The role of human resources has evolved over time due to the driving forces of globalization. Globalization is driven by shortages of talent, the ease of recruiting low cost labor, and technological advancements. The velveteen of globalization has brought many challenges for health human resources. Some challenges are tax regulations, finding adequate talent, controlling risk, relocating workers.
Health human resources have taken on more modern and complex roles in the categories of Strategic business partner, Change Agent, Employee champion, and Administration. They now focus more on long tem objectives. Only companies that have human resources that adapt to the changing world will advance. There are many factors driving globalization today. Some factors include: shortages of talent in developed countries, the availability of low cost labor and increasing consumers in developed countries, and technological improvements (Kaplan, 2014).
There are challenges associated with globalization such as finding individuals wiling to relocate to foreign countries for employment. As modern business evolves, the roles and responsibilities of human resources are becoming critical in accommodating workers and handling aspects of globalization. Rapid globalization of business has increased the need for companies to relocate people and source talent from around the world. Deploying employees across different borders is critical to the success of companies internationally.
However, managing a global mobility program is incredibly complex, and is a challenge for human resources. Companies face numerous challenges such as: navigating intricate and dynamic nature of national and regional tax regulations, monitoring risk against a vast, global backdrop, coordinating assignees’ taxes, and finding suitable technology to help manage it all. There is a shortage on the demand and supply for talent globally and this is also a challenge for human resources around the world.
There is a shortage of talent in developed countries. Most developed countries, including the United States, Germany, and Japan, face these shortages because of aging and the retiring of baby boomers. Despite what seems opposite, there are actually more workers retiring than entering the workforce. “ By 020, for every five retiring workers, only four new workers will Join the labor force in most developed countries” (Kaplan, 2014).
A study conducted estimated that the United States will need to add 26 million workers to the talent pool in order to sustain economic growth of the past two decades unless there is a technological breakthrough to replace the manpower The shortage between the demand and supply of talent is likely to continue to increase especially for highly-skilled workers, such as healthcare professionals, for the next generation. Emerging nations with argue populations such as those including Brazil, Russia, India, and China face a critical challenge of sustaining a workforce with adequate skills (Kaplan, 2014).
Poorer countries also bear the burden of supply and demand. The availability of low cost labor from emerging countries drives globalization. Multinationals have the advantage of attracting leading talent from merging countries such as Brazil, Russia, or China, or to outsource from them. “ Population growth differs greatly in developing countries versus developed countries. In developed countries such as the United States and Japan, the annual growth rate is less than 0. 3 parent, while in the remaining countries, population is growing almost six times as fast”.
The supply of, young professional talent in emerging markets is growing at 5. 5 percent annually while he number in developed countries is growing at Just 1 percent annually (McKinney Global Institute, 2005 II). There are more university educated graduates produced by developing countries than in higher wage countries (Kapok, 2014). When high-quality teachers and physicians leave a developing country, sometimes no en is left to continue their teaching and medical duties. If Junior staff is unable to undertake the duties, they are essentially abandoned.
Junior staff members then find themselves unable to gain enhanced skills that experienced teachers can transmit and may become unemployed or under-employed as a result. Relocating talent is a challenge for human resources. As an example, a regional spinal injuries unit in South Africa serving a population of three million was closed in 2004 when two key doctors were recruited to open a similar unit in a Canadian country (WHO, 2014). Cost effective, yet powerful technologies including Intra and Internet, data warehouse, and enterprise resource planning systems also makes globalization possible.
Technological advancements including the emergence of the internet, the distribution of the windows operating system, the creation of the fiber optic network, and the development of software applications have made it relatively easy for people all over the world to work together. All of these things leveled the playing field and allowed people to collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, on a scale not seen before. New advancements in remote access and support technologies have also driven globalization. Several service Jobs including call centers, transcription, and software development can be performed remotely.
A global human resource information system can be used to collect and store large volumes of data from various sources, including external and remote sources. This global system allows human resource personnel to analyze the data in order to get business insights, predict future needs, and develop strategies to fill those needs (Kapok, 2014). The various factors discussed which drive globalization present halogens and the need for adaptability of human resources. In the past, human resources was considered to be an administrative overhead and considered a cost center.
The department focused on short-term gains and savings. They also focused on administrative efficiency and compliance activities. Some of the practices caused human resources to achieve short-term successes, but encountered long term problems when the objectives were carried out at the expense of employee productivity (Kapok, 2014). Modern human resource roles tend to focus on more long term objectives. Instead of focusing primarily on internal human resource issues, modern human resources takes a more broader and balanced approach.
Lurch (1996) defines the roles of human resources based on four functions. These functions are: Strategic business partner, Change Agent, Employee champion, and Administration Expert. Strategic business partner and Change agent functions focuses on leading and helping formulate the organizations overall business strategy. Companies should develop leaders capable of creating growth and effectively manage a multicultural workforce. Leaders should also represent diverse cultures and backgrounds so the structure of the decision-making individuals represents diverse cultures and backgrounds in the market.
The human resource personnel are a champion of globalization and can help develop a global mindset in its employees. Having a global mindset will flow to the entire organization, and encourage valuing cultural diversity in people. Human resource management should take a new approach in this new environment brought about by globalization. People should not be seen as a cost to the organization, but as a valuable assert which would be trained and developed to get the best out of them.
