Adam Isenhart
4 min read
As we’ve moved into an era where more and more companies have offices and staff around the globe, HR needs to keep in mind how this can impact recruitment, reward strategies, communications, and developing a unified culture.
It’s crucial for HR to lead the way for a global company to remain connected and for staff to be engaged.
To make sure you're on the right track take a look at our five tips to get the most from your global HR strategy.
1. Develop your company culture.
Your first priority when managing a global staff should be to develop a strong company culture as a foundation to connect all of your employees. A strong company culture and set of values will give your business a common language so to speak and ways to operate that will resonate with everyone. Creating a team to focus on culture with representatives in each office is a good place to start to make sure any initiatives or plans make sense across the whole company.
Once you’ve solidified your culture and values you’ll have taken a huge step forward to making sure all staff has something in common that crosses time zones and borders. When moving forward with your global HR strategy keep in mind the Peter Drucker quote, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”
2. Think global and act global.
To make sure employees feel included and part of the company as a whole and as equals you need to make sure you are a truly global company and not, for example, an American company that happens to have a team in Spain.
Locations outside of HQ shouldn’t be an afterthought, make sure to invest just as much time and energy into recruiting, learning and development and participation in company culture around the globe. This will be significantly easier if you’ve addressed the previous point. If your business has a culture that ties everyone together then you’ve already won more than half the battle of thinking and acting global. Your HR strategy should be defined by fostering employee engagement, and staff that love their job regardless of location.
3. Find your movers and shakers.
When opening new offices around the world you will most likely need to ask current employees to take permanent or temporary positions to help manage a project or team. It’s important to know who you can ask and what the move would mean for them, their career and life. Part of a good HR strategy would be to occasionally assess which of your employees would be able to make a move and be excited to do so in case there is a need to fill a position outside of the country for some time. At Reward Gateway we have five offices around the world and there is constantly movement between offices for project management, training, collaboration and more.
4. Make the best of the old and new.
Technology has made operating around the world a breeze, but face to face interaction and getting the chance to build a personal connection can’t be overlooked. That being said leadership and managers should be encouraged to visit other offices to build connections, hear ideas, and meet staff.
In the meantime, take advantage of the advances technology has given us and have regular virtual meetings. At RG we have live streamed company wide meetings and we all use google hangouts daily and it’s worked out really well for us and allowed us to stay updated on an individual and company wide level.
5. Global events.
Once you have culture, technology and global teams in place it’s time to put your global HR strategy to the test. Roll out global initiatives and events that everyone can get involved in. A great place to start is to have champions in each location to garner local support and get all your teams involved. At Reward Gateway we have run global charity initiatives, social media competitions, sent thank you's around the world and even had a company birthday party together.
Do you have any other tips you’d like to share to to improve a global HR strategy? Let us know in the comments below!