This is a guest post written for us by Derin Clark a writer, editor and blogger
Until recently the USA has been the world’s most financially powerful nation. Closely followed by those in the West including Britain, Germany and France. In fact the only non-European or North American country in the G7 was Japan, and then Russia when the group expanded to become the G8. Now, however, nations that were once overlooked as developing countries have become key players in international business.
Often referred to as the Outreach Five – Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa are fast becoming important centres for commerce and finance. So, whereas once businesses conducted deals with American and Western European-based companies, soon they will be looking to South America and Asia for their business.
As the financial world axis shifts, many businesses will look toward HR companies to help them meet these new challenges. And this will hit HR professionals in three main ways; recruitment, training and talent management.
Recruitment
As countries like China, Brazil and India become more important, businesses will be looking to recruit more multi-lingual employees. Soon companies will not be able to rely on international clients and associates having a good grasp of English, instead they will need to ensure they have employees on their team who can converse confidently with international partners and customers in their own language.
Alternatively, HR companies will also have to deal with new immigrants coming into the UK. Although many HR professionals faced this challenge when a vast number of Polish workers entered the UK workforce, next year immigration restrictions against Romania and Bulgaria will be relaxed, which could lead to wave of immigrants coming to the UK from these countries. This, along with the fact that the European Union is continually expanding, means that HR professional will have to become apt at dealing with job candidates from a number of different countries.
Training
Along with recruiting staff already able to speak multiple languages, many companies will need to ensure that their existing staff learn additional languages as well. This is already common in other countries, where businesses will often pay for employees to take courses in foreign languages.
Together with learning new languages, employees will also have to become more culturally sensitive, especially those that will be interacting with companies from vastly different cultures to our own, such as China. Even if they are just corresponding via email, what would be acceptable in the UK may cause offence to someone from another culture. Again this will involve training to an extent that every employee is comfortable and confident when dealing with international clients.
Talent management
Many of today’s professionals are willing to move to further their careers. This means that as developing countries become financially stronger, companies operating there will start to be able to afford, as well as, attract the best talent from around the world. As such, businesses will be looking to their HR companies to implement talent management in order to keep the best employees within the company.
Many UK businesses already have talent management in place in order to stop top talent from being headhunted by another UK-based company, however competition from abroad could potentially heighten the threat of many of the country’s best employees leaving the country. Nations such as New Zealand are already facing a brain drain, as their most skilled, educated and qualified workers are leaving the country because they can earn more and have better job prospects abroad.
At the moment it is mainly large, international companies that are having to operate in a global business world. However, as once developing countries gradually enhance their financial standing, soon all companies from car manufacturers to retailers will be looking to these countries in order to expand their customer base. In the near future, operating in a global business world could become a reality for most businesses, and as such, they will be looking to HR companies to help them meet the challenges this poses.
