Strategic Human Resource Management: Revolut's International Expansion

This essay delves into the strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices essential for Revolut's international expansion. It explores the strategies and approaches necessary to prepare and train employees for overseas assignments lasting a year or more, including language and cultural training, goal setting, and managing family and stress. The essay then analyzes the challenges expatriate employees often face, such as language and cultural barriers, safety concerns, and the difficulty of fitting into a new environment. Finally, it discusses management and HR practices that can help employees cope with these difficulties, such as careful selection, expat training, and performance evaluations. The report emphasizes the importance of compensation, rewards, and repatriation programs to ensure employee success and retention. The essay provides a comprehensive overview of SHRM in an international context, specifically addressing the needs of a financial technology company expanding globally.

Strategic Human
Resource Management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Describe the strategies and approaches taken to prepare and train employees to work in
overseas locations...................................................................................................................1
Analyse the challenges employees often face when working overseas.................................4
Discuss how management and HR practices that can help in coping with the difficulties....5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
The human resource management is one of the essential process of the organisation which
deals with managing and controlling the workforce of the organisation and ensuring that there is
availability of skilled human resource in all the department of the organisation. There are various
strategies implemented in order to manage the human resource, basically strategic human
resource management is defined as the process of formulating and implementing various
strategies in order to manage the human resource of the organisation. For this report the Revolut
is taken as the base company. Revolut is one of the well established financial technology
company offering banking services. Company is founded in 2015 by Nikolay storonsky and Vlad
Yatsenko. Company is planning to expand their business to India. This report highlights the
various strategies and Approaches Company needs to take into consideration to prepare and train
their employees to work for overseas locations. In addition to this various challenges faced by
the employees and to overcome them is also highlighted in this report.
Main Body
Describe the strategies and approaches taken to prepare and train employees to work in overseas
locations
Human resource management is one of the essential strategic approach used by the
business organisation in order to manage the workforce of the organisation which lead to gaining
competitive advantage into the market. In order to enhance the productivity and profitability for
the business and also continue to grow it is very essential for the business organisation to manage
their workforce effectively. In order to manage and control the human resource various strategies
can be used by the business. The strategic human resource management is the defined as the
process of implementing required human resource program which helps business to solve their
problems and achieve their desired goals. Strategic human resource management will allow
business organisation to implement effective and essential strategy in order to achieve desired
goals and objective (Analoui, 2018). In context to the Revolut, it is an well established financial
technology company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Company has well developed
and dedicated human resource department continuously working towards managing the
workforce of the organisation and motivating them towards achieving desired goals and
objectives effectively which leads to enhancing the overall objective of the organisation. The
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company is planning to internationalise their business into the international market. But this
internationalisation requires business to send their employees to overseas location which can be
temporarily or permanently (Brunt and Akingbola, 2019). So before sending the employees to
the overseas location to work on the projects which can last for year or more, it becomes very
essential for the business organisation to prepare and trained their employees for the successful
completion of the work without any barriers. In context to the chosen company the human
resource department can use various strategies and approaches in order to trained and prepare
their employees for the overseas operations as discussed below:
Training: The training is one of the most essential elements used by the human resource
manager in order to prepare employees to work overseas on the international projects. The
training mainly includes the cultural components which allow expatriates to learn the cultural
difference (Warner, 2020). There are mainly five components of training an individual for
overseas projects, in context to the chosen company which are discussed below:
Language: One of the most essential training that should be given to the employees is
training on the language, which is an essential factor in the success of the assignment. Each
country has their own native language which can create a barrier for the expatriates, human
resource manager needs to ensure that essential training on the language is given to the
employees for the successful completion of the assignment. In case of Revolut, the company
needs to ensure that their employees are give training on the language of the country they are
planning to expand.
Culture: The another one is the cultural training, in order to prepare employees for the
overseas location the cultural training is most essential for them, it helps them to understand
what norms are in an a specific culture, which mostly comes from the history, early experience
and values. Not having proper understanding of the culture can lead to the failure of the business.
in context to the chosen company the manager needs to ensure that expatriates are given proper
training on the culture of the chosen company in order to prepare them for the
internationalisation (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018).
Goal setting: The another one is the training on goals for the expatriates which is very
important, it is very important for the manager to analyse the goals of employees and help them
to achieve their goals, as mostly clear understanding of what is needed to be achieved by them
will help them to move towards success and growth. In case of chosen company the employees
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needs to prepare in order to have clear understanding of their goals so as to achieve overall
success.
Managing family and stress level: For an expatriates employees while working on the
overseas project one of the essential factor is managing family and stress level, the manager
needs to ensure that employees are well prepared and able to handle their stress level, in context
to the company employees need to be trained to be able to adjust well (Knezović, 2018).
Repatriation: The last is the repatriation, this is the process of helping employees to get
adjusted when they return their native place after completion of the project as may employees
face the reverse culture shock when they return home which can lead to employees leaving the
organisation, manager needs to ensure that effective training is given to the employees when they
return. In case of selected firm, proper training and counselling needs to be give to the employees
before they leave and even after they return in order to get better results.
Compensation and rewards: Another strategy that can be used by the human resource
manager in order to train and prepare employees for the overseas project can be providing
attractive compensation and rewards. If company wants their employees to work on the
international projects the regional pay banding will not be enough. In order to motivate
employees and prepare them for the international market can be to pay them equal or same
company wide and offer them an allowance according to the particular market situation in every
country (Tasie, 2018). This strategy used by the manager is known as the balance sheet
approach, this approach will allow expatriates, to have similar standard of living as of their
native place. In case of selected firm, the manager needs to ensure that while using this approach
the four main essential group of expenses are covered such as income taxes, housing, goods and
services, base salary and overseas premiums to prepare and motivate expatriates employees
(Kruasom, 2018).
Performance evaluations: Another approach that can be used by the manager in order
employees for the overseas location is the performance evaluation. The performance of the
expatriates needs to be continuously measured in order to provide them required training to
improve their skills required as per the project assigned and motivate them to work more harder
to achieve desired goals and objective. In case of chosen firm, them needs to ensure that
employees are evaluated and their performance is regularly evaluated in order to motivate them
towards achieving desired goals and objectives effectively.
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Analyse the challenges employees often face when working overseas
When business organisation decides to internationalise their business and send employees
to work on the overseas project, it becomes very essential for the business organisation to train
and prepare their employees to work in the international market because there are number of
challenges available often faced by the employees when working abroad (Moutinho and Vargas-
Sanchez, 2018). In context to the Revolut, some of the challenges that an expatriates can often
face while working abroad are as follow:
Language barrier: one of the major challenge faced by the expatriates while working on
the international project is the language barrier, each country has their own language and
adopting to new language can create a challenge for the expatriates, in order to communicate
your ideas and befriend with the locals of the new country is very important as well as
understanding the language of the other country can be helpful for the expatriates to carry out his
project effectively. But whereas not understanding the language can create a huge challenge.
Cultural barrier: Another challenge that is faced by the expatriates is the cultural
barriers, the culture is the norms, value prevailing in the country which act as the overall brand
image of the particular country (Skorkova and TARIŠKOVÁ, 2018). Not adopting to the culture
or not working according to the norms of the culture can lead to the failure of the business. thus
it becomes very essential for the employees of the chosen company to understand cultural norms
of the particular country.
Safety and security: The another challenge face by the expatriates is the safety and
security, for an expatriates employee working on the overseas project the personal safety
becomes the top most priority. The security challenges are becoming the major concern for the
expatriates such as terrorism, assaults and so on, the manager of the chosen organisation needs to
ensure that the safety and security of their expatriates employees so that they can feel safe and
secure, this challenge will directly influence their functioning in the overseas market.
Fitting in: when an employee is assigned an new project overseas he has to move to the
country and the major challenge that an employee can face is the challenge of fitting in the new
country, it is the challenge for the employee to easily get adjusted into the new country can easily
get adapted to the new challenges easily as an expatriates employees has to move to the overseas
countries and leave their well adopted culture and the society behind and adapt to the new norms
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and values which will have direct impact on the expatriates employees (Salim, 2020). And
because of all these factors major employees have the fear of fitting in the new country.
In context to the chosen organisation the above mentioned challenges can directly create
barrier for the expatriates to easily adapt to the new environment and successfully complete his
or her project. In order to successfully complete the project the company needs to evaluate and
analyse the challenges and needs to take required actions.
Discuss how management and HR practices that can help in coping with the difficulties
In order to successfully compete the project it becomes very essential for the business
organisation to carefully analyse the challenges faced by the expatriates and take required actions
by the management and the human resource manager. In context to the chosen organisation the
human resource manager needs to ensure that they are sending the right person for the overseas
project in order to reduce the chances of barriers such as the individual having the hard skills
does not mean that he is the right person to send abroad, the person with the cultural flexibility
who can easily adapt to the new culture needs to be selected by the manager (Shahzad, 2020). In
addition to this the enthusiastic communicator who is always ready to learn new thing and easily
learn new language needs to be selected for the overseas projects. The human resource manager
needs to ensure that before sending employees to abroad for the overseas project they are
provided with the required expat training in order to prepare and train them for the future goal
effectively. The human resource manager needs to provide essential per- assignment training to
the expatriate employee for the successful completion of the project. Furthermore the human
resource manager and the management needs to provide required expat support to the expatriates
employees as lack of local support can lead to overall expatriate failure, thus the management
needs to ensure that expatriates employees are provided with local support and also providing
them with required information about the home country (Shen and Zhang, 2019). Proper training
and development of the expatriates employees can lead to overall enhancement of the
organisation and can lead to successful completion of the project. In context to the chosen
organisation, the above mentioned measures need to be adopted for successful
internationalisation of the company into the new market effectively.
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Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that human resource is one of the essential part of
the management in controlling and managing workforce of the organisation, and in order to do so
various strategies and plan are implemented. This report highlights the various strategies and
approaches adopted by the company to train and prepare their employee, so as to expand their
business into the international market so that they can effectively work in the overseas location.
In addition to this various challenges that can be faced by employees while working abroad and
how to overcome them is also highlighted in this report.
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References
Books and Journals
Analoui, F. ed., 2018. Human resource management issues in developing countries. Routledge.
Brunt, C. and Akingbola, K., 2019. How Strategic are resource-dependent organisations?
Experience of an international NGO in Kenya. The European Journal of Development
Research, 31(2), pp.235-252.
Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2018. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
Human Kinetics.
Knezović, E., 2018. THE INFLUENCE OF STRATEGIC HR PRACTICES ON
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN MICRO COMPANIES. Economic Review:
Journal of Economics & Business/Ekonomska Revija: Casopis za Ekonomiju i
Biznis, 16(2).
Kruasom, T., 2018. Multinational Management: A Strategic Approach. Journal of Management
Science, Ubon Ratchathani University, 7(14), pp.110-110.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Salim, A.M., 2020. In-service Trainings and Desired Performance of Academic Staffs in Higher
Learning Institutions: Challenging Strategic Human Resource Development
Perspective. International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, 30(2), pp.468-476.
Shahzad, M.U., 2020. Green Human Resource Management and its Strategic Importance in the
Modern Era: A Review and Research Framework. IJEBD (International Journal Of
Entrepreneurship And Business Development), 3(4), pp.484-493.
Shen, J. and Zhang, H., 2019. Socially responsible human resource management and employee
support for external CSR: roles of organizational CSR climate and perceived CSR
directed toward employees. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(3), pp.875-888.
Skorkova, Z. and TARIŠKOVÁ, N., 2018. STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT IN SLOVAKIA. Ad Alta: Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 8(2).
Tasie, G.O., 2018. Economic development and strategic human resource development: The case
of Southeast Asia. International Journal of Advances in Agriculture Sciences.
Warner, M. ed., 2020. Human resource management in China revisited. Routledge.
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