Think Globally,

Act Locally

Why you need a global management strategy

Introduction

Globalization continues to be a driving force in today’s business environment. Relaxation of trade

barriers, growth of labor migration, steady technological advancements, and the relentless push to

support the bottom line have led an increasing number of businesses to expand operations beyond

their country’s borders.1 Over the past 20 years, world trade has expanded by an average of 6.5 percent

per annum, and the weight of emerging markets in the global economy has become increasingly

prominent.2 In fact, during the next decade, emerging economies will begin to account for more than

half of global GDP — and are projected to account for 65 percent by 2030.3

With globalization comes increased complexity and risk — especially when it comes to workforce

management. Businesses that expand to new geographies must rethink how they build and manage

a cohesive, high-performing workforce that spans cultures, countries, and regions. As organizations

stake their growth strategies on global expansion and pursuit of new markets, their abilities to forge

a human capital strategy and human resource capabilities that are both globally consistent and

locally relevant will be critical to sustained success.4

At the same time, fiscal realities are driving multinational organizations to seek new ways to increase

efficiencies across their global workforce. Following the Great Recession, businesses set out to reduce

operational costs, focusing first on simple expense-line trimming. Now they are looking beyond the

low-hanging fruit to business areas like workforce management, where standardization and

optimization can have significant bottom-line impact.

Benefits of a global workforce

management strategy include:

• Standardization of processes, policies, and technology across all geographies

• Consistent policy enforcement — to the extent possible — for reduced compliance risk

• Improved global visibility for smarter decisions and better business outcomes

• Fewer administrative errors — with a single, centralized source of truth

• Faster deployment and lower development, implementation, and training costs

This white paper discusses how a single, consistent workforce management strategy that spans your global operations can drive standardization, reduce risk, and improve visibility for a strong competitive advantage and better business outcomes.

Lay the foundation for successful global

workforce management

When managing a workforce across multiple geographies — whether through strategic expansion, merger, acquisition, or offshoring — standardization assumes a new level of importance. After all, global workforce management is a complex undertaking. Siloed business processes, varying organizational structures, disparate systems and architectures, integration challenges, and inconsistent training and communication approaches can stand in the way of implementing a centralized and unified workforce management program that spans your global operations. Without standardization, it can be difficult to support and maintain your workforce management infrastructure, drive process consistency and repeatability, and control HR administrative costs for increased business efficiency and value. To address these issues, most businesses benefit from defining consistent and standardized processes and consolidating transaction processing to create HR services flexible enough to adapt as the company grows.6

A global strategy built on standardization lays a strong foundation for effective, efficient, and consistent workforce management — whether your organization has employees in three countries or 30. Why is a global approach so important? A regional or national focus often results in fragmentation and operational redundancy. By giving each region the ability to pay, reward, and develop people differently, HR processes and functions themselves can end up compromising the global strategy rather than enabling it.7

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Share of global GDP: Emerging economies versus developed economies,

1990-2030 (US$ trillion at 2005 prices and purchasing power parity)

63%

37%

62%

38%

52%

48%

43%

57%

35%

65%

1990 2000 2010 2020f

2030f

Source: Accenture/Oxford Economics5

Emerging economies

Developed economies

To minimize compliance risk, it’s important to take into account local policies and institutions, such as the European Working Time Directive or works councils in Germany, as you implement or expand your workforce management program. A diverse and distributed workforce means that compliance issues now extend far beyond local, state, and national borders, and failing to comply with constantly changing regulations can result in significant fines and legal action while eroding employee morale.8 When conducting workforce planning, HR must do the research required to understand the nuances of the laws and customs in each of the regions where it operates and ensure that it is treating all employees, including part-time, temporary, and remote workers, legally.9

Given the high stakes involved in workforce compliance, it’s not surprising that most multinational executives are turning to a management structure that combines the benefits of globally consistent policies on the one hand and local relevance on the other. In other words, they have an HR approach that is both super global and super local.10

A global strategy built on standardization lays a strong foundation for effective, efficient, and consistent workforce management across your multinational operations.

Focus on areas that benefit most from standardization

Your global strategy should focus on key workforce management areas — such as time and attendance, forecasting and scheduling — where standardization can deliver the most value. This is especially critical if your organization is low on the workforce management maturity curve and still relying on manual processes and homegrown systems, which may differ across geographies. For example, when assessing your global workforce management program, you may realize that an unstructured time and attendance policy by which large numbers of employees being paid off manual reports is putting you at risk for costly payroll errors, compliance issues, and administrative rework.

When tracking employee time, calculating pay, and distributing leave, consistency is critical. No matter where in the world they work, managers and employees need to understand the underlying policies and trust that they are being applied fairly through a centralized, automated system that presents a single version of the truth. By integrating timekeeping with scheduling, forecasting, and other core HR functions, you can gain further insight into employee productivity and labor costs, enabling you to make informed decisions that increase efficiency and boost the bottom line.11

The process of developing a global workforce management strategy, including the definition of worldwide standards, presents an opportunity to better understand your policies, processes, and systems; to identify silos and risks; and to gain new insight through careful assessment and analysis. When value is driven by consistency and standardized operations (HR transactions, for example, or training that provides a functional workforce with common skills), a company needs global policies, services, and technology platforms. But when value is driven by the needs and variations of specific markets — sourcing talent, motivating, rewarding — a company needs to be intensely local in its focus.12

A proven global workforce management framework

With a comprehensive framework in place to address business processes, roles and responsibilities, naming conventions, technical architecture, system configuration, integrations, and education, you can achieve high levels of standardization that drive efficiencies and cost savings across the global enterprise. A global workforce management strategy and framework also improves corporate governance and employee engagement by enabling fair, consistent enforcement of policies enterprisewide, while providing built-in flexibility to accommodate local requirements.

Key considerations for global workforce

management automation

In today’s business environment, technology plays a critical role in strategy execution. Increasingly, business executives are pursuing common, global systems for HR information and processing as a means to achieve the kind of consistency that overcomes regional limitations. However, such work must also be accompanied by the redesign of HR processes to achieve both consistency and local relevance.13

Defining and implementing an enterprisewide system to support your global workforce management strategy requires careful upfront planning and consensus building. Under the guidance of executive leadership, key contributors from across your global organization must reach agreement on critical elements and standards related to workforce management processes and automation, including:

Global Business Processes and Roles: A detailed breakdown of all business processes and personas/roles within your workforce management environment drives consistency and repeatability across all global deployments. Standardizing role and process definitions helps ensure, for example, that frontline managers worldwide have the same time management responsibilities and that processes for resolving exceptions, approving time cards, and signing off on payroll hours are the same across all locations.

Configuration: Standardization of foundational configuration elements — from system settings, naming conventions, and labor levels to working types, rounding standards, and pay codes — builds consistency into your global system implementation and accelerates rollouts in new geographies. In addition, a standard base-level configuration will reduce ongoing support costs.

Establishment

of global best

practices

Local business

requirements

gathering

Solution build/

unit testing

Preparation for

in-country rollout

In-country

rollout

• Define global strategy

• Establish future global business processes

• Establish core common system parameters

• Establish global IT architecture and integration strategy to support rollout

• Detailed workshop with in-country business representatives

• Build each country instance individually using core parameters and local requirements

• Unit testing to docu-ment requirements

• AT testing with coun-try representatives

• Training for management/in-country HR/payroll

• Hardware installation

• Initial data load

• Wave or general rollout according to organization size

• On-site support during go-live

• Focused support to managers

User Interface Design: Clearly defined user-interface standards drive consistency in how users navigate functions, complete tasks, access information, and run reports within the workforce management system — regardless of where in the world they work.

Integration: Defining standardized methods for integrating with other enterprise systems and data sources — from human resources and enterprise resource planning to point of sale or finance — helps ensure seamless access to current data across your global operations for better insights and decision making.

User Adoption: A repeatable training approach that includes standardized communications, role-based curriculum, materials, and learning paths helps optimize user adoption and proficiency across multiple geographies.

Change Management: Taking proactive steps to plan for transition helps overcome obstacles and drive new behaviors, including how intended users perform tasks using workforce management technology. Change management initiatives are critical for preparing and aligning your global organization for successful strategy execution.

Keys to successful change management

Clearly define the business goals for your project Communicate the change

• Let employees know why the change is needed

• Show alignment with business strategy to increase leadership participation and buy-in

• Develop consistent messages with clear and compelling reasons for the change

• Tailor the “What’s in it for me?” message to different groups

• Use preferred senders, effective communication vehicles, and two-way forums

Engage leadership in supporting and driving

the changeTrain employees to be successful

• Leaders actively and visibly participate throughout the project

• A sponsorship coalition drives change to all levels of the organization

• Leaders communicate their vision to employees and listen to feedback

• Provide training targeted for different groups according to their needs

• Use a variety of training methods before and after launch

Identify individual behavioral changes required by

the projectReinforce the change

• Determine how different groups of employees must change their behaviors

• Categorize users to create targeted communications and training

• Audit for compliance and take corrective action as needed

• Recognize and reward success early and often

Developing a global workforce management strategy presents an opportunity to better understand your policies, processes, and systems; to identify silos and risks; and to gain new insight through careful assessment and analysis.

Take a collaborative approach to global

strategy development

An effective global workforce management strategy — and supporting program — starts with assembling the right team and securing buy-in from the highest levels of the organization through executive sponsorship. Senior leadership must be fully onboard with the idea that the HR component of the business strategy isn’t simply a follow-up measure to consider after the advance team has established a staging ground in a new market; it’s something that must be part and parcel of the globalization vision from the beginning.14 Think about it this way: Your business is essentially establishing a center of global workforce management excellence, which requires commitment from top-level management.

When defining a global strategy and standards, it is also important to include functional experts from different geographies right from the start. In addition to executive leaders, key client participants may include regional and global decision makers from:

• Human resources

• Payroll

• Finance

• Information technology

• Operations

• Frontline management

• Business analysts

This team of subject matter experts must be empowered to make decisions regarding standards, including those related to processes, policies, and systems. In addition, they may be responsible for communicating the global strategy, explaining the importance of standards, and detailing how the new workforce management framework will affect each country or region during a multi-country implementation. This approach avoids cultural clashes by promoting up-front agreement on standards and communicating them clearly and consistently on a global basis.

When defining a global strategy and standards, it’s important to secure executive sponsorship and include contributors across different functions and geographies — right from the start.

How UKG helps drive global workforce

management success

Whether you’re deploying a global workforce management solution for the first time, expanding to multiple geographies, embarking on a standardization program, or simply looking to extend the value of your investment, UKG Global Services is ready to help lay the groundwork for success.

Our proven team of strategic advisors, program managers, solution architects, and business analysts can help you develop an effective global workforce management strategy that aligns with your overall business goals and objectives. With deep, industry-specific expertise and years of experience working with leading global companies, they are uniquely qualified to assess the current and future state of your workforce management program and provide a solution framework that supports your strategic vision moving forward.

Working in close partnership with your organization, the UKG team will apply best practices to drive standardization across your global workforce management environment. They will leverage a shared design, reliable infrastructure, and proven methodologies to manage change, simplify upgrades, and accommodate future growth. The results? Reduced total cost of ownership, improved visibility into the global workforce, and higher return on your global workforce management investment.

Working in close partnership with your organization, the UKG team will apply best practices to drive standardization across your global workforce management environment.

Global workforce management strategy in action

A multinational company with 1,000 locations and 100,000 employees operating in 121 countries deployed and supported multiple different workforce management solutions across the globe, which resulted in higher costs, inefficiencies, and compliance issues.

The company established a centralized workforce management team — staffed with HR, payroll, and operations experts from business segments across its global enterprise — to address this challenge and make recommendations to reduce risk and drive consistent practices worldwide. The team focused on the following goals:

• Assess the business challenge and propose a recommended strategy

• Gain approval from leadership for the recommended strategy

• Implement the approved strategy

• Support ongoing workforce needs beyond deployment of the recommended solution

After working to better understand the prevailing workforce management challenges, the team proposed deployment of a centralized global workforce management solution that would enable the organization to standardize practices across all locations while still meeting local requirements. After receiving approval and funding, the team selected UKG — the only workforce management solution provider with a proven track record of success working with multinational companies across all geographies — to help address the organization’s business challenges. UKG leveraged its global strategic advisory resources to collaborate with the customer to define a strategy and deploy a standardized workforce management solution across all locations.

In addition to driving consistent practices enterprisewide, the UKG global workforce management solution has helped the company improve compliance and reduce overall support costs. UKG continues to work with the customer to ensure the global solution meets its evolving workforce management requirements — even as operations grow and expand.

© 2020 UKG Inc. All rights reserved.For a full list of UKG trademarks, please visit ukg.com/trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their respective owners.

All specifications are subject to change. SV0225-USv1

References:

1. The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, Engaging and Integrating a Global Workforce, SHRM Foundation, February 2015, at 5 and 8.

2. Prof. Dr. Michael Heise, Globalization—Trends and Risks, 2011, found at http://www.agcs.allianz.com/assets/PDFs/riskfeatures/GRD_02_2011_Economic_Trends.pdf.

3. David Gartside, Stefano Griccioli, and Rustin Richburg, Different Strokes: How to Manage a Global Workforce, Accenture, 2011, at 5, found at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-outlook-manage-global-workforce.

4. Ibid, at 1.

5. Ibid, at 3.

6. Ibid, at 5.

7. Ibid, at 4.

8. Oracle, Maximize Your Workforce: Use the Most Effective Strategy for Managing Time, Labor, and Leave, 2014, at 4, found at http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/human-capital-management/workforce-management-2288377.pdf.

9. The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, Engaging and Integrating a Global Workforce, SHRM Foundation, February 2015, at 44.

10. David Gartside, Stefano Griccioli, and Rustin Richburg, Different Strokes: How to Manage a Global Workforce, Accenture, 2011, at 4-5, found at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-outlook-manage-global-workforce.

11. Oracle, Maximize Your Workforce: Use the Most Effective Strategy for Managing Time, Labor, and Leave, 2014, at 5, found at http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/human-capital-management/workforce-management-2288377.pdf.

12. David Gartside, Stefano Griccioli, and Rustin Richburg, Different Strokes: How to Manage a Global Workforce, Accenture, 2011, at 5, found at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-outlook-manage-global-workforce.

13. Ibid., at 8.

14. Ibid., at 8.