SHRD- UNIT V

4.1. HRD AND GLOBALIZATION: GLOBALIZATION OF BUSINESS AND THEIR

IMPACT ON HRD-
The Impact of Globalization on Human Resource Management
In the past two decades, globalization has become prominent because of rapid technological
advancements and increased interconnectedness worldwide. Its roots can be traced back to
the establishment of the gold standard in the 1800s. Moreover, post-World War II, countries
broke the trade barriers and started promoting free trade across countries, leading to the
establishment of global organizations.
Today, globalization has enabled most companies to tap into diverse markets and expand
their operations across borders and various sectors. One prominent sector that has witnessed
significant change due to globalization is Human Resource Management (HRM).
To help you learn more about its impact on HRM, this article will discuss the basic nuances,
advantages and disadvantages, and challenges of globalization.
What Does Globalization in Human Resource Management Mean?
HRM is the practice of overseeing and managing the people who work within an
organization. It involves hiring, training, compensation, and ensuring a positive work
environment.
Globalization, on the other hand, refers to the process of increased interconnectedness and
integration among countries, economies, and cultures.
When this concept is applied to HRM, it means that organizations are expanding their
operations across borders, hiring talent from various parts of the world. Globalization in
HRM involves adapting HR practices to suit international hiring, such as:
 Managing a global workforce,
 Dealing with cultural differences,
 Adhering to diverse employment and labor laws.
Impact of Globalization on Human Resource Management
Globalization has significantly transformed HRM, impacting how organizations manage their
diverse workforce. Here are some of the significant impacts of globalization on HRM.
1. Opportunity for Innovation
A workforce containing diverse global perspectives creates an ecosystem where innovation
flourishes. As professionals from various cultural backgrounds work together, their unique
approaches converge, leading to creative breakthroughs.
This collaboration results in fresh ideas and novel solutions that a homogenous team might
need help with.
2. Enhanced Talent Pool
Globalization and HRM together help you reach talent pools beyond geographical
boundaries. You can hire professionals with varied educational backgrounds and skill sets.
This diversity ensures continuous improvement as employees learn from each other.
3. Complex Compliance
Staying abreast of ever-evolving international regulations is essential to avoid legal pitfalls
and maintain a reputable global presence. Adhering to different countries' labor laws, tax
regulations, and employment standards demands comprehensive expertise. Furthermore,
managing employee benefit packages and compensation structures across various
jurisdictions in international business can be a little tricky.
Challenges of Globalization in Human Resource Management
Here are the top challenges you might face due to globalization in HRM.
1. Virtual Team Management
Teams are spread across different destinations and time zones in a globalized workforce. This
poses a challenge in coordinating tasks and maintaining effective communication.
Furthermore, building trust and managing conflicts becomes harder when team members
don't interact face-to-face. The major challenge here lies in finding ways to ensure teamwork
and effective coordination while overcoming physical barriers.
2. Talent Retention and Engagement
Global companies also face the challenge of retaining top talent in an environment where
employees are exposed to various other opportunities worldwide. Especially when
employees’ work expectations and personal goals vary, maintaining a sense of belonging and
offering them growth opportunities can be difficult. This is why keeping employees engaged
and making them feel valued and motivated becomes crucial to prevent turnover.
3. Training and Development Adaptation
Globalization in HRM demands continuously improving skills and knowledge. However,
developing training and development programs for people belonging to different cultures and
backgrounds can be challenging. Moreover, standardizing content while ensuring its
relevance to local contexts requires careful planning.
4. Privacy and Security
With data being shared across borders, ensuring the privacy and security of sensitive
employee information can be complicated. The responsibility for managing this data lies with
the human resource department. In such cases, adhering to various data protection regulations
and safeguards against breaches is essential.
Balancing the need for information exchange with legal requirements poses another
significant challenge.
5. Global HR Strategy Alignment
Different regions may have varying labor laws, cultural norms, and business practices. Thus,
it is important for human resource professionals to create a unified, global human resources
strategy that complies with labor laws and aligns with the company's global goals can be
complex.

4.2. DIVERSITY OF WORK FORCE, DISCRIMINATION,

What is Workforce Diversity?
Workplace Diversity refers to the inclusion of personnel from diverse backgrounds such as
different races, cultures, religions, sexes, ages, and sexual orientations. It also includes
personnel with physical and mental disabilities as they should not be discriminated against
under any circumstances.

Workplace diversity aims to eradicate any biased treatment of individuals based on any
external factor apart from their work. It helps create a workplace culture of motivated and
engaged staff, who would love to continue working in their safe workplace for longer,
thereby improving employee retention rate.

What Is Managing Workforce Diversity?

Diversity management is a procedure made to generate and maintain a healthy and positive
work atmosphere in offices where sameness and differences are valued in the organization.
The meaning of diversity management has greatly been emphasized on its impact on diversity
variations, requirements, expectations, and several other critical issues.

The word diversity itself entails several meanings which are along the lines of different
religion, race, beliefs, status, gender, age, political beliefs, ethnicity, and other ideologies.
Workforce diversity is a term that means exploring these dissimilarities in an open, safe, and
nurturing environment.

Diversity management in the workplace is created to make sure that every employee is
treated equally so that they can all be their best self and happily contribute their part to the
organization’s growth and strength. Managing workplace diversity can present a lot of
challenges and hardships for HR managers.

Having said that, these challenges can be resolved if a company makes a serious effort to
encourage a more heterogeneous work-atmosphere by encouraging a culture of tolerance,
creating strategies to resolve conflicts, and promoting open communication. There are certain
tips that can be followed to maintain a proper workforce diversity, such as;

▸Encourage Open Communication

To manage a diverse workforce, companies need to ensure that their employees don’t hesitate
to tell what’s on their mind. Safety rules, procedures, policies, and other crucial information
should be drafted in a way to overcome cultural and language barriers by using pictures and
symbols and translating materials wherever applicable.

▸Treat Every Employee Equally

It is very essential to treat every employee as an individual. Never assume anything about an
employee just because he/she is from a different background. Look at every employee and
judge them solely on the basis of their merits and demerits rather than judging them from
their background.

▸Encourage Diversity Amongst Employees

Create a team or group where employees are from different cultural diversities, this way they
can get to know about each other and start to see each other’s sides. If you put employees
with similar backgrounds in one team, they will never learn how to adjust.

▸Open-Mindedness
Companies should encourage the employees to realize and understand that any employee
should not be judged on the basis of their background, age, etc. but rather on the value that
they add to the organization.

▸Hiring
To improve workforce diversity, it is essential to peruse and recruit talents from various
backgrounds. Since the HR managers are responsible for short-listing the candidates, it is
very important that they should not be bias and short-list candidates based on their talents and
skills. If an organization is successful in breaking the bias in the recruiting process, it will
have a healthy workforce diversity.

Types of Workforce Diversity?

There are many things that come into play in a diverse environment, some of these
differences can be seen from outside, while some are invisible and just the way a person was
born. These prime differences are the grounds on which the four different types of workforce
diversity was created, which are as follows;

1. Internal Diversity
Internal diversity traits are something that can’t be changed as a person is born into it. These
are the characteristics that an individual did not choose for themselves and can’t be changed
by anyone. Some examples of internal diversity are sexual orientation, religion, mental and
physical ability, nationality, ethnicity, age, etc.

2. External Diversity
In the terms of workforce diversity, the word external is used to relate to characteristics that
an individual wasn’t born with. It is usually an influential kind that people pick up from their
surroundings.

Since a person is not born with it, this diversity can certainly be changed if a person wants to.
Examples of this type of workforce diversity are education, personal interests, appearance,
relationship or familial status, religious or political beliefs, citizenship, etc.

3. Organizational Diversity
Also known as functional diversity, it refers to the dissimilarities between individuals that are
assigned to them by their companies- substantially these are the attributes within an office
that distinguishes every employee.

Regardless of what your job role is or what you get paid, any kind of work that you do
connects you to your company. The different subsets of this include seniority, pay time,
management status, place of work, etc.

4. Worldview Diversity
The last type is called worldview diversity and includes internal, external, and organizational
diversity altogether. Some examples are- outlook on life, moral compass, political beliefs,
etc.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY,

Equal Employment Opportunity is the concept of equal opportunity in an organization to

achieve or maintain fair employment. The core EEO definition (or equal opportunity for
employment) is that all employees should be fairly treated when regarded in different
decisions on employment, such as hiring, promotion, termination, compensation, etc.
Within the context of the EEO definition, 'same opportunities' or 'equal opportunity' refers to
the fact that employers may not use certain grounds for hiring or rejecting candidate or taking
any other employment decision.
What is the basic principle of EEO?
EEO or Equal Employment Opportunity is the principle that everyone has equal way to
pursue a job that is based on merit regardless of characteristics such as race, sex or sexual
orientation. Equal Opportunity for Employment (EEO) law makes it illegally possible for
employers to discriminate under certain features. That means employees are entitled to free
themselves from race, color, religion, national origin and gender discrimination.
Any potential employee, who protects his interests during all decisions on employment, shall
have a right to equal opportunities or EEO. This includes:
 Hiring and recruitment
 Compensation and pay scale
 Termination
 Employment requests
 Benefits, bonus and incentives
  Conditions of employment
 Demotions
 Promotions/Transfers
 Disciplinary measures
 Attendance and leave management
 Dressing and appearance
What are the advantages of Equal Employment Opportunity?
1. Improves overall recruitment funnel
An open and transparent recruitment process may be established when the organization
undertakes the concept of equal employment opportunity in HRM. If potential employees
know the unfair decisions relating to the recruitment procedure, they apply to better prospects
during such a venture.
2. Boosts customer satisfaction
The clients of an organizations are firmly assured when employees contribute well to the
organization's success, as it lays down sound guidance to ensure a safer and friendly
workplace for all. A workplace that promotes employee well-being may achieve further
milestones and produce excellent results that ultimately lead to better service to clients, thus
increasing customer retention and satisfaction.
3. Promotes employee engagement
The EEO law allows employees to interact openly and communicate without discrimination
between peers regarding race, gender, religion or hierarchy. It does not only promote respect
for colleagues, but it also creates an open and friendly culture that supports and encourages
the work of colleagues, and adds value to the organization's diversity.

4.3. MANAGING DIVERSITY AND DIVERSITY TRAINING,

MANAGING DIVERSITY
Managing diversity is the process of creating and implementing systems and practices to
promote inclusion and fairness in the workplace. It involves recognizing and valuing people's
differences, and minimizing potential disadvantages while maximizing the advantages of
diversity.
Some strategies for managing diversity include:
Creating policies
Develop and implement policies and practices that promote diversity in hiring,
management, training, and other areas
Communicating effectively
Establish effective communication at all levels of the organization to keep employees
engaged and performing well
Providing diversity training
Educate employees about diversity and how it can lead to a positive work environment
Addressing bias
Recognize personal biases and stereotypes, and work to overturn inaccurate beliefs about
different groups
Creating a zero-tolerance policy
Make it clear that discrimination of any kind is unacceptable, and ensure everyone is
treated equally
Considering flexible working arrangements
Provide options for employees to work in ways that suit them
Monitoring results
Track the progress of diversity efforts, and use metrics such as engagement and sense of
belonging to assess success
DIVERSITY TRAINING
Diversity training is a program that helps employees learn how to work together effectively
and respectfully with people from different backgrounds. It can help create a more inclusive
work environment, reduce prejudice and discrimination, and improve communication and
teamwork skills.
Here are some benefits of diversity training:
Prevent civil rights violations
Diversity training can help prevent civil rights violations by increasing awareness and
helping employees recognize and tolerate differences.
Improve teamwork
Diversity training can help employees learn how to work together effectively and
appreciate differences among co-workers.
Attract and retain talent
Diversity training can help attract and retain productive workers and customers.
Comply with legal standards
Diversity training can help organizations comply with legal and moral standards.
Promote transparency
Diversity training can help promote transparency by promoting diverse voices into key
decision-making roles.
Here are some tips for making diversity training effective:
Make it ongoing
Diversity training should be an ongoing effort supported by top management.
Use data analytics
Data analytics can help businesses track their progress toward diversity goals and identify
areas for improvement.
Seek feedback
HR professionals should seek feedback from all employees to keep up with cultural norms.

4.4. HRD PROGRAMS FOR DIVERSE EMPLOYEES.

Human Resource Development (HRD) programs for diverse employees can include:
Training programs: Training programs can promote cultural awareness and sensitivity.
Language training programs: Language courses and partnerships can help break down
language barriers.
Career and performance management: HRD can provide resources for skill development
and career planning. It can also integrate performance management systems to ensure
employees' goals align with organizational objectives.
Policies and practices: Companies can have policies and practices that support diversity and
inclusion, such as equal employment opportunities and anti-discrimination policies.
Educating the hiring team: Companies can assess how diverse their current workforce is
and let managers understand hiring goals.
Global talent mobility programs: These programs can help improve internal mobility and
talent retention.
HRD aims to develop employees over the long term through: training, career development,
leadership programs, and organizational development

4.5. GLOBAL ASSIGNMENT MANAGEMENT- STAFFING GLOBAL

ASSIGNMENT,
GLOBAL ASSIGNMENT MANAGEMENT
Global assignments are business projects which are allotted to some employees outside the
home country. Global assignments are employers assigning their employees on projects
which are globally implemented. Global assignments are mostly taken place in multinational
companies and may involve employees to relocate from their current country to a different
country where the assignment is assigned.
Since globalization has taken place rapidly and the world has become more connected, it has
become a very common phenomenon. Many countries face skill shortage or require an expert
for a particular assignment so they would hire the person with the requisite skills or
knowledge from other countries and pay the person a hefty compensation as demanded by the
person.

Steps in Managing Global Assignment

Some steps in managing global assignments & international projects are:
1. Evaluating objectives of the international project
2. Identifying team members & giving pre-requisite training
3. Pre-departure preparation of activities & work to be done
4. On job activities on global assignment at international location
5. Project completion
6. Evaluation & reassignment if required

STAFFING GLOBAL ASSIGNMENT,

Global assignment management is a feature that allows an organization to temporarily assign
an employee to a position in a different country, or to transfer employees between
locations. It's a common tool in multi-country employee central implementation projects.
Here are some things to consider when managing global assignments:
Types of assignments
There are different types of global assignments, and businesses should consider what they
want to achieve when choosing one.
Cost
Costs can vary based on exchange rates and international tax concerns.
Return on investment
It can be challenging to quantify the value of an assignment, such as providing cross-
cultural perspectives to future executives.
Employee circumstances
Consider the employee's circumstances, such as whether they have obligations that would
impact the length of the assignment.
Transition
Use services to ensure a smooth transition for the employee, such as immigration services.

4.6. PRE-DEPARTURE ORIENTATION AND TRAINING,

Pre-Departure Orientation Training (PDOT) is a program that provides information and skills
to help migrants live and work safely abroad. PDOT aims to reduce the vulnerability of
migrant workers and help them take advantage of their overseas employment.
PDOT typically includes information on:
 Labor contracts and laws
 Rights and responsibilities
 Culture and language of the destination country
 Accessing support services and complaints mechanisms
 Sending money home
 Return and reintegration
In India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) launched PDOT in 2018. The program is
free and offers an eight-hour orientation training. PDOT is mandatory for labor approval.
PDOT has been criticized for its limited course content, low uptake, and being too late in the
pre-departure phase.

4.7. EXPATRIATE & REPATRIATE SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT

4.8. INTERNATIONAL COMPENSATION.
What is International Compensation?
 International compensation can be defined as the provision of monetary and non-monetary
rewards, including base salary, benefits, perquisites, long- and short-term incentives, valued
by employees in accordance with their relative contributions to MNC performance.
Compensation is a key economic issue, which continues to assume an increasingly large
share of its operating expenses. HR executives in global firms spend a great deal of time and
make a lot of effort in designing and managing compensation programmes, because of their
high cost and impact on corporate performance, employees commitment and also their
retention.
Objectives of International Compensation
 Attract employees who are qualified, experienced and interested in international
assignments

 Facilitate the movement of expatriate’s from one subsidiary to another, from home to
subsidiary, and back from subsidiary to home

 Provide a consistent and reasonable relationship between the pay levels of employees at
headquarters, domestic affiliates and foreign subsidiaries

 Be cost effective by reducing unnecessary expenses

 Should be easily understood and easy to administer

Elements of International Compensation

There are many complexities in the international compensation programme as all the
objectives are difficult to meet and require a high degree of expertise. The main elements are
discussed as follows:
 Base pay
 Incentives
 Retention and Referral Bonuses
 Allowances
 Benefits
 Taxes
 Long-term Benefits