Managing Human Resources Abroad
As globalization transforms the business world, organizations are diversifying their business portfolio’s through an integration of operational and marketing strategies and the objectives of Human Resources. Defined by diversity, globalization’s impact has influenced the way companies manage human resources by encouraging the value of a multi-cultural workforce.
International organizations develop business partnerships with clients from diverse cultures, while shareholders often speak foreign languages and represent many different social backgrounds. As a result, organizations are rethinking their staffing requirments and look to design unique and comprehensive strategies in their approach to human resource management.
Globalization has modified the ways organizations recruit employees, focusing not only on professional qualifications and personal characteristics, but also implementing diversity requirements in hiring practices. Rewriting pocedure and recognizing the value of staffing an organization with multi-cultural individuals, company's are realizing the contribution that diversity is providing in the development of organizational culture and increased productivity interpersonal relationships where ideas, beliefs, values and influences are worlds apart.
A further effect of globalization on HR management is a push for professional development. Professional development is concerned with providing employees opportunities to achieve their career-related goals. Some organizations provide resources for their employees to earn a university degree, others send their employees to conferences or networking events and training days. Professional development is important to globalization because it creates a win-win situation. The employees feel as though the organization is concerned with providing a range of skills and competencies for their employees. Likewise, the organization benefits from the added skills and connections that the employees who take advantage of professional development programs acquire.
Greater Emphasis on Training
Similar to professional development, a greater emphasis on training has resulted because of globalization in human resources management. Training, however, tends to be focused on the needs and professional competencies of groups of employees within the organization. The company might, for instance, host language classes to give its call center staff an edge in telephone sales. It might also teach its employees how to use a new global software platform. This emphasis on training seeks to give the company a competitive edge in the global marketplace by honing the employees' diversity emphasis.
Management of Laws Across Jurisdictions
A final effect of globalization on human resources management is the need for businesses to understand and apply the laws of many different jurisdictions to the particular business. The federal government sets out a number of tax and labor laws that businesses operating in the United States must comply with, but there may also be local and regional laws that apply to companies that operate in different states or different countries. Selling products in Europe, for example, might mean that a company has to impose a Value-Added Tax on its goods. Hiring employees at branch locations in different locations might change the requirements on minimum wage, tax allowances or working hours. Understanding these laws is vitally essential to the organization because any breach of them will have a serious impact not only on the business's financial well-being but also on its reputation.
