As a result of the scarcity of qualified managers that can lead to constraints on global office expansion for businesses, an effective global human resources strategy can be crucial in developing and securing a sustainable advantage over their competition. Good HR management needs an integrated approach that starts to merge into career management. A cohesive network will enable that the right people are in the right jobs and that all costs are attributed appropriately. This can ultimately offer the business to identify good ideas on a global scale. Ultimately, the building of this network comes down to an effective global human resources strategy.

Let’s take a look at the essential steps businesses can take to ensure global human resources strategy is been implemented

Identifying the key activities

The next step towards an effective global human resources strategy is analyzing the each step of the business strategy identifying activities which include skill requirements and qualifications, which are helpful to achieve success across the globe as well as identifying the positions, which held responsibility for ensuring their success. The positions that hold the responsibility for performing these acts represent the ‘lifeline’ of a firm. Once the activities that achieve success have been identified, businesses can then revisit the lifeline and role descriptions on a daily basis to ensure they accurately represent the business strategy.

Figure out skills gap

In this step the businesses should take an effective global human resources strategy to assess their bench strength as well as the skills gap. To do this, organizations should ask every executive to compare their skills and characteristics against the needs identified for the executive’s current position. Not only is this an effective way to compare skills with ease, but it is also helpful to close personal skills gaps through in-house training or by participating in outside programs to heighten global success.

Regularize recruitment

To develop an effective global human resources strategy, businesses should seek for new recruits in the local market, and in the headquarters’ country. While this can be challenging, but one of the best ways to attract national recruits is by demonstrating how far they can climb up within the company, as this is one of the most appealing aspects job seekers look for. Recruitment not only helps to ensure that the business has the necessary knowledge and skills needed to fulfill objectives, but it also forms part of the strategic management of human resources.

Develop a global database of talent

Once the organization has identified the activities which achieve success, they can find who and where their talent is through a global database, focusing on more than just the top of the company and considering middle managers in the country markets and potential stars leaping through the ranks. Firms seeking to develop a useful global human resources database should start with an array of personal-profile templates that ask questions and go beyond each manager’s experience to determine cultural ties, language skills, hobbies, and interests. For overseas assignments, especially global HR leaders should consider these skills and adaptability to be as crucial as functional skills.

Build a “Mobility Pyramid”

Another way for businesses to build an effective global human resources strategy is by constructing a mobility pyramid to easily evaluate managers regarding their willingness to move to a new location as well as to gain experience. Whilst many HR leaders refuse to look at mobility beyond ‘movable’ and ‘not movable’, it is paramount that there is more behind the decision to transfer an employee abroad must they need to relocate, and even more so because managers can move up or down the mobility pyramid at several stages during their career. By constructing a mobility pyramid, businesses can find various ways to effectively use available in-house talent and encourage the maximum number of managers to consider an overseas assignment.

Focus on retention

Another step to an effective global human resources strategy is to challenge employees in order to retain talent. The need to retain talented employees is increasing every day, and for good reason. Retention of talent is vital for the continued growth and success of any business. The global HR leaders must follow effective ways to retain talent by being open to employees, by paying them well and providing them space to grow within the organization.

Abolish favoritism

One of the crucial steps towards developing a global human resources strategy must be to end favoritism towards managers that are nationals of the country in which they are based. Whilst many firms consider nationals of their headquarters country as potential expatriates and refer to everyone else as ‘local nationals’, this must be reconsidered for numerous reasons. Ethnocentric firms put the most confidence in nationals of their headquarters’ country, and thus this is the reason why these nationals receive the better assignments and climb the ladder much faster. Most surprisingly, big contrasts can be found between expatriate and local national pay, including the bonuses and advantages they receive. To create an effective global human resources strategy, HR leaders should weigh up the pros and cons of using expatriates and local nationals to determine the best solution according to the desired outcome.

End Notes

Firms usually struggle to build an effective global human resources strategy because they are unaware of what actually is an effective global human resources strategy should include, but with the aforementioned steps, they can create a helpful global human resources strategy with ease and confidence.