Be careful with global HR strategies

Some workforce strategies in China and India have deemed to be unsuccessful, largely due to their global, rather than local, focus.

This is according to an Organisation Solutions report titled "Workforce Strategy for High-Growth Markets," which found organisations in these countries rely on global or regional strategies, which can sometimes be irrelevant in local markets.

The research, which canvassed more than 30 companies in China, India and Indonesia, concluded global strategies can have a detrimental impact on companies' ability to attract and retain talent, impacting productivity and revenue levels.

"Companies can optimise success in these demanding markets by creating workforce strategies and corresponding practices that match local business and market demands," the report said.

It also expanded on the reasons behind the preference for adopting global, rather than local strategies.

"Over the past five years, many companies have standardised their HR process globally to cut costs and spread best practices across the globe. This approach creates problems in high-growth markets," Dr Alison Eyring, CEO of Organisation Solutions, said.

Elaborating on the importance of creating a balance between local and global HR strategies, the report identified how the most successful companies in these markets tailored global policies to suit local markets.

"For example, successful companies in China tended to focus on key talent strategies to attract, develop and retain great talent. Successful companies in India tended to focus on position planning strategies to ensure they have successors for key roles," the report said.

This created the opportunity to address rapidly altering local needs while still having a global perspective in mind.

"Being strategic is about getting off the treadmill. So often in rapidly growing organizations, we are putting processes in place to close gaps," Dr James Eyring, COO of Organisation Solutions, said.

"However, growth is causing the gaps to grow faster than we can close them. A good strategy gets us ahead of the curve and prevents the gaps from appearing in future."