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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Title: HR goes Global Author: Shannon Klie Source of Article: HRPA Date : 14th February 2011 Summary The author uses the recent pulse survey and describes how the HR is expanding their recruitment across the borders. He narrates how the economy is global, with Canadian organizations looking abroad to recruit employees (Klie, Feb 2011) according to the pulse survey. A total of 259 surveys focused on three areas of Globalization were taken from the subscribers of Canadian HR reporter and from the members of Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA). The three areas are as follows, 1. Migration of certain kind of workers to other countries 2. The global competition for talent 3. The challenge for managing multinational workforces About 67.6% of respondents who took the survey feel that globalization has more impact on their HR practice. According to Caroline Yang, an HR consultant MultiCultural Business solution, an organization which has operations in a different country from its home country of operations, it is important and mandatory for an HR professional to fully understand the local HR standards and practices followed in the host country since some of the policies/procedures being followed in the home country may not be applicable in the host country. While some policies may not be applicable in the host country, HR must not assume all the polices/best practices will not be applicable. Some best practices which are being followed in the home country may be fruitful in host country. She also explains how the host country management was keen on learning the best practices followed in the home country. As a result of which she successfully implemented the Nortels Canadian performance management and compensation structures in Nortel China.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Of the 23 per cent of respondents who work at an organization that owns or operates one or more foreign companies, 81.3 per cent said that has a significant effect on the HR function (Klie, Feb 2011). Issues related to pensions, medical benefits and immigration are the major concerns that affect HR who deal with multiple country operations. According to Oliver, Intra company transfers are easier for organizations than recruiting resources externally from a foreign country. She also claims it is better to search for talented resources in the home country before searching from a foreign country. Since theres a lot more support required for the person coming from overseas (Klie,Feb 2011) Of the 24.5 per cent of respondents that work at an organization that is the Canadian subsidiary of a foreign based company,80.9 per cent said that has a significant impact on how HR is practiced in Canada (Klie,Feb 2011) According to the survey 32.8 per cent of respondents feel shift in global workforce is a negligible issue for their organizations or clients. On the other hand 29.7 per cent of them feel foreign competition is a negligible issue to their organization and 20.8 per cent of respondents feel that is a big issue to their organization. 23.4 per cent of the organizations in Canada do an active recruitment from international sources and 27.7 per cent do active recruitment of talent from abroad but not because of the international resourcing. While 48.4% do not recruit for talented resources from abroad. Hence more than 50 per cent of them do recruitment of talented sources from abroad. Foreign competition is being a big issue for 20.8 per cent of the respondents whereas 29.7 per cent respondents denies saying it is a negligible issue.20.5 per cent of the respondents feel that organizations compete for the same talent as organizations from other parts of the globe and 31 per cent of respondents feel it is true but only for some positions. More than 50 percent of them compete for the same talent globally. Though the survey of recruiting talented resources from abroad has a mixed reaction from respondents it is very vital that due to concerns with visa related process and because of the more paper work, organizations are forced to limit their recruitment from abroad. It is challenging for the HR professionals to follow different practices based on the location but it is still fruitful since it is easy to adopt the best practices followed in different locations after careful research about the feasibility of implementing it. The survey has been limited to 259 respondents hence it may vary if the number of respondents are more in the survey.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Title: Making Managers Accountable for Diversity Author: Amanda Silliker Source of Article: Proquest Date: 15th August 2011

Summary In this fast changing business environment, it is obvious that workplaces are also becoming more and more diverse which seems difficult to deal with in anticipation. The change is due to changing demographics and organizations trying to adopt business case for diversity. According to Bobby Siu, who is the president of Infoworth Consulting in Toronto and author of HR Managers guide to managing diversity and Employment Equity ,Diversity management can go beyond the four employment equity groups(Women, people with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities),(Silliker,August 2011). He also adds managing people of different backgrounds requires an understanding of the people. Siu further says, an organization can plan for a diversity management when they get a better sense of the hurdles and can identify the windows of opportunity (Silliker,August 2011).To manage a diversified workforce the first and the foremost step is to assess and understand if the organization is ready to implement a diversity management strategy. Then the organization has to do four assessments to understand its feasibility. 1. Are Managers competent enough to handle diversity or do they require more education on the same? 2. Do we have sufficient resources? 3. Do we have sufficient infrastructure to support? 4. Possibilities of determining a culture that can be created in a way that is conducive to make all this happen (Silliker,August 2011)

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The above assessments will help an organization to move from its current stand to another stand. Diversity can be a key factor in a corporate culture but has to be aligned to organizations goal and objectives. Training managers as well as employees on general sensitivity and occupation specific will remove the barricade. This helps an organization in almost every kind of occupational group like sales and marketing, customer relations, IT, management. The education should not be limited to only once but has to be done periodically with refresher courses since it is an ongoing process. Most Managers may not be sure about their role in diversity hence it is important to make them accountable for diversity management will make them follow it religiously and teach their sub ordinates on it. If it is not been measured in their performance indicator of managers they may not follow it. The performance indicators and the measurement on diversity should be clearly explained to the managers and has to be given to them in writing since it creates a sound accountability of framework. In order to effectively manage diversity, managers should know about their employees mindset, preferences, needs, work approaches and lifestyle which will help them to customize the coaching and mentoring activities based on individual needs. Managers should have frequent discussions with their employees and provide feedback, encouragement which will help employee to participate and perform better at a diversified workplace. It is also the duty of management to conduct one-on-one sessions with its employees to understand the needs of employees, the training which they may require in order to perform well on job which will increase the morale of employee since they feel part of the organization. Managing diversity properly is very beneficial to an organization. It will yield a variety of people with different perspectives and allow the firm to be more innovative, creative and competitive (Silliker,August 2011) It makes an organization to full fill its corporate social responsibility and would create a positive effect on the reputation which will help in good community relationship and help in attract talent.