The human capital requirements of today’s global companies have put a premium on talented individuals with the skill and interest to build a truly global career. That’s especially true in the hospitality industry, where companies are competing to attract the loyalty of discriminating travelers – and top-notch managers.

If you work for a hospitality company with global customers, offices and resources, you may soon find yourself presented with an assignment to work overseas.

While the United States still ranks as the world’s leading destination country for talented individuals across many industries (especially in the hospitality space), China now ranks second on the list, according to the findings of a survey of 184 global human resources managers by Cartus, a provider of global mobility management and workforce development solutions.

The study also found that the number of assignment destinations is surging, with respondents naming 51 different countries in their list of the top three destination locations for their companies’ employees, a 76 percent increase over 2004.

“As companies respond to growing business opportunities, pressures to recruit and retain top global talent, and demands for regional flexibility, we can expect to see more people being sent to more and different destinations, and on shorter-term assignments,” says John Arcario, executive vice president of Cartus.

For every team in the National Football League, success is measured on whether its players, coaches and yes, its talent recruiting system, are good enough to earn it a spot in the Super Bowl. And whether you’re a pigskin fan or not, the NFL’s talent scouting and succession programs can be particularly instructive for today’s hiring organizations.

The keys to success in professional football, it turns out, are remarkably similar to the keys to success in business, because of the importance of having the best-skilled players in the most critical roles.

The way NFL teams draft and recruit talent can offer some compelling insights for lab managers concerned about keeping their workforce on the leading edge.

So says executive recruiter Isaac Cheifetz, author of Hiring Secrets of the NFL: How Your Company Can Select Talent Like A Champion. Cheifetz has recruited managers for technology and consulting companies for most of the past 20 years from his office in Minneapolis.

And given that he’s originally from New York, it hasn’t been easy for him to watch the New England Patriots develop a reputation for building the quintessential talent pipeline – and a reputation for being a perennial Super Bowl contender – over the past several seasons.

New research aimed to convince that high CEO pay-outs are warranted. 

The financial pages are regularly riddled with news of big CEO payouts, but research from Watson Wyatt seeks to dispel some of the negativity. In their 2007/2008 report, Debunking Executive Compensation Myths, the financial services consulting company draws a correlation between the compensation of high-performing companies and their lower performing brethren, with CEOs of better performing organizations earning up to 75 percent more ($10.5 million compared to $6.0 million).