In order to compete for top talent in a global market, companies need a rich understanding of just how business is done in other parts of the world. Learning the nuances of different regulatory environments, as well as compensation and benefits packages offered by different countries, can make all the difference. Lindsay Scott, Leader of Buck Consultants' Global Survey Team, says he aims to improve the process of collecting quality information while minimizing costs, and thinks the industry itself should follow suit.
Consulting: What's been keeping you busiest so far as head of the Global Survey Team?
Scott: I started my own company and came over to Buck to expand a terrific survey team that's already operating on a global basis. Much of what we've been doing in the near-term has been focusing on understanding the processes and the clients and the surveys and getting all of that settled. Also we're focusing on where we need to take the survey group in the future.
Consulting: Can you talk about the role of the survey team and what it does?
Scott: The Survey Team supports all of Buck Consultants' practices with information products and services that are designed to enhance our clients' understanding of the competitive markets and changing regulatory requirements they have to respond to to support better decision-making.
Consulting: What are the goals of the team?
Scott: Short term goals are to expand the product line for our practices to broaden the information services in segments where Buck has a significant client base, for instance government, and to enhance the content of our information services, both through more targeted content and through more analytics. Part of that is based on my coming to Buck really as a user. Having run my own firm and providing co-sourcing services with very large Fortune 100 companies, I've had a lot of experience being on the other side of surveys. One of the things in the short term we want to do is infuse the group with that user experience because I think it can be very valuable in terms of improving our overall approach to the market and the content we provide. In the longer term we want to enhance our global footprint in areas that support Buck's overall strategy.
Consulting: What's the HR function of the Global Survey Team?
Scott: Global businesses have to compete in global markets and their HR practices, the regulatory climate, the way they build their compensation or benefit programs have to be sensitive to different competitive and regulatory issues in different countries. The global surveys that we provide are done to try and help clients better understand the different competitive markets they compete in on a global basis. If you're looking at long-term incentive programs, stock grant or option grant programs and how they differ between different countries and what the competitive requirement is in different countries that helps you better design a program that's specific for the country and specific to the competition you face in those countries. It's a way to help clients really understand what the competitive situation is in their own country. For instance, if you have better knowledge about what the long-term incentive program designs in the UK are, you can better tailor your programs based on how you want to compete in the UK. A lot of what we're all about is helping companies understand the competitive position for their employees and programs they provide for them. Understanding that competitive position and fine-tuning it to retain and recruit is a continuous process.
Consulting: What does the Survey Team allow Buck to do internally?
Scott: Well, internally it provides information that allows us to design pay, benefit and retirement programs that better suit the client. Some of the information is used primarily by consultants, some of the information is used both by consultants and directly by clients. For instance, our global long-term incentive survey provides market information on client-selected peer groups so they themselves can get in and look for any set of companies they want to select what the long term incentive program, the aggregate or market long-term incentive program mix is for their peers. It's a way of trying to understand based on different companies' practices that you know you compete against by understanding what their programs look like and being able to compare your program mix to theirs or to the composite, not to individual companies.
Consulting: The Survey Team has been around for about 15 years, will you take it in a new direction?
Scott: In coming to Buck, there are a couple of things that we are trying to do. One is we're trying to expand the surveys, both the types and number of surveys, that support Buck practices. We're trying to expand our footprint there, we're also trying to increase the analytics that are used within these surveys to provide better information than we see provided in the industry.
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