All these opportunities are incredible allies that will help you attract the right people and retain them for longer. A key problem for global work-life strategies, which is relevant to the “no recognition” approach, is that they may be difficult to monitor and assess (Masi & Jacobson, 2003). Unlike measures of quantity and quality for manufactured goods, it may be costly to ascertain whether work-life policies and practices are useful and effective, and the results might be ambiguous. One of the easiest ways to tackle any communication or ethical problem before they occur is by using a centralized HR platform to connect your employees from wherever they are based. When determining what HR platform to use, look for a mobile-friendly system, a central notification center, and a seamless employee experience.

• For less-developed nations, Heymann (2006) finds that culture, gender relations, and economic circumstances each impinge on work-life balance in different ways across nations.
• Whether an employee moves to another country, wants to break into a new industry or wishes to create their own startup, they can tap into their contacts to access the people and knowledge they need.
• According to the United Nations (2019), as of 2018, flows of foreign direct investment (a measure of MNE activity) were below levels found in 2007.
• During the first few weeks, companies should make sure all new hires are aligned on the company’s values, vision, and goals.

For example, Seventh Generation, a maker of cleaning and personal-care products, recently built into its incentive system sustainability targets for the company’s entire workforce, in service of its goal of being a zero-waste company by 2025. Shell has plans to set short-term carbon-emissions targets and link executive compensation to performance against them. Companies that execute with purpose have greater odds of creating significant long-term value generation, which can lead to stronger financial performance, increased employee engagement, and higher customer trust. During the first few weeks, companies should make sure all new hires are aligned on the company’s values, vision, and goals. Staying ahead of the curve with legal compliance will reduce stress by a lot and pay off in the long run. The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually.

Human Resource Management in Multinational Enterprises: Evidence From a Late Industrializing Economy

This can lead to an increase in turnover rate and inconsistent employer branding which will hurt your organization in the long run and decrease talent acquisition. For global HR professionals, successfully navigating the cultural differences among staff is an extension of their broader mission. And workforces that can harness the potential and possibility unlocked by a diverse staff are all the better positioned to rise to the challenges of an increasingly global, and increasingly connected, world. In May of 2020, HR leaders attending a McKinsey virtual conference indicated that over the next two years, they wanted to prioritize initiatives that strengthen agility and identity. That included 27 percent who said that they would focus on responding with agility and 25 percent who prioritized driving leadership, culture, and employee experience. Next came mapping talent to value and establishing and radiating purpose, each at 13 percent (Exhibit 2).

Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense. When hiring internationally, you need to have a plan in place to create a work environment that supports remote work while remaining compliant with local legal https://adprun.net/10-challenges-hr-faces-in-a-global-company/ requirements. All the added challenges can be overcome with some planning, and these efforts will benefit your company in the long run. For example, video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meets offer the ability to create face-to-face interaction in a remote work environment.

Although tensions at the individual level are crucial to understanding work-life management, applying that term is here restricted to the organizational and cross-national levels. So, for example, conflicts between work and family facing women in one society are relevant to this research only to the extent those conflicts are similar to or diverge from those in other societies, but are not labeled as tensions per se. As Morris et al. (2009, p. 987) note in their investigation of the replication of HR practices in global firms, “there is a constant tension between HQ (a.k.a. headquarters) and subsidiaries” in relation to the dilemmas surrounding responsiveness to local culture and legal demands. This logic suggests that substantive tensions will arise in MNEs attempting to implement global work-life programs. For example, work-life balance remains an unfamiliar concept for HR managers in China (Xiao & Cooke, 2012), and language barriers/nuances can add to difficulties in communicating work-life policy in a global organizational structure (Van den Born & Peltokorpi, 2010).

Agile

International human resource managers must also consider the geographic constraints of managing a global team. Setting regular meetings and promoting inter-team collaboration across international borders creates its own set of challenges. There are at least two potential sources of bias which may relate to both managers and researchers from Western cultures. One source may emerge in cases where Western notions of progress yield an inaccurate projection of future cultural movement in non-Western societies such that temporal separation may seem reasonable when in fact spatial separation is more appropriate.

Human resource departments must understand the importance of international HR issues and how much damage can come from the failure to comply with international labor laws and lack of cultural awareness amongst employees. Expanding your organization overseas is already difficult enough already, your company can dodge international human resources issues by preparing the human resource team well and giving them the resources they need to succeed. Organizations that have expanded their business to other countries may face international HR challenges due to cultural differences, time zones, and the failure to maintain legal compliance with labor laws. Human resource officers must excel at communication and devise strategic management systems to oversee employees all over the world. A rapidly developing trend in recent years has been the expansion of corporate rights and benefits, particularly in the US, for gay or lesbian employees, and for transgender employees (reported by 91 and 83% of Fortune 500 companies, respectively; HRC, 2019).

The development of work-life initiatives can be traced to the entry of women and particularly mothers into the workforce and professional careers in developed nations, such as the US (Moen & Roehling, 2005; Williams, 1999); work-life initiatives facilitated the retention of these women. Internationally, with the exception of Africa, it is also true that women’s labor force participation grew faster than men’s in recent decades (Lim, 2002). However, rates of women’s labor force participation vary substantially across individual nations, altering the context for MNE work-life initiatives across nations. Wise (2005) found in a study of line managers and human resource managers in two financial services organizations that there were tensions between implementing formal work-life policies versus informal and discretionary practice. In this case, although HR had taken a strategic approach to developing a policy related to employees taking time off for dependents, there was considerable variability across the two organizations operating under the same corporate policy.

Top 5 HR Challenges in Multinational Companies and How to Tackle them

These innovation shifts are driving the emergence of new HR operating models, albeit with different degrees of influence depending on the nature of individual organizations (Exhibit 1). Multinational companies offer diverse workplaces that create the conditions for innovation and creativity. They provide employees with international work experience, opportunities, and networks that can take their career to the next level.

Policies and information

Also important, experts added, is that Human Resources departments make sure it’s clear that cultural awareness trainings or policies aren’t making generalizations or reducing individual people to cultural stereotypes. Recognizing differences is critical, experts said — but so is recognizing the limits of what they say about individual employees. Deloitte, the international business consulting firm, cites safety and security as one of the most difficult challenges for HR professionals in multinational companies. Deloitte points out, in a 2010 white paper titled “Global HR Transformation,” that terrorism, disasters such as Katrina and Japan’s tsunami, and epidemic diseases such as the avian flu have made HR’s task of protecting employees and the workplace from harm more critical than ever. Risks are especially high for multinational companies with subsidiaries in politically or physically vulnerable regions of the world. All multinational firms encounter complex legal and ethical issues when conducting business abroad.

Strategic/Policy Versus Operational

As such, it “…accepts paradox and tries to work out its implications, [and] can serve as a preliminary step to the other three” (Poole & Van de Ven, 1989, p. 567). Legislation related to work-life has been passed in most countries where MNEs might operate (Heymann, Earle, & Hayes, 2009). Legislation might in some cases effectively replace or supplant MNE work-life policies, as in the case of paid family leave. However, the diversity of coverage in terms of length of maternity leave, payment mechanisms, whether paternity leave is covered, and leave policies for other purposes vary substantially (ibid.). This diversity makes the application of generic work-life policies less efficient because, for example, employees in one nation might be largely satisfied with state-funded maternity or paternity leave, and instead place a high value on child care supports. Elsewhere, leave provisions might be more highly valued, enhancing the value of flexible work-life policies that can be applied appropriately under local conditions.

Project management tools, like Asana, and communication tools, like Slack, are equally important for promoting cross-team collaboration. They provide company-wide visibility into projects and conversations that impact multiple departments. Messaging platforms can also create a virtual office environment for casual “water cooler” conversations, offering a sense of spontaneity in employee interactions. When employees come from different countries, there can be variations in skill and training that creates talent gaps across different offices or teams. Building a strong training program will level the playing field across borders, ensuring that all employees have access to the resources they need to be successful.

When your organization’s workplace expands globally, your HR department will need to understand the ethics of different cultures around the globe. Navigating cultural differences in the workplace is essential, and global HR has a critical role to play. But a robust and diverse workforce can offer a global business huge advantages — and an attuned Human Resources department can help a company leverage these strengths. “Encourage teams to take time at regular intervals to learn more about the cultures represented on the team and in the places where the organization does business,” Beckham recommended.