Strategies for Internationalizing and Training Employees

This report discusses the strategies and approaches that a newly internationalizing organization can adopt to prepare and train groups of employees for overseas projects. It also explores the challenges employees face when working abroad and how management and HR practices can assist them in coping with these difficulties. The report focuses on the case of Checkout.com, a leading international provider of online payment solutions. It highlights the importance of cultural simulation training, language learning, legal compliance, healthcare support, and open communication in facilitating successful international assignments. The report concludes by discussing different staffing policies that organizations can adopt to manage their international workforce.

Strategic HRM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Explain the strategies and approaches a newly internationalizing organization can take to
prepare and train groups of employees to work for it in overseas locations on projects lasting a
year or more. Which approaches may work best and why?...................................................3
Discuss what challenges employees often face when working abroad and how management
and HR practices can assist them in coping with the difficulties and being successful.........6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
There are many organisations that are expanding across different international borders for
the purpose of their business expansion. There is a need to adopt some international strategies
that can help in expanding across different part of world. Present report is based on
checkout.com that is a internationalisation organisation that has grown its customer based since
last 10 years by being a world class merchant support (Robson and Wihlborg, 2019). The
product & marketings strategy is based on development and acquisition of original content at a
international scale. Present report is based on a essay writing of using strategies for
internationalizing to train employees and basic challenges that are faced by employees. Role
played by HR department in coping with such difficulties.
Explain the strategies and approaches a newly internationalizing organization can take to prepare
and train groups of employees to work for it in overseas locations on projects lasting a year
or more
Organization overview:
Checkout.com was launched in the year 2012 and it is a leading international provided of
different online payment solutions that is built on 100 percent proprietary technology and is
involve in handling all parts of payment process by strong a transparency across the payment
value chain (Tran. and Marginson, 2018). They are processing 150 plus currencies across
international cards. Customers include Samsung, Adidas, virgin, hopper and transferring. Their
mission is to partner with business for optimization of payment, revenue & meeting of dynamic
needs.
HRM is a function that is concern with management of different human resource
activities on organization without any considerations top global boundaries. It is related to the
process of procurement, allocation & further effective utilization of available human resources
for expansion of international business (Yu, and Wright, 2017). It is a interplay of three
dimension of human resource activities, employee types and operating countries.
Since the time period of last six years checkout.com expanded from a bootstrapped
startup to a international organization that is processing billion of revenue each year. The
revenue and profit is growing on a continuous basis by having high amount of commitment
towards meeting of customer needs and operating in a competitive environment. There is need of

some specific strategies to train employees and provide them with right guidance so that they are
able to deal with challenges that arise because of international expansion.
Globalization & culture diversity in a workplace may lead to high amount of issues that
can arise because of rapid International expansion. Checkout.com as can adopt different new
types of communication policies and process for their diversified workforce. They can also work
towards getting insights of different types of cultures that are being practiced from marketing and
sales perspective. If there is a diverse workforce then or will lead to people from different
cultures that will boost overall creativity and growth of organization having high amount of
potential (Kruk, , 2019). Training & coaching is another strategy that can be used by human
resource department of Checkout.com for the purpose of enhancing the connectivity among
workers who are from different backgrounds. When there will be rapid expansion to some new
locations then there is a need to foster a culture that is supporting the organization. Enhancing
employee motivating in order to have a motivated workforce there is a need to work on
providing them with high level of motivation so that they are able to face the issues and
difficulties with more confidence & enthusiasm. Approach for training employees in global
organizations there is need to focus on enhancing the training criteria so that there can be higher
contribution on part of employees. In checkout.com there are different types of training methods
that can be used by HR managers to enhance the level of interaction among st the workforce.
Documentary training it is a method that is used as a part of classroom and textbook training
that is focused on identification of differences between cultures and is a key aspects of high rigor
and low rigor training approaches. Differences have to be examined as there are potential friction
pints that arise because of cultural differences. Such as Asian people have a preferences for
authority that is different from westerners. In this method, HR managers of checkout will be
focusing on involvement of high level of interaction like gender relations, greetings. Cultural
simulation training is focused on role play based on different situations & practicing to respond
to cultures in a more sensitive way. The process is effective if training is taking place in host
country and trainer in checkout.com can focus on having a trainer from host country. In field
simulation training a organization may believe that employees have successfully complete the
stage of survival training and there is need to focus on field simulation training. In this
employees have to visit neighborhood that is of same ethnic background as destination if trainee
is already part of target country. According to this training method according to a prevailing

situation a individual may drop it from a rural area with limited resources and may get back in
office. Here family can move to a temporary housing to locate transportation, food or exploring
of area. When simulation is completed trainees are allowed to come back and then compare notes
and their overall experiences with colleagues so that there can be learning can take place.
There can be training of local art, culture, political and history to help in enhancing overall
process of conversation by the workforce (Heidemann 2017). It can also help in dealing with
stress from business negotiation. It will help in enhancing the importance of compelling culture
& country without having any comparison with native country.
Human resource management have to define the culture of country without referring to aspects
collectivism, individualism, power, masculinity or feminism. These countries have a emphasis
on enhancing group communication rather than focusing on individual decisions.
There has to be focus on developing a insight of three stages of culture shock that are
focused on initial optimism that is followed by gradual improvement of satisfaction and
reduction of frustration.
Human resource managers can focus on searching for a native cross cultural trainer to enhance
the process of foreign in group training of their personnel (Agyei, , 2016). There can be
specialized training in online business such as intercultural group, interchange institute and
people going global. In Checkout.com for the marketing department who is going to have direct
interaction with target customers there has to be training in business cultural practices, facial
gestures and body language according to culture of new country.
Scheduling of work is also a very crucial aspects in which there is a requirement to provide
training as many Canadians and Americans are trained to work on a schedule basis. There is
requirement of focus on fast paced lives (Rui, and Haibin, 2018). Many cultures may not consist
of performing working according to daily schedules for this employees have to understand the
different perception related to time and enhance overall flexibility with scheduling of meetings
and other types of events.
Understand of negotiation partners is very necessary to build up long teem relationships with
customers. In checkout.com if there are projects that are for a short period of time in these cases
there has to be emphasis on building of better relationships with their prospective customers.
In checkout.com the training procedure that can be adopted by human resource
department that is divided in three stages such as preparatory training that is a individual is

appointed for international assignment and is used to ensure that candidate has adequate level of
skills & knowledge required for working in a new country. Next level is post arrival training for
expatriates that is on site training to familiarize with local working environment & overall
procedures. Third stage is training for host country nationals & third country nationals in this
aspect training is provided to host county nationals & third country nationals for facilitation to
develop understanding of corporate culture, corporate strategy & aspects of socialization.
From above discussed aspects of training strategies that can be used by human resource
managers in checkout.com it can be summarized that the most suitable method will be cultural
simulation training that is based on role play of different types of situations that arise in case of
cultural sensitive ways.
Discuss what challenges employees often face when working abroad and how management and
HR practices can assist them in coping with the difficulties and being successful
With advent of new technologist there are very attractive opportunities of business expansion
across borders but International growth requires sending of employees to different foreign
countries either permanently or temporary to oversee the administration. Operation and
marketing of international negotiations. This lasts ether to work on a specific project that may be
lasting for a year or approximately for a time period of one and half years (Maclennan,, Suter,
and Spers, 2017). One of the biggest challenges in all this process of internationalization is
because of cross cultural differences. With timely training opportunities to employees before
such internationalization will take place there can be resolving of such misunderstanding and
issues.
While a business organisation is expanding across international borders there is a
complete change that has to be made according to target country. In terms of language, culture,
belief and values there is list of customisation that is required according to environment of target
county. For this there has to be focus by the human resource department to assist their workforce
to cope up with such behaviour that can hinder their level of performance in a new country and
different working environment. Some of such constraints that can be faced by employees in
checkout.com includes Culture shock that is a impossible to expect expatiates of acclimate
quickly and moving across world needs to adjust in different culture and a social structure.

HR assistance can be provided to overcome this challenge for employees by helping them to
integrate in their new lifestyle by providing them with more detailed information from the
starting of process.
Language barriers are also one of biggest challenges that are faced by employees
according to Present headquarters of a company. This abbreviate is associated with language
barriers that so one of the main issues in managing of expatriates especially in case of
international assignments. In checkout.com this issues can be dealt providing a learning
opportunity to employees
Risk of legal compliance is also associated with different market and regulatory laws that are
different in every country and there is need to ensure that such legal laws are properly followed
so that there can be reduction of fines for non compliance by such organisations. This legal
compliance can be solved by ensuring that there is adequate awareness on part of employees that
can help them in having knowledge of all the legal laws.
Healthcare related challenges can also be faced by employees. Every new location has a
different types of weather and atmosphere that may or may not visit to a particular individual.
There can be issues related to physical adaptability in the external environment.
Enhancing open communication, it is a tool that can be used by HR managers to strategically
focus on communication strategy. In this employees must work towards increasing
communication among existing employees so that they can exchange their knowledge of the new
culture and languages.
In such a situation there is a need to enhance the focus on proving a health insurance
where it can help employees of checkout.com to deal with the stress related to financial stress,
providing medical aid to employees and providing them with peace of relocation (Vrchota, and
Řehoř, 2019).
safety is also a issue that can be faced by employees as they are not aware about policies
that may lead to high safety issues. So there is a need to focus on providing a security concern to
employees from different types of risks such as bombings, thefts, assaults or terrorism.
There are three major types of staffing policies that can be used by human resource department
of Checkout.com in which there has to be focus on poly centric, ethnocentric and geocentric
approach. In case of international staffing method poly centric staffing is based on a

multinational corporation that is treating each organisation as a national article for prodding
them with decision making authority and hiring in host country. It leads to minimization of gaps
between host and home country.
In geocentric approach there can be a organisation system that is having internationalisation
with local and global shared markets. This approach is based on employers considering whole
world as single nationality market. In this approach organisational performance has to be
coordinated with local plan of actions that are required in organisation. The hiring has to be
based on experiences and skills of nationality. The global transformational and standardisation
process can be used human resource process.
In ethnocentric approach there is sending of employees from home country. The approach is
based on sending of employees from home to host country and organisation is taking benefits
from sending parent country nations to their target countries as expatiates. The expatriates are
already familiar of headquarter goals, objectives and policies. It helps in laying of easy control of
company operations by expatriates and communicating with headquarters. This approach as a
limitation of culture and political issues.
In Checkout.com there can be focus on use of poly-centric approach as each organisation
while expanding across international borders have to adapt themselves according to specific
culture requirements of that particular country. For this there has to be a pre anticipation of
challenges that will be faced by employees in future so that human resource department can form
appropriate strategy to cope up with all such challenges.

CONCLUSION
There are different challenges that can be faced because of global expansion that is part
of international markets of organisation. These challenges have to be understood by employers to
deal with all such difficulties that arise for employees to cope with a complete different
environment and culture of the target country. For this the most suitable strategy is to provide
adequate amount of training to employees so that they can cope up with these cultural
differences. There is training that is required to deal with time zone differences, building of
adequate capacity and cope up with communication difficulties.

REFERENCE
Books & Journal
Robson, S. and Wihlborg, M., 2019. Internationalisation of higher education: Impacts,
challenges and future possibilities.
Tran, L.T. and Marginson, S., 2018. Internationalisation of Vietnamese higher education:
Possibilities, challenges and implications. In Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher
education (pp. 253-257). Springer, Cham.
Yu, B. and Wright, E., 2017. Academic adaptation amid internationalisation: the challenges for
local, mainland Chinese, and international students at Hong Kong’s universities. Tertiary
Education and Management, 23(4), pp.347-360.
Kruk, M.S., 2019. Intellectual capital management in universities in the face of
internationalisation challenges. Edukacja Ekonomistów i Menedżerów, 54(4), pp.31-43.\
Heidemann, M., 2017. Is internationalisation going too far?–Constitutional challenges of
international data exchange programmes. European Business Law Review, 28(6)
Agyei, G., 2016. Internationalisation of artisanal and small scale mining in Ghana: opportunities
and challenges. Ghana Mining Journal, 16(2), pp.20-27.
Rui, T.A.N. and Haibin, L.I., 2018. Internationalisation of Think Tanks: Progress and Challenges
in China. China: An International Journal, 16(2), pp.51-66.
Maclennan, M.L.F., Suter, M.B. and Spers, R., 2017. Challenges to the internationalisation of
the Brazilian fashion industry. International Journal of Export Marketing, 1(4), pp.377-
395.
Vrchota, J. and Řehoř, P., 2019. The influence of a human resource strategy to the function of
human resource processes in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Serbian Journal
of Management, 14(2), pp.299-314.
Jenkins, A., 2017. Human Resource Strategy and Talent Management. In Talent Management in
Hospitality and Tourism (pp. 84-100). Goodfellow Publishers.
Online
Effective Training for International Assignments, 2017[onlie], Available
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