Human Resource

Management-Challenges
and Opportunities in the
Globalization era
Dr. Chitra Kasana

About Globalization
Globalization symbolizes the structural making of the world
characterized by the free flow of technology and human
resources across national boundaries presenting an everchanging and competitive business environment.
Firms competing in a global market place, and organizations
are to survive and prosper in the modern world of rapid
change, they need to be more flexible, faster-moving and
faster-learning than ever before.

Globalization is no longer an abstraction but a stark

reality that virtually all firms, large and small, have to
face. Firms that want to survive in the 21st century must
confront this all encompassing force that pervades every
aspect of business.

GLOBAL SCENARIO
Transnational corporations serve different markets
around the world. Their global expansion may be
driven by various factors. These include:
saturated and intensely competitive domestic markets,
diversification of risk on a geographical basis,
opportunity to realize economies of scale and scope,
entry of competitors into overseas markets,
the need to follow customers going abroad
and the desire to compete in a market with
sophisticated consumer tastes

Impact on HRM
The human resource function faces many challenges
during the globalization process,
including creating global mind-set within the HR
group,
creating practices that will be consistently applied in
different locations/offices while also maintaining the
various local cultures and practices, and
communicating a consistent corporate culture across
the entire organization.
To meet these challenges, organizations need to consider
the HR function not as just an administrative service
but as a strategic business development.

NEW TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL HRM

International HRM places greater emphasis on a number of
responsibilities and functions such as relocation, orientation and
translation services, to help employees adapt to a new and
different environment outside their own country.
There are certain human resource management issues that are
particular for the global enterprise. The key issues involve staffing
policies, selecting and retaining talented employee, training and
development whilst encouraging employees to be innovative and
creative, avoiding culture barriers, and adjusted legal frame work.
Others issues include understanding the challenges of living and
working overseas, indirect performance appraisals from
a distance, training and management development, compensation
packages, and labor relations and organized labor laws with respect
to each country.

 The coming of the 21ST century poses distinctive

HRM challenges to business especially those
operating across national boundaries as
multinational or global enterprise. Competing in
global markets entail many factors and
centralization of its human resource practices is
certainly vital to improve global competitiveness
and empower employees for global assignments.
To achieve success in global marketplace, the
challenge of all businesses regardless of their size
is to understand global corporate cultural
differences and invest in human resources.

Globalization Trends and Human

Resource Challenges
TREND :
Globalization and increased competition.
CHALLENGES :
Managing a global workforce.
Ensuring availability of employees who have the
skills for global assignments.
Focusing increasingly on employee productivity
to ensure competitiveness.
Ensuring legal compliance when conducting
business abroad.

TREND:
Mergers and Acquisitions
CHALLENGES:
Managing employee insecurity.
Ensuring continued employee productivity.
Developing HR initiatives to manage employee
morale.

TREND:
Changing Nature of Work.
CHALLENGES:
Managing workforce with flexible working
patterns.
Focusing on competencies during hiring process.
Designing incentive based compensation.
Developing proactive employee development
programs.

TREND :
Technological Advancements & Applications
CHALLENGES:
Managing a virtual workforce.
Managing employee alienation & estrangement
Developing training modules and conducting programs
to provide employees with required skills.
Retraining current employees to mange obsolescence.
Providing work-life balance initiatives.

TREND :
Flexible Work Arrangements.
CHALLENGES:
Managing the loss of organizational control over
work.
Developing programs for motivating the flexible
workforce.
Developing ways of ensuring commitment of the
flexible workforce to the firm.

TRENDS:
Ageing population and Workforce Availability.
CHALLENGES:
Ensuring the availability of skilled talent to fulfill
organizational needs.
Finding replacement for retirees.
Managing the demand-supply gap for qualified managerial
talent due to a large retiring workforce.
Developing mentoring programs to ensure the skills of
experienced mangers are passed on to new managers.
Obsolescence training and retaining of older employees.
Managing retirement policies.
Conducting programs to retain experienced employees.

TRENDS:
Changing family structures.
CHALLENGES:
Developing work-life balance programs.

The HRM challenges facing organizations in the

new era of Globalization.
To succeed in the new era of globalization, the
human factor is central. That is why it is
necessary for HR personnel to prove themselves
beyond reasonable doubt that they are capable
of playing key roles.
HR department must possess a thorough
understanding of business and also act as
important influences in the level of integration
between HR management and organizational
strategy .

FOCUS AREAS for GLOBAL MANAGERS

TRAINING
* Executive Etiquette for Global Transactions: This
program prepares managers for conducting business
globally by training them in business etiquette in other
cultures.
* Cross Cultural Technology Transfer: This program shows
how cultural values affect perceptions of technology and
technical learning.
* International Protocol and Presentation: This program
shows the correct way to handle people with tact and
diplomacy in countries around the world.
* Language Training: Language training delivered by
certified instructors, usually determined by the learner's
needs.

FEW CHALLENGES AND APPROACHES

Retention of talent and maintaining a motivated and
contended workforce is, perhaps the biggest challenge
before the HR professionals. It has become more
significant and assumes greater importance in era of
open economy and cutting edge competition.
Retention is a big and a constant challenge for every
organization today. It is a Herculean task for most
organizations in the modern era of globalization and
competitive business. Successful organizations realize
employee retention and talent management are
integral to sustaining their leadership and growth in
the market place.

 HR professionals readily agree that retaining the best

employees ensures customer satisfaction, product sales,
and satisfied coworkers and reporting staff, effective
succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational
knowledge and learning.

CHALLENGE
HR professionals all over the world are breaking
their heads to formulate Retention Strategies but
nothing is working-out in their favor.

SUGGESTIONS
1. Employee Empowerment:
One of the basic strategies to retain talents is to empower
the employees by enlarging an employee's job
responsibility by conferring him the authority to get things
done without becoming over burdened or distressed.
By empowerment, the employees are supported and
encouraged to utilize their skills, abilities and creativity by
accepting accountability for their work.
Empowerment occurs when employees are adequately
trained, provided with all the relevant information and the
best possible tools, fully involved in key decisions, and are
fairly rewarded.

SUGGESTION
2. Congenial Work Environment:
An effective employee retention program is a
systematic effort to create a good Quality work
life by providing congenial work environment.
People wants to work for an organization which
provides:
A friendly and cooperative environment,
ample opportunities to grow,
appreciation for work done.

A congenial work environment includes:

good organizational culture,
values,
company reputation,
quality of people working,
good working conditions,
fostering employee development and growth,
using leading technologies,
flexible work environment that welcomes new ideas,
risk taking,
doesn't carve all decisions in stone,
trust,
good employee relation.

It also includes:
efficient managers,
supportive co-workers,
challenging work,
involvement in decision-making,
clarity of work and responsibilities, and
recognition.

The environment should be such that the

employee feels connected to the organization
in every respect.
Other supportive work environments that can
attract and retain talents in an organization
are:
flexible timings,
alternative work schedules,
vacations,
wellness etc.

SUGGESTION-3
Reward and Recognition Scheme:
High performers should be suitably rewarded and
recognized by the management .
A high performer should be recognized by the
management so as to get out the best and stay motivated .
Various recognition programs should be designed such as:
On-the-spot award,
Employee appreciation,
Nominated recognition,
Award of best employee of the month/year,
peer to peer recognition,
Anniversary/length-of-service celebration etc.

 There are various non-financial motivators that

also reinforce talents to retain in the organization
such as:
* Issuing commendation letters to meritorious
employees.
* Sponsoring employee visits for advanced
training and exposures.
* Publishing their names in their in-house
magazine or notice board.
* Giving additional responsibility as a challenging
assignment.
* Recognizing for outstanding performance.

A UNIQUE APPROACH-Employee
engagement
Employee engagement is what we get when an employee is
motivated by the job and is successful in the job and is well
managed by the supervisor and paid fairly by management.

PREPOSITION
Good employees who are successful and managed and paid well will
be engaged even if not fully satisfied.
Good employees who are successful but not managed well or paid
well will not be engaged and will not be satisfied.
Bad employees who are unsuccessful even though they are well
managed and well paid will not be engaged even if fully satisfied.

 Research has shown that when engagement scores are

high, employees are more satisfied, they are less likely
to leave the organization, and more productive.
Some organizations use engagement scores as lead
measures in their HR scorecards. When an organization
can show the relationship between engagement scores
and bottom-line outcomes, everyone pays attention to
the engagement index.
Establishing this critical link between people and
performance helps HR professionals prove that peoplerelated interventions are a worthwhile investment.

WHY ?
The tight economy has refocused attention on maximizing
employee output and making the most of organizational
resources. When organizations focus attention on their
people, they are making an investment in their most
important resource.
You can cut all the costs you want, but if you neglect your
people, cutting costs won't make much of a difference.
Engagement is all about getting employees to "give it their
all." Some of the most successful organizations are known
for their unique work environments, in which employees
are motivated to do their very best.
These great places to work have been recognized in such lists
as Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For.

 The concept of engagement is a natural evolution of

past research on high-involvement, empowerment, job
motivation, organizational commitment, and trust. All
of these research streams focus on the perceptions and
attitudes of employees about the work environment.
In engagement, people employ and express themselves
physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role
performances.
Employee engagement is thus the level of commitment
and involvement an employee has towards their
organizations and its values. An engaged employee is
aware of business context, and works with colleagues
to improve performance within the job for the benefit
of organization

THE ESSENCE OF ENGAGEMENT

A positive attitude towards, and pride in, the
organization.
Belief in the organization's products/services.
A perception that the organization enables the
employee to perform well.
A willingness to behave altruistically and be a good
team player.
An understanding of the bigger picture and a
willingness to go beyond the requirements of the job.

 Employee engagement is crucial to achieve high

productivity and profitability. Without
engagement organizations cannot hope to retain their
best talent.
Truly great organizations however realize the
importance of sharing the vision and values with their
people. In fact this is a key factor that underpins their
success. They often take great pains to
make people understand the direction in which
the organization is going, what it want to achieve and
why.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF JOB

ENGAGEMENT
* Good quality line management;
* Two-way communication;
* Effective internal co-operation;
* A development focus;
* Commitment to employee wellbeing;
* Clear, accessible HR policies and practices, to
which managers at all levels are committed.

Avoid Excessive workplace stress

Signs and symptoms of excessive workplace stress
Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed.
Apathy, loss of interest in work.
Problems sleeping.
Fatigue,
Trouble concentrating .
Muscle tension or headaches.
Stomach problems.
Social withdrawal.
Loss of sex drive.
Using alcohol or drugs to cope.

Common causes of excessive workplace stress

Fear of layoffs;
Increased demands for overtime due to staff
cutbacks;
Pressure to perform to meet rising
expectations but with no increase in job
satisfaction;
Pressure to work at optimum levels all the
time!

People who work more than

10 hours a day are around 60
per cent more likely to
develop heart disease or have
a heart attack than people
who work seven hours a day.

SOLUTION
Reducing workplace stress by improving
emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage
and use your emotions in positive and
constructive ways. It's about communicating
with others in ways that draw people to you,
overcome differences, repair wounded
feelings, and defuse tension and stress.

 Emotional intelligence in the workplace:

Emotional intelligence in the workplace has four major
components:
1. Self-awareness The ability to recognize your
emotions and their impact while using gut feelings to
guide your decisions.
2. Self-management The ability to control your
emotions and behavior and adapt to changing
circumstances.
3. Social awareness The ability to sense, understand,
and react to other's emotions and feel comfortable
socially.
4. Relationship management The ability to inspire,
influence, and connect to others and manage conflict.

Emotional intelligence - the five domains

Goleman identified the five 'domains' of EQ as:
1. Knowing your emotions.
2. Managing your own emotions.
3. Motivating yourself.
4. Recognizing and understanding other people's
emotions.
5. Managing relationships, i.e., managing the
emotions of others.

The rules for work are

changing. We are being
judged by not just how
smart we are but also by
how well we handle each
other and ourselves.