The recession of 2008 and its aftermath brought along a wave
of uncertainties that left businesses with only one thing to be sure of –
change.
Soon after the recession, decisions were mostly shaped to
counteract the repercussions of the economic downturn. In order to stay ahead
of the game, companies have now taken a new approach and decided to embrace
change to transform it into a true business advantage.
With markets stagnating and the economy still recovering in
the US and Europe, some of the emerging economies have taken centre stage.
However, substantial differences in the business environment have to be taken
into account in order to be a successful global enterprise.
Some of the significant challenges arising from the shift to
the emerging markets include the need to have a deep appreciation of cultural
differences and integrating local and global talent, especially with a view to
sourcing talent with the right skills, and cost at the right time.
There is also the fact of a shortage of skilled talent with
studies showing gaps of approximately 60% in the Asian-Pacific region compared
to 45% in the US and 30% in EMEA. In such a competitive environment, talented
employees begin to recognise their own value and retention management gains
importance.
Tackling these challenges can only be successful when
companies tailor their people practices that acknowledge specific regional
variances:
Building future
leadership - What has worked well in the past will not be as efficient in
times of uncertainty. A pool of leaders with diverse backgrounds and different
professional levels is pivotal to provide the capability to resolve complex
situations.
Integrating culture
into the board priorities - Fuelled by the highly competitive employment
market, the role and impact of talent on business performance and risk has
superseded more traditional factors for corporate success. The ability to
attract, develop and retain talent therefore has become a key factor in all
capital investment decisions. This has led to a deeper involvement of the HR
director in strategy, execution and in ensuring compliance.
Valuing Diversity
- With the world becoming more and more connected, the workforce too becomes
more culturally and ethnically diverse. As a result, investments need to be
directed to enhance inclusion and understanding the organizational culture
within the specific context and needs of each segment of such a global workforce.
To attract and retain people, a policy, process, program or practice needs to
be shaped so it works in the US and modified, as needed, so it works as well as
in the Middle East.
Transforming HR -
HR functions have transformed moving from a focus on service delivery and
compliance to enabling the business strategy. To drive efficiency and
effectiveness, the goal is to create a consistent HR delivery framework that
can be tailored to the demands of local markets and business units. The
emergence of social media, mobility, analytics and cloud are leading to a rise
in HR systems enabling employees to converge on these platforms and leadership
to enhance the quality of decisions by applying analytics on large quantum of
data available.
These integrated tools lead to a paradigm shift from
excel-sheet based data to real-time analytics that enables deployment of talent
across geographies by creating a global talent database. Global staffing and
mobility programmes now also include models that allow scalability and
flexibility by drawing upon 'free agent' and contingency workers, as required.
An Article by Mr. Prithvi Shergill
