10 key tips for HR internationalization (Part II)

Eva Louzao, VP Cloud HR Services, Meta4

In a previous article we published the first part of the post, “Ten Key Tips for HR internationalization”, where we included five issues to bear in mind before successfully embarking on an HR internationalization project. Let’s review these first 5 points:

1. Management’s strategic vision
2. A dedicated project team
3. Involving local teams
4. Maintaining a global view
5. Building Core HR: a pre-requisite

Below we include the next five points to bear in mind:

6. Cloud computing to power HR transformation

There are many factors that hamper companies from improving their HR management system, high implementation and maintenance cost, lack of communication between applications, data security and more. What’s the solution? Get Core HR through to talent management, a single solution, integrated with existing local applications in SaaS mode.

For multinational companies a technological solution in SaaS (or cloud) mode can be quickly adopted by all their subsidiaries allowing them to be perfectly integrated and interconnected. This way the branches of the group can join in by adopting the corporate human resource strategies, yet also maintain their regional/local conditions. A SaaS solution will allow the parent companies to define a global management model and deploy human resources in each country in which they operate, while respecting their labour, legislative and cultural characteristics, which would seem so simple but often is not the case. Moreover SaaS solutions also contribute to significantly improve the integration of the company’s different HR processes and work cycles, which are defined and reflected at all levels (“end -to -end processes”).

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7. A modular approach to progressive goals

For an internationalization project, it is important to have short-term goals to get quick and positive results, while defining long-term objectives to be achieved gradually.

As we saw previously, the first key step is to consolidate your information and build your Core HR. This is the very first module to implement. Performance management and evaluation, recruitment, training, talent management and more will come afterwards depending on your priorities. Start with reduced functionality in a small pilot area, and then expand to all processes and employees according to your needs and to a realistic timetable.

The definition of the processes where ROI is quickly seen will encourage teams to continue supporting the project.

8. Multi-level reporting in place

One of the major requirements for a global solution is to provide you with tools to analyze global and local data in real time. Employees and managers will have online access to a global interface where they can manage a number of HR processes. Each subsidiary company determines which employees have access to what information. Similarly, it is important to feed local information back into your global HR system, such as the cost of an employee, for example. Data must be enhanced to facilitate HR monitoring, reporting and management.

9. A “glolocalized” HR solution

The success of your globalization project lies in meeting the challenge of reconciling global HR policy and local issues. Each organization has to find the right balance between the need for centralized control and the need for local autonomy. Legal constraints and cultural differences make it more difficult to globalize some processes than others.

Combining a global HR strategy with the requirements for local compliance, when you cross borders, it’s not the easiest thing to do. Legal requirements based on employment law, trade regulations and legal provisions on data protection vary from one country to another. Work proactively with local lawyers. Employment contracts are different everywhere, for instance. In emerging countries, Africa or the Middle East, the challenge is even greater: do you know the equivalent of the Social Security number in Saudi Arabia or the mandatory taxes on salaries in Tanzania? Local expertise is critical to the success of the global project.

10. Relying on a trustworthy provider

Embarking on a project of this kind cannot be improvised as the implementation of an HRIS is a real challenge. Focus on strategy, technique, practical guidelines, and questions to address. How to choose your provider and work on good terms with them? What should they do for you? How should they help you?  When you select your service provider, there are key issues to consider: the provider offers a broad range of rich functionality and processes to meet the specific needs of your organization, the new solution must be able to integrate with the existing enterprise systems and guarantee provider stability as well as quality services.

Are you interested in improving your global processes? More info here