, as she interviews Mancel Francisco, Birches Group's Lead Salary Scale Design Specialist, and Neil Corvite, Birches Group’s Senior Salary Scale Design Analyst as they continue their discussion about why having a balanced and well-designed salary scale is essential for every organization. This episode brings insight to managers and HR practitioners about the importance of having a well-designed salary scale, the cost implications of adjusting the salary scale against the organization’s budget, and how Birches Group’s Salary Scale Design Report helps organizations better understand compensation design.
To learn more about Birches Group's Salary Scale Design service, visit www.birchesgroup.com.
14 Mar 2021
Let's Talk About Work: Introduction
Let's Talk About Work is a podcast series produced and presented by Birches Group.
Work has never stopped evolving and we’ve been studying it for decades. We have studied the interconnectivity of jobs that makes teams teams; we know what it means to build multidisciplinary organizations and to celebrate everyone’s contribution to the mission. We have the tools. We can help you. To learn more about our HR solutions, visit www.birchesgroup.com
For more information, head over to www.birchesgroup.com to learn more about our approach and the solutions we provide. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review.
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