Employee Relations in Global Organizations

Posted: May 10, 2010 |Comments: 0 | Views: 167 |

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Ensuring smooth employee relations can be a challenge for any organization - let alone a globalized

shared service structure having to deal with a number of different legislative frameworks and a variety
of linguistic and cultural relationships. Yet it's a challenge which must be overcome; the old lesson
that a happy workforce is a productive one is no less true today than ever, and while the tactics used
on the ground may vary across geographies the strategic aims must remain the same:
strong employee engagement working towards optimal productivity.
A key tension for shared services lies between corporate structures and policies, and local practices
and legal parameters; aligning these two potentially quite different constructs, and keeping the gaps
between them as small as possible, might not be a simple task but it's an unavoidable one in that a
company at odds with its different environments will not achieve world-class status, while one that is
able to work with its various local idiosyncrasies rather than against them is far more likely to
succeed. Unsurprisingly the key to securing that success is talent.

Talent retention and development requirements are a major part of the core need for robust employee
relations. Keeping your best people is a no-brainer in any and every part of the world, and a big
paypacket isn't the only determining factor in a top employee's thought processes when he or she is
faced with a new career opportunity (although a
2009 Society forHuman Resource Management survey found that for 57% of employees pay's still
"very important"). The creation of a secure and enjoyable working environment, with the possibility of
personal professional development, is crucial for companies keen on keeping key talent - and the
ability to bind different geographies together through a supportive and proactive corporate
architecture creates opportunities for intra-organizational migration and advancement, and thence to
the dissemination of fresh ideas and influences throughout the organization. In this way the
geographical and cultural differences between distinct elements of the organization can become a
great asset rather than the challenge they may originally have been.
"Give your top talent a good look at the ladder, and the possibility that they could climb right to the
top; it's a quick win on a number of levels," says talent and resource specialist Seb Donovan. "And if
they get the chance to see other aspects of the organization so much the better. The more familiar
your top employees are with your company and its environment the more easily and effectively they
can contribute towards eventual success."

An increasing number of globalised service delivery organizations are offering their curve-leading
talent quarterly or even yearly postings to different corporate locations. Skills are much more
transferable within an organization that outside it, and the more familiar the working environment, the
simpler the adjustment from one location to another. This familiarity should include, of course, the
"invisible blanket" of HR systems and structures supporting an employee making such an adjustment -
and it should also feature consistency in the provisions companies make for the occasions when things
go wrong in terms of ensuring homogeneity of grievance procedures, disciplinary issues and
investigations, and separation agreements. In practice though this unity, and environmental
homogeneity in general, are often well-nigh impossible to achieve.

Total homogeneity of processes isn't feasible in organizations operating in multiple languages but the
laws of efficiency demand that at least a proximity to perfection in purely procedural terms should be
a target for institutions whose very raisons d'etre are founded in process improvement, efficiency and
effectiveness. However, when legislative frameworks and the relative strengths of organized labor
vary so greatly from location to location, the temptation to differentiate employee relations practices
and architectures is at least understandable and can be overwhelming (especially during negative
economic climates: turning the screw somewhat on the workforce during a downturn, should that be
corporate strategy, is a lot easier in locations with less entrenched and more industry-friendly labor
legislation). A company that can minimize that differentiation whilst adhering to local requirements
such as working hours, health and safety infrastructure, disciplinary and/or grievance issues and the
like is one step closer to the unattainable.

Nevertheless while process homogeneity might be sought-after in some areas, great flexibility is
required in others - as indeed it is even within non-globalized organizations. Applying a blanket and
rigid homogeneity across all geographical locations would be catastrophic; what is sought is that
aforementioned familiarity rather than an anyway-illusory global uniformity.

"The problem with global shared services that include any element of employee relations is that it is
very difficult, yet vital, to recognize the differences in employment law, policies and procedures and
culture that exists from one country to another," says Andy Cook of employee relations experts
Marshall-James. "It is a misgiving to look upon employee relations as something transactional that can
be compartmentalized into a ‘one size fits all' solution. This does not take account of the very fabric
and relationships that make an organization work."
Companies will benefit from another variation on the talent theme: the importance of top employee
relations talent in putting the corporate vision - whatever that may be - into practice. Implementation
of any such vision or strategy on the ground - and this goes too for any serious change program - has
to be carried out by those familiar with the corporate infrastructure, a knowledge and understanding
which can only by generated within that infrastructure. It is immeasurably easier for those brought
into the location to oversee change efforts, or to monitor and enhance that location's employee
relations environment, to do so if they have a minimum of cultural and systemic disassociation to deal
with. But if their very role is to implement the changes which will dampen any dissociating impulse,
these individuals will not only have to represent the corporate vision but will have to find a way - the
best way - to bind it to local custom.

Obviously this isn't a task for sub-optimal talent - and nor are those facing the teams which the
corporate evangelists must create on-location. Establishing true synergy between corporate vision and
local custom takes top local talent too (thus there needs to be a connection made very early on in the
process of setting up in a new location between corporate employee relations specialists and someone
or some entity which can act in an advisory capacity with regards to the local employee relations
environment) - only in partnership at a personal and individual level will the partnership between
location and organization reach fruition.
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