Chapters' April Monthly Program

ASHRM is pleased to invite you to its monthly program series and for the presentation "The Impact of Financial Instability on HR Functions in Saudi Arabia," by Dr. Tom Tice, of Watson Wyatt Dubai.

To accommodate its various membership base, ASHRM with the cooperation of Watson Wyatt Dubai will conduct this event in three different locations as follows:

The Impact of Financial Instability
on HR Functions in Saudi Arabia

Global financial instability is an issue for many organizations operating in the Gulf region. According to a recent Watson Wyatt survey, organizations are now settling in to what many believe will be a long recession. In response, many employers made significant changes to their HR programs between October and February, including layoffs, salary and hiring freezes, and resetting merit increase budgets for 2009.

This interactive seminar will consider the following questions with attendees:

• What will your organization's Board be expecting from your HR function?
• What are the areas that will be impacted the most?
• How will you deal with your challenges?
• How can you optimize your HR function to minimize impact?
• What are other HR professionals doing?

These questions highlight critical HR issues that may require action at Board level. Attendees can benefit from:

• Our overall assessment of the implications on HR functions in Saudi Arabia
• Our suggested solutions to address the most frequently discussed and/or significant risks
• Gauging key messages that can be raised at Board level in order to mitigate undesirable impact on HR

Dr. Tom Tice

Tom is a senior consultant in Watson Wyatt's Dubai office.

His early experience as a human resource professional was in management development, training, succession planning and work force planning in both government and private sectors. As a management consultant, he has developed reward systems, sales compensation and executive compensation programs in over 150 organizations in a wide variety of industries and sectors. His recent assignments have focused on working with global firms in transforming human resources and implementing best practice systems and processes.

He has both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees and taught quantitative methods for four years at the graduate level MBA program at the University of Connecticut.

He has held consulting practice leadership positions in several global human resource consulting firms and has been a regular speaker and writer on human resource topics for a number of years.