Strategies and Challenges of HRM in International Operations

This essay discusses the strategies and approaches of HRM in training groups of employees and the challenges faced by employees when working abroad. It also explores how management and HR practices can assist employees in being successful and coping with difficulties. The subject is HRM3007 Strategic HRM and the course code is not mentioned. The content is relevant for students studying HRM and international business in any college or university.

Strategic HRM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Strategies and approaches of HRM in order to train groups of employees................................4
Discuss what challenges employees of often face when working abroad and in which manner
management and HR practices can assist them in being successful and coping with the
difficulties...................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Humans are considered crucial asset for any organisations in order to run day to day
operational activities. Human resource management deals with optimizing and making best use
of available skilled workforce in order to meet with organisational goals and objectives. This tool
of management helps in enhancing skills of available human resources in order to make them an
asset for the organisation. This essay will discuss about suitable approaches and strategy required
to train group of employees in order to enhance their productivity level. The essay will further
include the challenges that an employee can face in working abroad and strategies of
management in order to tackle these challenges.
SECOND PART
MAIN BODY
Strategies and approaches of HRM in order to train groups of employees
Human resource management is crucial for any firms in order to ensure optimum level of
performance and growth. The human resource management design and implement various
policies and procedures in order to ensure positive working environment. The most important
role of HRM is to perform Recruitment and Selection activity in order to select qualified
candidate for managing international operations (Bailey and et.al., 2018). The manager
undertakes staffing function in order recruit from large pool of candidates. The other important
role of human resource manager is to provide Ongoing Training in order to enhance growth and
development of diverse groups of employees within organisation. This involves arrangement of
various training programs which enable employees to solve complex business problems. In
relation to this, it helps the workers to efficiently undertake international projects or job
activities. The other role of HRM is to enhance Global Collaboration by considering labour laws
of different countries. The HRM also lays its focus on sensitive cultural issues of different
countries which helps the firm to collaborate employees of different culture effectively. The
other role of HRM is Building and Managing Effective Teams in order to enhance competitive
position of business (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Farndale, 2018). The manager do various
activities such as undertaking team building programs and workshops, promotion of cultural

diversity within team and motivating workers in order to achieve long term goals of the
company.
The next major role of HRM is Evaluation Of Performance in order to know if the
performance is met with standards of performance or not. If the performance is met with
standards than manager provides promotion and rewards in order to motivate them. On the other
hand, If candidate performs below the standards of performance than manager needs to provide
suitable training programs in order to boost skills of workers. The other role of HRM is
providing Remuneration and Benefits to new employees. In this, the manger cooperates with
international system of compensation policy to give compensation for competitive national and
international candidate(Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018).
There are various strategies that can be performed by Human resource manager in order
to make employees to handle more challenging international positions. The First strategy that can
be taken by manager is Simulators, It is one of the effective training technique that can be used
by managers in order to provide training regarding specific skills crucial for performing tasks. In
relation to this, this strategy is often undertaken by HRM in order to train candidate indulged in
doing complex tasks and procedures such as installation of complex machinery etc. This
technique helps the employees to face real time work conditions which helps them to assess their
weakness and strengths. The main objective of this strategy is to analyse and solve issues that
can pop up in their real world job performance. The other strategy that can be taken by managers
are Case Studies, Problem solving skills is crucial for any workers in order to survive in their
international projects. This technique helps the employees to come up with new ideas by
performing real life case studies and scenarios given by their respective managers. Furthermore,
It helps the employees to take international positions effectively by improving their analytical
and decision making skills(Macke and Genari, 2019).
After discussing above strategies, It is recommended that company should provide case
studies to employees in order to enhance their real life decision making skills and competence. In
addition to this, Practising this strategy can help the firm to take advantage of employee's new
ideas and opinion in order to improve its international operations. Furthermore, Adoption of this
technique will help the employees to perform at their best ability.

There are various approaches practised by HRM in order to prepare group of employees
to hold international positions. One of the approaches are Strategic Approach, The competitive
position of the company depends upon core competencies of people in the company. The
strategic approach of HRM lays its foundation on management of people and providing long
term solutions for their problems. The other approach performed by HRM are Proactive
Approach, this approach helps the manager to predict future challenges or problems before they
rise. In addition to this, By adopting this approach the company can save considerable amount of
time and money relating to dealing with future problems. Furthermore, this approach helps the
firm to understand where they want to go in long run in which they can attract , hire and retain
top most talent(Stewart and Brown, 2019).
After analysing above approaches, it has been analysed that the company should follow
strategic approach as this approach is people centric and provide solutions of their problems in
order to prepare them for holding international positions in an efficient manner. In addition to
this, this approach provides assistance for employees to develop certain competencies required
for proper growth which helps them to solve complex problems and leads to improvement in
their productive level.
Discuss what challenges employees of often face when working abroad and in which manner
management and HR practices can assist them in being successful and coping with the
difficulties
There are certain challenges which has been faced by employees while working in abroad
and it is defined into the following manner:
 Fitting in the new environment: When employees start working in the new environment
there is a big chance that an individual has to leave an extensive network of social and
professional level(Al Ariss and Sidani., 2016). It has an important effect on an individual
specially in that case when an individual has high significance in those relationships.
There are many employees and expatriates who have fear of not fitting into a new
country.

 Language Barrier: When employees start working in a new country which speaks a
totally different language creates problems and challenges to set in new environment. It
can't be ignored that if an individual does not know the local language on prior basis. It is
important to learn new language while living in abroad in order to facilitate the process
and execute the work into appropriate manner.
 Finance and money management: When working in abroad, it is important that to
organise taxes, finances and mage money into appropriate manner. When overseas travel
and living abroad expenses get mixed then it becomes very complicated. For managing
tax it is important that to take support from tax expert (Jajarmi Zadeh and Tadayon.,
2019). It is important that to have proper coordination with the bank where individual
has saved their finances so they have to take advice from investors and tax accountant so
that best solutions can be worked out in order to manage finances.
 Healthcare: It is necessary that employees who are working in abroad should have
global health insurance so that they do not need to remain dependent on anyone for the
health services. It has been observed that local hospitals can only provide basic coverage
to the individuals but international health insurance plan supports in terms of reducing
stress with finances, medical aid and also gives peace of mind to an individual.
 Safety: It is important that employees have to think about safety parameter where
personal safety is the highest priority for an individual. According to current challenges
and security concerns ranges from bombings, terrorism, assaults etc(Ma and et.al., 2017).
Employees who are working in abroad they have to always prepare themselves for the
worst condition. It is important that employees have to check their local security in their
new country by free and paid information sources as well.
These are the challenges and difficulties faced by employees while working in abroad and
companies which are at international level. There are certain ways through which HR practices
and management assist them in being successful and also coping up with the difficulties. It is
defined into the following manner:
At the organisational level, management and there are certain activities from human
resource that makes employees feel comfortable in this new environment. Management try to
ensure and create such kind of environment where employees feel free to work and also provides
flexible nature of working so that employees do not feel stressed at higher level. In this new

environment, human resource management also make sure that all employees behave in a
cooperative and collaborative manner so that employees feel relaxed while working at
organisational level.
For improving the communication level, management try to implement such kind of
policy where employees have to communicate through a single language which is comfortable
for ex pats people who are working at organisational level in order to achieve their daily tasks.
For management of finances, management will make sure that their employees receive best
financial advice due to which they can appropriately invest their money into right direction so
that they can grow themselves into positive manner(Mladenović and Krstić., 2021). At
organisational level, they can make an effort to provide insurance of health so that they feel
themselves relaxed in this parameter as well. They can also provide facility of family health
insurance benefits so that employees do not feel stressed from this parameter as well. Such kind
of support system also help employees in terms of raising their productivity into positive manner.
In order to ensure that organisation also take care about the safety of their employees so they can
also provide can facilities and give security system at organisational level so that employees feel
relaxed from the aspect of their own security.
Management can also take initiative in this aspect as well where they can give facility of
television by installing at organisational level so that employees can make themselves updated
regarding the information of external affairs. Through this kind of activity by management, gives
confidence level to those employees who comes to work from different countries and this will
give surety that their organisation cares about their safety and protection as well. Although
mobile phones can give updates regarding all kinds of information but real, current and sudden
information can only given through news channels(Oketta., 2018). It is also not possible for
employees to use mobile phones all the time regarding information then television act as
advantage for employees at organisational level. In this way, through different kinds of activities
of HR and initiative of management they can assist employees in becoming successful at
organisational level without worrying about any kind of parameter.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that strategic human resource management play a very
important role at organisational level. It has been concluded that there are certain strategies

which an international organisation can adopt in order to train employees to work in different
countries. It has been determined that there are some specific challenges which an expatriate has
to face while working in abroad at organisational level.
These challenges are not easy to overcome but with support practices of HR and
initiative of management these difficulties can be overcome into positive framework. So human
resource management is very important in order to achieve success at large level.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Ariss, A. and Sidani, Y., 2016. Comparative international human resource management:
Future research directions. Human Resource Management Review, 26(4), pp.352-358.
Bailey and et.al., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.
Brewster, C., Mayrhofer, W. and Farndale, E. eds., 2018. Handbook of research on comparative
human resource management. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2018. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
Human Kinetics.
Jajarmi Zadeh, M. and Tadayon, A., 2019. Relationship between Organizational Structure and
Human Resource Management Processes and Performance; Case of the Gas Company
in Fars Province. Strategic Studies in Petroleum and energy Industry, 10(40), pp.187-
206.
Ma and et.al., 2017. Why do high-performance human resource practices matter for team
creativity? The mediating role of collective efficacy and knowledge sharing. Asia
Pacific Journal of Management, 34(3), pp.565-586.
Macke, J. and Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource
management. Journal of cleaner production, 208, pp.806-815.
Mladenović, M. and Krstić, B., 2021. Trends and strategic approach to establishing work/life
balance of managers and other employees. Economics of Sustainable
Development, 5(2), pp.29-36.
Oketta, B., 2018. Strategic human resources management practices, leadership style, and
employee empowerment (Doctoral dissertation, Makerere University).
Stewart, G.L. and Brown, K.G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.