The HRM of the Company

The traditional role of the human resource management is to recruit the employees, manage their training and decide their remuneration. Through the human resource management the managers set certain formal regulations that the employees of the organization follow. There are various factors related to the employee management that vary in certain situations and handled by the human resource managers. Most issues that are affecting the performance of international organizations are related to human resource management. The human resource manager, primarily responsible for expanding the business internationally designs and implements more effective human resource strategies following the organizational policies (Deresky 2017).

Holden is an Australian company that manufactures and distributes engines, vehicle components and motor vehicles (Holden.com.au 2017). Holden is planning to expand its business globally and sees the developing Asian market as great potential segment for their expansion (Pomfret and Sourdin 2017). The company is considering the European market as well. The organization has been implementing effective human resource strategies in their national business in order to manage their employees. The strategies of the human resource management include recruitment of the skilled new employees, providing them with proper training and opportunities and giving rewards and recognition to the deserving employees. The company hires new employees by evaluating their skills and technical knowledge for required areas. The HRM sees that employees could easily fit in the organizational culture. By promoting the organizational diversity the HR management provides equal opportunity to the employees. A significant amount of benefits are offered to the employees and recognitions are given to the hardworking and efficient employees (Snell, Morris and Bohlander 2015). However the company is facing some significant challenges due to some poor human resource practices. This year the management is facing issues in keeping the efficient employees who can keep the workforce strong enough to meet the productivity expectations (Willmer 2014). The HRM has to develop effective strategies for the employee reduction. The company is already suffering from employee dissatisfaction as they have stopped manufacturing in Australia that caused 3000 existing employees to lose jobs (Taylor 2013). The HRM is struggling to maintain the workforce productive enough for the future. The “Here to stay” campaign has worsened the condition due to bad timing (Abcnews.net.au 2014). The promotion was to ensure the employees and consumers that the company would continue making the products but though they would be manufacturing products only in foreign countries. The employee cutting was immediate after the announcement and that had bad impact over the human resource management system of the company. The company also suffers from the inability to communicate with the employees effectively. The human resource management might face several challenges during their expansion in the developing countries. The infrastructure is not that developed as their home country so more employees will need to be recruited to cover up the infrastructural weaknesses. Different countries have different right to information acts so the HRM has to make their work direct and transparent enough, so that it does not have to face any legal challenges in future. However in developing countries like India the language is not a barrier for the employees to work for international organizations. The human resource management can utilize the language skills of the employees in favor of the company.

Role of International Human Resource Manager

As in the international array of services, products, cultures and ideas the responsibilities of the international human resource manager is ever evolving. Prior to the international exposure of the business the HR managers only used to handle the basic data related to employee recruitment but with the diverse nature of work culture, legal complexities or strategic management but now their jobs are getting complicated too (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam 2014). In the national operations the required skills or knowledge is limited for the human resource managers but when they are dealing with international operations, the position international human resource manager requires few extra skills. An international human resource manager manages the international operations of the company’s human resource activities. If the company aims for international expansion in multiple regions the management is required to develop multiple global managers in HRM. The manager should have the ability to understand the employees in the host countries and ability to manage operational challenges. The manager needs to possess both the explicit and tacit knowledge. The tacit knowledge is gained through his experience that will help him to deal with external issues related to threats and opportunities in the competitive international market (Chuang, Jackson and Jiang 2016). On the other hand the explicit knowledge will assist the mangers to structure the international policies of human resource that are aligned with organizational policies. The explicit knowledge guides the manager to identify the internal issue related to employee work force (Donate and de Pablo 2015). The theories suggest several key factors that the manager has to follow in the international human resource operations of the company. The company has to oversee the development of the international policies, accomplishment of the international human resource policies, allocating the best human resource practices, utilizing the distributed human resource expertise, exchanging information with the employees and socializing with the employee communities (Christiansen et al. 2017).

The international human resource management of the company would be working on certain key elements in order to manage the employees. The digital revolution and globalization have made the human resource management’s job easy for the global market (Marchington 2016). As the company is planning to expand its business in international market the HRM requires responding fast in the changing environment and adequate cultural awareness is needed as well. In the international business area the human resource management needs to fulfill the basic responsibilities of interviewing, recruiting and developing the employees of the chosen areas (Wilton 2016). The management also needs to implement certain new procedures and policies for ensuring the employee work force in the foreign market.

The management has to promote the organizational activities such a way that should attract the local aspiring candidates in the host countries. Not just recruiting skilled employees the HRM has to fulfill every step of attracting, recruiting and retaining the employees in their international market. The recruitment process should be evaluated and perfected for the employees of the host countries. They have to develop proper job descriptions, interviewing the future employees, offering them the suitable jobs and fixing the benefits and salaries (Ton 2014). The HRM focuses on the human resource process that values the locals. The employment of skilled employees with the combination of management’s reciprocation towards their employees will result in long term profitability.

Managing International Human Resource

During the recruitment process the human resource managers make sure that the aspiring candidates possess the required knowledge and skills to fulfill the tasks. The human resource managers plan and develop such training courses that the help the employees to gain suitable credentials to perform in their expert areas (Reiche et al. 2016). While performing in an international market the HRM has to consider the host countries’ governmental rules and regulations. The HRM has to ensure that the employees are following the healthy and safety work place practices. In European countries the management members and the employees both form the work councils and such training processes that are not included in the agreements by trade union are mandate there (Brewster et al. 2016). The HRM has to make sure that such trainings are taking place within the organizational human resource practice.

The HRM’s another important function is to provide the employees with professional development along with the training. The human resource managers are more than just the organizational policies and procedures, the human resource professionals provides the employees with certain opportunities that can ensure their growth in knowledge and career (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). As the company is already successfully performing in a market, the management can offer the deserving employees from the international operation great opportunities for learning and career growth. The company can offer the employees to visit helpful conferences, external training from outside experts and other opportunities.  This can help the company in both ways, the employee feels that the company is giving him or her much importance and the company can utilize his or her skills and knowledge in the future and enhance his efficiency.

In the traditional practice prior to the international business of the company the human resource management professionals only used to compensate or reward the employees in materialistic or monitory medium. Because of the internationalization the HRM has to adopt few new strategies for offering the rewards and benefits to its employees (Shields et al. 2015). The international human resource management now offers rewards and compensations in the forms of work from home opportunity, flexible work shifts, vacation or leaves. These innovative strategies help the management to retain the employees and attract new ones. In the international market the human resource management has to balance the rewards and compensation in order to satisfy the employee groups consisting diverse range of people.

When dealing with legal system in the home country the HRM does not have to face many challenges but during the international expansion many kinds of legal complications come in the way. The human resource management is also responsible for ensuring the corporate legal compliance that the company needs to adopt monitoring business problems and implementing necessary solutions (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016). In order to makes its presence successful in the international market the management needs to maintain the tax, trade and labor laws of the business locations (Bonoli 2017). In certain geographical locations the state, local or federal governments impose certain laws for international companies; business operations in their countries. The laws vary in various parts like in working hours, discrimination, break times and wages. The employees must not suffer from the challenges in those areas as that will eventually create challenges for the company’s productivity. The human resource managers make sure that in the international competitive market their company is legal to the government and employees.

Recruitment

For the national market the human resource management of the company follows certain specific approaches as the company grows to become more international the HRM practice also gets transformed. The international progression of the company influences the human resource management to become more generalist. In the national market the HRM focuses more on the internal operations and day to day activities but in the international practice the HRM gives more importance to the workforce as a team together (Cavusgil et al. 2014). In the new business venture the human resource management has to take care of the competitive advantage of the international market, sustainability of profit and survival strategies through difficult financial period. In the traditional practice of human resource management the managers were only engaged in recruiting, managing the employees and implementing disciplinary actions whenever necessary. However the role of the managers in the international expansion of the business goes beyond just the traditional practices. The managers in the international human resource management of the company have to implement strategies that take care of the health and safety of the employees and they have to control the costs related to the employee health and safety (Glendon, Clarke and McKenna 2016). There should not be any gap between the decided amount for the spending in such causes and the actual spending of the money. The managers have to reduce the employee retention and now their participation in the employee communities is required as well.

The company has been engaged in the human resource practice before in a more traditional approach, where the team members used to be engaged with the administrative tasks hiring and recruitment without any involvement of the department managers. As the company is aspiring to become successful in the international competitive market the managers from the human resource management team take up the roles of business partners in involving the employees in the workforce through the orientation and interview processes (Marchington  2015). The international expansion is bound to make the business practices more complex, therefore the managers in the human resource management teams must collaborate with the subordinates for maintaining the production lines.

The responsibility of the human resource manager is to eliminate any problematic or stressful environment within the organizational culture that can potentially harm the employee productivity. As in the international market it is likely to be a work culture consisting diverse people the international HR manager’s duty is to maintain a healthy and safe work culture for the employees. The international market is a perfect place for the human resource management to implement the “Open door strategy” so that the employees can freely communicate with the human resource management professionals (Sadriev and Pratchenko 2014). The employees feel that their opinion are valued by the management and are being considered. The HRM must encourage a friendly and free environment for the employees in the international market so that the comfort of the local companies cannot create challenges for them. This can be achieved by the managers through their equal treatment towards every employee and building rapport.

Training Programs

In the international organizational practice the human resource managers makes sure that the HRM professionals are resisting the team diversity to create any kind of conflicts that may hamper the international organizational operations. The managers have to develop effective workshops for team building, promote the cultural diversity and successfully motivating the employees to the common goal of the company (Hajro, Gibson and Pudelko 2017). In the international setting the employees perform better if the management encourages individual recognition than group recognition. However the managers should successfully convey to the employees that organizations gains more productivity through the team performance. The managers from the international human resource management should consider the five cultural damnations by Hofsted while dealing with the employees in the international business (Chechelashvili and Shavishvili 2016). The management team has to consider the power distance that exists between the higher level of management authority and the lower level. In most Asian countries the power distance is high where the power is unequally distributed among various levels of employees. In most western countries thee power distance is so the HRM has develop the employee tasks by keeping the power distance issues in mind. In certain international market like in USA or European countries the society is individualistic that builds up the employee characters. As in the Asian countries the employees belong to a society that gives collectivism more importance (Karin et al. 2014). The teamwork is also desired by the managers in the international business so the managers can utilized this opportunity for the company’s favor.

Conclusion

Success in the national market made the company realize that they need to compete in the international market and for that they require higher standard of human resource management. The human resource management team of the company needs to develop different business strategies to achieve the desire result in the international market by managing the employees effectively. For managing the employees internationally the managers need to motivate and inspire the employees for working collaboratively.  The human resource manager through transferring knowledge and well planned organizational strategies can contribute significantly in the company’s successful international expansion.

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