Managing Global Work Force

Globalization has been a key driver in broadening of diversity, cultures & defining strategic value & challenges.

Due to Globalization, most of the organizations are on global expansion & working on business strategies in pursuit of new markets. The inherent challenges of managing global work force, business/market ups & downs, rapid market/economic shifts, cost pressures, operational complexities etc. are putting enormous pressure on Human Capital.

Human Resource Strategies & HR Capabilities are built around world over basis Subject Matter Expertise, (SME) requirement for the businesses.

To minimize the conflict & confusion created by expansion, the HR policies are formed which are global, agile, consistent and flexible but also customized to suit local requirements & to meet critical business success factors i.e. SUPER GLOBAL- SUPER LOCAL.

There are few Challenges in Managing Global work force:

• Attraction & Retention in Global Talent Market
• Hiring, Managing, Aligning & integrating Global Talent/ Leadership
• Adapting to fast changing job/Work profile
• Aligning best technology practices to Global Management Strategy – knowledge transfer & dissemination
• Managing risks of Global Operation (Political Social & Economical)
• Cultural differences/ issues
• Currency & language barriers
• Talent Mobility, Deployment & re-settlement
• Understanding the global rules & regulations & laws relating to organization governance.

Strategies to succeed

Global workforce management system should be easy to localize, yet provide consolidated access to all information.

While managing people is a tremendous challenge for any company, the right workforce management system can simplify the process dramatically. To successfully adopt Global workforce, there is strong need to create communication forums & communicate on consistent & periodic intervals to benefit the employees even at the cost of overdoing it.

When choosing workforce automation, organization should look for a system that provides a single platform, with an immediate ROI and is easy to use.

Talent needs to be identified, assessed & developed to make strong leadership pipeline by job rotation & multi skilling.

Create Small Size Self Directed Work Teams (SDWT) to deal with core business issues & attaining virtual solutions.

Ensure cross culture training for employees as well as for families of expats.

Some successful stories in Indian context

• Coco Cola
• Google
• Infosys
• Nestle
• Donald’s
• Tata Group
• IPL (Indian premier league)

In nutshell Managing Global workplace is managing diversity & creating value. The HR has to harness it properly; it will result in competitive advantage & accelerated innovation. Respecting views of others builds stronger & robust organizations.  It also helps in understanding the customer needs in different geography & the market we intend to serve. The business can grow exponentially & the revenue could take quantum leap forward.