Jeitosa has just completed the preliminary analysis of Global Readiness Survey results. Some of the key findings include:

• Survey participants were asked what top three challenges they encountered in going global in the HR/HRIT function. The majority of respondents indicated cultural differences (53%) as the top external challenge they faced, followed by compliance with data privacy regulations (42%).

The good news is that there are solutions available for these challenges: leadership development, cultural awareness training, change management programs, and global communication plans can help individuals understand and appreciate cultural differences and provide tools and techniques for improving cross-cultural collaboration. Formalized strategies for dealing with data privacy challenges, particularly in dealing with the European Data Privacy Directive, can be developed and include approaches such as Safe Harbor, Model Contracts, and Corporate Binding Rules.

• The top internal challenges companies are facing in going global fall into two major categories: lack of technology and systems to support global initiatives (51%) and lack of experienced and culturally adept resources to work effectively in a global environment – both a lack of global leadership (47%) and a lack of sufficient other global resources (45%). Going global is a relatively new initiative for many companies, so it is not surprising that many would still be immature in these areas.

Solutions to these challenges are readily available, but organizations need to step up and realize that building a global infrastructure with global systems and global people takes effort, resources, budget, and time. More and more vendors are globalizing their product and service offerings making it now possible to source a global solution for HR systems. With the increased mobility and globalization of the workforce, it is also now possible to find experienced resources who understand first-hand the issues and challenges in designing and deploying a global solution.

• Working globally, companies are also experiencing some successes. By far, the greatest success they are finding is in developing and appreciating global diversity (68%). While this is a challenge for some, it is also a success for others. Generally, the more familiar one culture is with another, the greater the understanding and acceptance of the differences that exist.

You can download a copy of the preliminary research report by clicking here. The participate in the survey and receive a free, personalized copy of the full report, benchmarking your organization to others who have taken the survey, please click here.

In one of my previous posts*, I talked about the emerging Collaborative Transnational Organization as the organization of the future. To help you get started with building such an organization, I offer the six C’s of collaboration: competency, capacity, connection, convergence, culture, and collective.

Competency

The first step is to assess, understand, and then build the necessary skills and competencies for working effectively in the collaborative, transnational age. Some of the most obvious skills and competencies needed include agility, adaptability, business acumen, technical savvy, customer focus, teamwork, and a global mindset. The HR/HRIT professional also needs to develop competencies around Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, Software-as-a-Service, collaboration and publishing tools (e.g., wikis, blogs), and social networking software (e.g., Facebook, Linked-In).

Capacity

Second, we need to build organizational and human resource capacity by making effective use of alternative delivery models, such as shared services, outsourcing, offshoring, and on-demand infrastructures. For HR and HRIT we need to have a global enterprise architecture built on a flexible SOA platform to provide a solid technology foundation that supports the delivery of both centralized and decentralized services, both onsite (physical) and remote (virtual) services, based on business needs and organizational competency and capacity.

Connection

Third, we need to provide an infrastructure that connects individuals across the organization in an ever more mobile, global, virtual, digitized world: voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP), social networking software, and new modes of communication, such as wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds. For HR and HRIT this means embracing and integrating connectivity in the way we provide services, such as with dynamic workflows, automated approvals, real-time calendaring, online documentation, just-in-time training, ongoing assessments – services that cross organizational, geographic, and system boundaries.

Convergence

Fourth, we must manage the convergence in the workplace of myriad, disparate technologies from telephones to computers to handheld devices. Free, open technologies, such as Skype and Facebook, allow organizations to easily operate across borders without having to build costly centralized infrastructures. Mashups – a lightweight method for integrating web applications – provide a seamless user experience, allowing us to link and deliver services globally or locally, centralized or decentralized, depending on business needs.

Culture

We need to promote a culture of openness, transparency, sharing, trust, accountability, and respect for global diversity. The HR/HRIT professional must understand the global regulatory environment and the differences in business practices in cultures around the world in order to put in place a global governance framework – one that meets both corporate and local business needs and that holds individual business units accountable for local regulatory compliance along with global organizational performance.

Collective

Finally, we must hold every worker individually accountable for the collective success of the organization by developing metrics that connect local activities to global success. This can happen only by first “thinking locally” and then “acting globally” and implementing organizational metrics that focus each individual on their role in the collective performance and success of the global organization. Accountability at the local individual level is the source of success at the global enterprise level.

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*The full text for this article can be found in the current issue of the IHRIM.link magazine.