The Human Resource department is responsible for hiring, retaining, promoting, and terminating the company’s employees. This can be a challenge under normal circumstances, but when a business operates globally, the challenge can be even more complicated. There are the issues of cultures, education levels, and policies. The HR department will have to find ways of ensuring overseas staff follow proper procedures while not conflicting with local customs.
Dealing with Culture
All around the world there are many different cultures where the people have different lifestyles and personal restrictions, such as not being outspoken, women only being allowed to be hired for certain roles, and much more. It is the responsibility for the Human Recourse department to be educated on these cultural differences in the countries there the company hires. Otherwise, the risk of high turnover or possible lawsuits could become an issue.
Dealing with Educational Differences
There are different types of degrees gained in other countries. In one country, an Associate’s in Business could mean something different in another. Therefore, it may be necessary to have a standardized testing policy to qualify overseas employees and to get an idea where his or her education level is and their skill set.
Dealing with Policies
When the HR managers create policies for the company’s global locations, it is very important to be sure each country’s culture and language are taken into consideration. For example, it is acceptable for employees to have co-ed lunch rooms, whereas other countries this may not be acceptable. For successful policies, this is imperative.
Before any policies are put in place, every HR department must educate themselves on cultures. Otherwise, it could be disastrous and end up costing the company valuable time and money to redo things like handbooks and such. Also, proper screening of overseas employees as to skill levels and education levels is also a top priority with global companies.
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