Running Head: GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Global Human Resource Management

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GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 2

Components of Effective Pre-departure Training
Developing expatriates for international assignments is a big challenge. The role of pre-
departure training is to support adjustment of the employees who are to be assigned international
duties. It also ensures that the expatriates have the right capacity and knowledge to accomplish
the assigned tasks in a successful way. Training has the main goal of increasing working skills
and making sure the needs of employees will be catered for .For effective pre-departure training,
several components need to be covered. They include: cultural awareness programs, diversity
and language training, practical assistance training for the training role, TCNs and HCNs
expatriate training, non-traditional assignments and training (Dowling ,2013).
Moving in new foreign country can be an exciting adventure to the expatriates yet so
confusing. Cultural awareness training tries to assist them to adjust and perform better. Getting
comfortable with local culture is vital for those employees venturing oversees and need to
optimize their performance in the host country. For one, the employees need to understand the
host countrys people, the laws, customs, religion and etiquette. Through cultural awareness
programs, they will be able to adjust faster in the new environment saving the company some
costs and enhancing fast transition abroad. For any successful assignment, integrating in the host
local culture should be as fast as possible. The faster the employee and his/her family adapt to
the life in foreign country, the more productive he/she is likely to be. On the others side of the
coin, failure to adjust to the new environment results in assignment failure and consequently
translates to financial losses to the company (Rao, 2008).
Diversity and language training is another component required for the expatriates.
Although English is the majorly used language, there is the need for language training in the host
countries and in the relevant corporate language. Language training can be one before the
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employees depart or after but if done before departure its more efficient. The ability to speak in
foreign language is very essential in job performance and making business negotiations.
Language training for expatriates is a critical part in ensuring that the assigned tasks are
successful. It also fastens integration in the foreign culture. Although its takes time to train one in
foreign language, for the company to achieve success it requires employees who are competent
in the host language.
Practical assistance is another key component required in pre departure training program.
This helps the expats and their families in adjusting to the new environments. Providing
assistance can relieve pressure and anxiety, and help the employees abroad overcome negative
feelings towards the host country. This can be done through offering relocation assistance, local
orientation and language assistance. Choosing the best practical assistance is important as it will
save on costs and help the expatriates settle down quickly thus enhancing job performance.
Last but not the least, training of HCNs and TCNs is another component. The company
should provide training to the expatriates on the international assignment prior to their departure.
HCNs may be trained locally or in other subsidiary programs. This builds a sense of corporate
identity and the expatriates are competent in tackling the new assignments. Training HCNs and
TCNs will build a global competent team with the management skills to run the company.
Criteria for Assessing Performance of Expatriates Working Abroad
Failure of an international assignment is usually very costly to any company. Greater
emphasize should be taken on assessing the performance of the employees working abroad. For
the success of international assignments, consistent and comprehensive assessment of expatriate
employee performance as well as appraisal of the whole operations is required. The criteria of
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assessing the performance should be agreed before the expatriate are selected and placed in
international assignment (Stahl et al., 2006).Establishing criteria for assessing performance is a
difficult task due to the many differences in international environment. The criteria for
evaluating should be clear, relevant practical and reliable for it to be meaningful. For this paper, I
will propose three criteria for assessing the performance of expatriate employees of this
company.
Hard criteria top the list. They are performance based or outcome based, objective,
quantifiable and can be directly measured such as return on investment (ROI), market share or
profits. The main advantage of hard criteria is that they are easy to collect, interpret and usually
provide quick evaluation of performance. Defending hard criteria legally is also easy hence the
chances of subtle or international discrimination are reduced. The company can use these criteria
to determine important elements of job performance.
Soft criteria tend to use performance indicators such as relationship or trait-based such as
style of leadership or interpersonal skills. The reason I recommend these types of criteria is that
they are subjective and very vital for accurate and well balanced performance appraisals and
assessment. The success of an international expatriate depends mostly on personal traits and
leadership skills. Soft criteria for many decades have been posited as central to expatriate
success. Using these types of criteria, the company will benefit in assessment of performance of
expatriates where objective, measurable results are not always available. Due to the subjective
nature of the soft criteria, factors such as rate errors, cultural differences and biases, care should
be taken when incorporating them in performance evaluation.
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Finally, contextual criteria attempt to put into consideration factors that result from the
situation in which the expatriate is performing. Situational considerations deserve serious
attention in as much as the host country environment. They are very vital in expatriate
performance assessment in that they help avoid opportunity bias (occurs when expatriates
achieve differing levels of performance due to factors beyond their control).
Recruiting and Selection Strategy When Offering International Assignment
International assignments are very expensive and of strategic importance. Failure can have
adverse effects on the company. To help reduce the chances of failure on international
assignments, the company should do proper selection of the international assignees and efficient
recruitment systems (Perkins et al., 2006)
This firm should use a selection system where by candidates are selected by level of high
performance. This means the individual has achieved enough maturity and management
experience in the domestic environment. Selecting strategy should not be limited to the home
country employees. The company should sort out right candidate throughout their global
subsidiaries. I strongly propose that the best employee should be picked for international
assignment. The best candidate can be determined by use of proper assessment tools and vetting
by qualified selected panel after rigorous interviews and reviews of previous assignments both
locally and internationally. This strategy will help in developing an integrated, worldwide
organization through the international career growth of elite managers and, by defect, creating a
global core of executives.
Although selecting and developing the existing staff for international assignment using
the above mentioned strategy, careful recruiting is very essential in this case. Two thirds of the
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recruits should come from internal environment of the organization as opposed to external. This
is because the staff has already developed in that organization has existing knowledge and
perhaps went through a considerable selection process to join the organization. However, in
cases where there will be new objective which cannot be performed by the internal staff, I
propose recruitment of outsiders who have experience on the international assignment. The
recruitment procedure should be based on technical ability, emotional maturity and cultural
suitability, family adaptability and global mobility and talent management.
Comparing and Contrasting Staffing Alternatives for Foreign Operations
There are two major alternative staffing approaches that can be used for foreign
operations for this multinational company. They are the ethnocentric and polycentric staffing
approach. Ethnocentric staffing approach will make uses of the employees who are natives of the
parent country of the company to fill the positions both at home and abroad. The reason for use
of native employees is because they are familiar with the goals, policies, technology and the
products of the company (Stahl, 2006). They employees are able to report the company
particularly when there is insufficiency of managerial skills at the native country. There is easier
communications since no language and culture barriers. The company can also transfer
employees easily to other subsidiaries. Disadvantage is that you can lose local perspective
insights, hiring expatriates is expensive.
Polycentric approach on the other hand involves hiring host country key positions
especially when multinational countries want to go local. Its less expensive to hire locals who
are more instrumental in tackling problems as they emerge. Its able to mitigate cultural and legal
Nevertheless, coordinating goals between the main and regional offices and the conflicting
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loyalties of the host country is a major drawback of this approach. Moreover, most nationals
continuous to experience difficulties to adjust to international assignments .Adaptation of
expatriates is uncertain, complicated personal planning procedures, difficulties of constant
mentoring and interference of expatriate private life are some of the disadvantages.
Based on the highlighted issue I recommend the polycentric staffing alternative. The
disadvantages of ethnocentric approach are more as compared to polycentric. On the other hand
this company is not well established and hiring new expatriates from the foreign countries will
be very expensive.
High Quality Mentoring System for International Assignees
A high quality mentoring system for international assignees seeks to enable the
international assignees to successfully adapt to the host environment. At the same time it ensures
they keep in touch with their host country and prepares them for repatriation and other
assignments. The success of an international assignment relies greatly to mentoring system
adopted. High quality mentoring system speeds up the process of integrating in the new foreign
environment and jobs assigned. It helps the expatriates derive maximum benefits from the new
experience and upgrade job performance. High quality mentoring system ensures improved
retention of expatriates, productivity and significant returns for the company. Chances of failed
international assignment are reduced (Dowling, 2008)
A formal mentoring system specifically on-site mentoring systems will be important for
this company. The reason for choosing this system is that the mentoring coordinator is able to
manage the startup, progress and evaluation phase of the program. Mentoring the expatriates on
the site (where they are located) is much easier and effective. Furthermore, this system is
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directed towards achieving a certain goal. The program has finite duration, its regularly
evaluated and there are measures for assessing programs goals (Kuhlmann, 2001).
Measuring Return on Investment for International (ROI) Assignments
Getting an exact scientific way to say that an international assignment has given a certain
amount of value or the expatriate exhibited a certain degree of performance is very challenging.
However, using ROI can help in determining some of the revenues. First, I will truck the cost of
the expatriate programs formally. Quantifying the costs entails the ability to track associated
costs and determining what the costs are. This will help in understanding more accurately the
ROI concept. One challenge will be calculating the expatriates costs due to variations and
complexity of the international experiments (Dowling et al., 2008) Measuring of the returns will
involve identifying a clear definition of assignment success.
Secondly, calculating the returns will also involve starting with potential objectives.
Measuring success largely depends on what one intends to achieve. Chances are you can have
very cost effective assignment that does not meet the objectives which can cost the company
even more in the long run (Caliguiri, 2012).
Finally calculating RIO will require the use of the key drivers of international
assignments: technical skill need, knowledge transfer, management development, renewal,
governance and control, organizational needs. By using these drivers, it will be easier to describe
and compare individual assignments according to the value they have to different stakeholders.
The company will also be in a position to measure the kind of relative value proposition which
can be set up and compared to costs. Once the company is able to determine its drivers it will be
able to define objectives and evaluate returns.
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References
Dowling, P. J., Festing, M., & Engle, A. D., Sr. (2013). International human resource
management (6th Ed.). United Kingdom: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Dowling, P., Festing, M., & Engle, A. D. (2008). International human resource management:
Managing people in a multinational context. South Melbourne, Vic: Thomson
Caligiuri, P. (2012). Cultural agility: Building a pipeline of successful global professionals. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Dowling, P., Festing, M., & Engle, A. D. (2008). International human resource management:
Managing people in a multinational context. London: Thomson Learning.
hlmann, T. ., endenhall, . ., Stahl, . . . eveloping global business
leaders: Policies, processes, and innovations. Westport, CT [u.a.: Quorum Books
Stahl, . ., jrkman, I. . andbook of research in international human resource
management. Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar Pub.
Perkins, S. J., Shortland, S. M., & Perkins, S. J. (2006). Strategic international human resource
management: Choices and consequences in multinational people management. London: Kogan
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Rao, P. L. (2008). International human resource management: Text and cases. New Delhi: Excel
Books.