1. Align the HR Function with the Organization’s Global Business Strategy
Apply a global mindset to your HR priorities.
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2. Our understanding of the problem
Organizations on the brink of expanding their operations globally.
HR leaders looking to optimize and align their HR function in the context of globalization.
Align HR principles to global business strategy.
Make decisions around three key global HR issues.
Audit your HR capabilities within a global context.
Determine your global HR transition priorities.
Organizations that are already global but have opportunities to improve their HR function effectiveness on a global scale.
Optimize current practices for greater impact.
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3. Executive Summary SAMPLE
Organizations globalize to leverage new markets, lower labor and operational costs, and skills in short supply in their traditional locations.
An increasingly geographically dispersed workforce is impacting how HR approaches its own role. HR co-location with employees is no longer a given, affecting interactions, policies, and processes.
Understanding the organization’s strategy is the first step in developing an effective, aligned, and strategic HR function.
Global HR functions must be fully aligned with the organization’s HR strategy to be successful. This means adopting new global HR capabilities as well as determining the right global vs. local balance for all HR activities.
A misaligned HR function can derail globalization efforts.
Only 40% of HR professionals reported that HR-business alignment was a top or medium priority for their organization in This number is far too low, and creates risk for global HR operations.*
It is critical to instill a global mindset in order for HR to have a clear global vision, minimize cultural conflict, and strengthen global management capabilities.
*Source: McLean & Company, 2013; N=94.
Integrate a global mindset by embracing the idea that there are differences between the global and local levels, and that these differences should be acknowledged and leveraged as a strategic business advantage.
Determine what will be controlled globally vs. customized locally, how to shift some HR responsibilities onto line managers or outsourcers, and identify which HR activities can be performed virtually and which require local HR presence.
Integrate a global mindset throughout your HR function and broader organization.
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4. Guided Implementation
McLean & Company offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
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5. Use McLean’s Model to Align Your HR Function to the Global Business Strategy
Align HR principles to global business strategy
Make decisions around three key global HR issues
Audit your global HR capabilities
Determine your global HR transition priorities 3 4 1 2
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6. Sample Slides
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7. A strategically aligned global HR function improves cost effectiveness and increases relevance
The business, HR function, and employees all benefit from a strategically aligned global HR operation.
HR will operate more cost effectively because it will:
Have greater, data-driven insight into both global and local cost patterns.
Operate more efficiently by reducing redundancies, reconciling conflicting agendas, and eliminating waste.
Source and develop local talent more effectively.
Globalization presents HR with an opportunity to transform itself. How?
If it hasn’t done so already, globalization presents the perfect opportunity for HR to separate the strategic and administrative aspects of its operations to allow both to function better.
For more information, refer to McLean & Company’s solution set Build HR Capabilities.
HR will remain relevant to the business and employees because it will:
Create a shared corporate identity and culture that doesn’t devalue the role or perspectives of those in local operations.
Understand the impact of global decisions on local operations and people.
Understand the impact of local work realities on the business’ ability to achieve long-term global strategies.
Provide development and other programs that are designed to meet the needs of a diverse range of workers.
Identify knowledge and innovation that emerge at the local level, and ensure these are shared with others globally.
…HR effectiveness arises not only from the aggregate talent of the organization’s employees, but also from the coordinated deployment of this talent across the global organization’s network of relationships. The efficiency of this type of relational co-ordination is in turn a function of the global organization’s culture context.
– Source: Timothy Kiessling and Michael Harvey, International Journal of Human Resource Management
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8. Identify where the organization is or will be operating in order to align HR with local realities and constraints B
Organizational complexity increases with the number of countries in which the business operates. This poses challenges for the HR function.
Start by identifying where your organization is currently operating, or where it plans to operate.
The way in which American, Canadian, and British multinationals have globalized is different to the way that German multinationals have globalized, or Japanese.
And if you look to the future, we will have a number of new multinationals from Brazil, from India, and from China. And the way they will think about the globalization journey will not be the same way that we thought about it.
– Professor Paul Sparrow, Director, Centre for Performance-Led HR
Project up to three years into the future – this provides a realistic planning timeframe.
You might not yet have a precise idea of the countries in which your firm will operate. Go with your best guess.
Group together countries with similar cultural environments or in close geographical proximity to each other into regions.
Asia
North America
Europe
Africa
Oceania
South America
See “Determine the degree of structural centralization” for more information on organizational design, which includes strategy, structure, culture, people, roles and process.
Where your headquarters are located has a big impact on the dominant organizational culture, as well as your global HR approach. Western-headquartered businesses tend to have a greater degree of centralized control.
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9. McLean & Company Helps HR Professionals To:
Empower management to apply HR best practices
Develop effective talent acquisition & retention strategies
Build a high performance culture
Maintain a progressive set of HR policies & procedures
Demonstrate the business impact of HR
Stay abreast of HR trends & technologies 
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– Jennifer Rozon, Vice President, McLean & Company
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