by Recruiting from other countries
Knowing you need to attract talent from overseas to stay competitive is one thing; actually, going about it is quite another. For the University of Exeter this is about ensuring all employees are trained on the importance of collaborating and recruiting globally. “With all our young academics we’re talking to them about our global ambition, getting them involved in trips abroad and collaborating with other organisations. It’s broadening the horizons of everybody,” says HRD Jacqui Marshall. “It’s also really a lot more research on our parts really thinking about which disciplines we want and where they are in the world.”
Communicating well overseas
Liaising with line managers, senior executives and locally-based HR colleagues becomes much harder when you’re separated by thousands of miles. “The biggest challenge is managing a virtual team,” says Amec Foster Wheeler’s group HRD Will Serle. “You can no longer open the door and wander around your team. It requires you to form those relationships initially and then, because you can’t travel to places continuously, you have to put extra effort into maintaining those in a virtual way.”
Encouraging feedback
Being geographically dispersed can mean not only less frequent catch-ups but also a less open, trusting dynamic when you are communicating. Gordon Headley cites a situation at Tullow where standardising compensation and benefits had disgruntled some African employees. While his HR team on the ground were aware of the issue, they didn’t think to tell him as he was the boss. This is why getting out into the country and making it clear you’re open to feedback is so critical, he says.
Getting the HR function structure right
Implementing the best structure globally is a case of getting the balance right between plenty of expertise on the ground and maintaining a good level of central control and consistency, says Serle. “You don’t want your expertise duplicated in every country because then you lose your consistency,” he adds. “But then you have certain businesses which are happy with that; they don’t need things more joined up. There’s no one right way.”
Managing different, culturally influenced, career ambitions
A key challenge for Creditsafe has been inspiring employees in some European countries to aim for management level, while managing the expectations of the typically highly ambitious American staff. “In the UK and US people are very hungry to develop their careers in the way they’re perhaps not in some European countries. At that point it becomes a slightly different proposition in the way you sell it,” says HR and training director Gareth Way, explaining that in the US, by contrast, it’s about creating “more levels so people can still progress vertically and into other departments”.
Maintaining a sense of brand identity and loyalty
Where an organisation operates in many different regions it’s easy for company culture to become diluted. Campus Living Villages combats this with regular secondments and its management development programme Elev8, where modules are held in different territories. “For example, the group who started in 2014 did leadership in Houston, finance in Sydney, HR in Manchester and resident life in Utah. They’ll be doing facilities management in New Zealand next,” says global HRD Jan Wilman.
Ethical grey areas
Anyone who’s ever travelled, never mind headed up a global HR function, knows there are matters you previously held as morally black and white that become much less straightforward once you’ve engaged with another culture’s belief system. Serle says HRDs must know exactly where to draw the line. “It’s probably one of the single biggest challenges that an international business will face,” he says. “In our organisation we have a very clear set of values and behaviours that go with those, and in some countries where we have the opportunity to work we would really struggle to operate without compromising those values. So it’s critically important to know your views as an organisation.”
Compliance and International HRM Issues
As businesses begin to expand into the global marketplace or as they hire employees from diverse geographic and cultural backgrounds, they may have to adapt to new labor laws and tax liabilities. Doing business in Europe, for example, will require the business to pay value added tax. Hiring employees who are non-naturalized US citizens might require HR to apply for work visas and report economic data to the federal government. Compliance with international law can be an issue for the under-educated business owner or HR manager, because these laws tend to be complex and sometimes difficult to implement. Keeping well-informed of the legal requirements for the business’s operations can help alleviate some of this complexity and lessen the chances of landing in legal trouble.
Scope of Human Resource Management
With an increasing number of business operating on an international scale, the impact of globalization on hr can be tricky to navigate. Globalization means various laws, cultures and norms have to be taken into consideration when onboarding and crafting HR regulations. Some countries are more forward thinking where gender is concerned than others, and this distinction can lead to misunderstandings or worse, the loss of key personnel. It really would not be that hard to have a male manager handle the day-to-day operations in an area where female managers are frowned upon, just in case. Understanding the mechanism that makes each culture tick and implementing as little or as much needed so create balance is something to strive for.
Cultural Diversity and Global HR Issues
A salient issue in international HR is understanding and maintaining cultural diversity. Working with people from different locations or from different cultural backgrounds mean adapting the business’s work style to new ideas, new ways of communicating and unfamiliar social practices. If you hire an employee from England, for example, the employee might have different ideas about how to manage employees or on how to run technology processes based on her experiences back home. Being open to new work styles and cultural differences is the hallmark of cultural diversity in HR.
Benefits and Compensation
Benefits and compensation are the backbone of any HR strategy, but in international HR, benefits and compensation are even more important in focusing on the work-life balance of employees. The idea behind work-life balance is to provide employees with programs and initiatives that improve both their personal and professional lives. This is considered part of international HR, because many multinational companies have already implemented programs such as flexible working time, paternity leave, extended holidays and on-site childcare. In fact, many nations around the world, including much of Europe, mandate these programs by law. Implementing them on the local scale is one of the challenges and, ultimately, rewards of international HR.
Training and Development
Related to the idea of benefits and compensation in international HR are training and professional development programs. Training programs typically encompass in-house seminars and meetings designed to give employees on-the-job knowledge of skills that are important to doing business globally. HR might offer language classes, for example. Professional development encompasses the “extra” training that HR provides to its employees, such as allowing them to attend networking events and conferences, global training seminars and other specific competency-based programs. Professional development helps employees to hone their skills in global marketing, international business development and finance trends.
