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Once merely a concept, global talent management has now become an essential prerequisite for successful global companies. As a result of the economic power shifts and changing global demographics, more and more enterprises are establishing world-class practices and a balanced approach to develop a sustainable multi-national talent base. Global companies now have to build a strong and globally deployable workforce for effective execution of their business goals and to remain globally competitive. It has become essential for them to bind all the employees together and induce a closely-knit environment across all the locations of the company.

A Global Workforce
Sans doubt, it is the people or talent that is the most valuable asset of a company and a key differentiator. Talent collectively determines an organizations and the economys productivity and the quality of the output. At a macro level, productivity or efficiency is vital for the economy, but quality is the decisive metric of effectiveness and provides a competitive edge in the global scenario.

The education system needs to be continuously aligned with the emerging and dynamic demands of the industry. Industry-relevant concepts and processes such as effective quality management and Six Sigma should be introduced at educational institutes.

Besides curriculum revision on an ongoing basis, behavioral skills training at engineering and business schools are recommended to prepare students find their feet in the corporate world with confidence. A major component of such skills is the effective communication and influencing skill. This coupled with technical proficiency is an indicator of the collective strength of any workforce.

Given that people work in teams and experience, the interplay of cultural sensitivities has led to the evolution of communication skills. The onus to facilitate the creation of environments and skills that nurture cultural sensitivity lies with the human resource departments. Training modules have been developed in this context eventually contribute toward shaping organizational philosophy and values.

The human resource team works closely with the senior management for creating appropriate leadership behaviors and values, which then cascades into an organizational chain, establishing a culture. While this might contradict the cardinal rule that the culture of an organization is based on the collective behavior of its constituents, the larger role played by the leadership in this area needs to be understood and leveraged to establish the right culture. Leaders have a greater influence on culture creation and hence, it is imperative that it starts at the top. This aids in cross-pollination of ideas and ensures that diverse geo-teams are united in their approach.

Currently, there are no specific training models to build a global workforce. However, there are many initiatives institutionalized to foster a global culture within an organization. Successfully creating a global workforce can be achieved by a combination of behavioral and management training, and leading by example.

With cross-cultural teams working together from different time zones, challenges are inevitable. Some basic challenges that are relatively easier to address are accent comprehension, articulation, and communication styles. More serious and sensitive issues that need to be dealt with caution are inter-cultural diversity, power connotation, keeping up deadlines and time schedules that might differ because of the distance and, cultural and social diversity.

The vision, mission, and values of a company have a direct bearing on building a global workforce. While the vision represents the goal, mission indicates the path that should be followed to achieve the goal, it is the values that provide the energy and zeal to achieve the goal. All three together run like a common thread inspiring and motivating employees across geographies to work closely in good spirit.

Abhay Valsangkar
The author is senior director, Human Resource, Symantec India
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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