Human resource management, which is essentially the management of an organization’s policies, has become dynamic lately. This is thanks to global trends such as globalization and the rife rise of mass communication. Hence, HR has become subject to continuous changes that must be responded to in order to remain competitive. Many organizations have become culturally connected, conventional boundaries notwithstanding. The following are some of the contemporary global trends that magnanimously impact HR and how organizations can realign to remain competitive.
Global legal compliance
Different countries across the world have various laws that apply to labor, hiring, and even business. The laws in their native countries protect employees from different countries. Hence, it becomes imperative for HR to be well versed with the labor laws of other countries before making hiring decisions. This is crucial to avoid any legal steps that may negatively affect the company. Besides, hiring globally will mean that the company is bound, to a great extent, by the laws of the foreign companies on the compensation and terms of labor. Hence, HR is required to be legally compliant in such instances.
Employee poaching
All companies want to make vast and competitive profits. One way to achieve this goal is to have the best talents. However, it might be impossible for one company to hire the best talents fresh from school. What this means is that they end up poaching from competing organizations. Employee poaching is a legal practice in hiring, which has become quite widespread. Companies with more significant employee budgets can poach great employees from smaller or competing organizations. For example, the expansion of Google to Nairobi, popularly referred to as the Silicon Valley of Africa, has seen a number of employees switch from their senior positions in the regional companies to join the tech giant. HR has always to be ready for such eventualities and must keep revising employees’ terms and benefits to match what is being offered in the market. Additionally, they should create a workplace culture that intends to encourage employees to stick in their company to remain competitive.
Diversity in professional training
Traditionally, employees were hired to perform various roles based on their qualifications. However, there has been a greater need to become more diverse both in skillset and core competencies for employees to work in different environments. Hence, HR needs to organize formal training sessions and refresher courses to keep their knowledge up to date. Hence, human resource managers must understand the inherent needs of the workplace and design methods to stay competitive and align with global trends.
Recruitment beyond borders
Global recruitment has become a more common phenomenon with the emergence of globalization. It means that the best talent may be unavailable within the local pool of talents, and that requires one to hire globally. Global recruitment has necessitated a change in the recruitment model traditionally used by HR. The trend also demands that the HR design means to determine the value that non-native or non-local employees can bring to the organization and the cost the organization is set to pay to relocate the employee whenever necessary.
Fair compensation
The benefits that employees receive differ based on their countries. This means that labor laws that govern employees’ hiring and protect their welfare apply even when they work for foreign countries. In such instances, HR is obliged to be familiar with the terms of compensation for various positions based on where they hire. For example, the United States is known to offer employees room to take paid sick leave, maternity and paternity leaves, and holidays. Hence, hiring American workers would demand one to offer similar terms of benefits and compensation.
In a nutshell
The nature of human resource management has significantly been affected by global trends such as mass communication, employee poaching, and global legal compliance. Hence, it has become imperative for HR managers to understand the global trends and align with the changes to remain competitive in hiring and advancing their organizations’ objectives.