International Business Assignment: Challenges in Staffing Foreign Operations

Question

Task: Prepare a report on international business assignment describing the challenges involved in staffing foreign operations, assessing needs for training and development, and designing appropriate strategies to meet those needs.

Answer

Executive summary
In this international business assignment, the major points that are discussed are the various challenges faced in the field of the international workforce, the need for training and development in the context of facing the challenges, and designing the appropriate strategies to meet the needs of the training and development programs.

The challenges have been elaborately discussed, along with the solutions needed. It has also been discussed that training and development programs are needed essentially for improving the skills and talents of the employees. The strategies that are needed to design an efficient training and development program have been explained in detail in the report. The effectiveness of the strategies in designing the training and development programs are mentioned in a well-structured manner in the report.

Introduction- The process of recruitment, training, selection, development, and promotion of the workforce is known as staffing. The estimation of the number of personnel required for an organisation is included in the process of staffing. The capability and performance of the recruited staff are maintained throughout the process. Staffing helps in improving the job satisfaction of the worker. International staffing faces a lot of problems, and an adequate amount of training and development programs are required to overcome the issues (Waxin et al., pp.99-113).

Discussion
International staffing is a crucial step in the process of global expansion. In order to move into a new market, recruitment of local contractors or employees is required; this ensures the effective and efficient growth of the organisation (Jeong and B, 2018, pp.261-271).

Challenges faced
Five major challenges are faced by organisations while moving recruiting employees internationally:

a) Workforce expertise
The organisation must ensure that the employees in the target country have the appropriate skillset which is needed to support the organisation. The target country might be lacking people who have sufficient knowledge of the organisation itself and individuals with the ability to operate profitably in the local surroundings. The aforementioned points should be kept in mind for a smoother business drive with efficient recruitment.

b) Control and management
The business on the ground in the target country can be formed in different ways. The organisation may move to whichever country, but the head office must have control and coordination on the particular branch.

c) Tax concession
The organisation might acquire a corporate turnover tax liability due to the existence of the workforce in the target country.
d) Payroll and employee benefits
Wages, benefits, and other reimbursements are needed to be appropriately set for the contractor market and the workforce in the target country
e) Intellectual equity and non-compete clauses

It is important to define whether employment outputs will be the assets of the contractor or workforce or whether they appertain to the organisation itself.

Assessing needs for training and development
Training is a process of development of the employees by boosting their skills and developing their behaviour (Manresa Bikfalvi and Simon, 2019, pp.421-444). The skills needed by the employees for doing their assigned jobs are mainly technical and managerial skills. Both the new and existing employees require training to develop their skillsets (Frolov, 2020, pp.1-6). An overall personal advancement is brought about by the right kind of training. Importance of training and development:

i. Learning time reduction
ii. Enhanced performance
iii. Reduction in supervision
iv. Enhances morale of the employees
v. Promotes organisational balance and flexibility
vi. Improves employee skills, capability, and talents.
vii. Reduction in accidents
viii. Optimisation of raw materials and resources
ix. Enhanced production

Development
Development is a constant process that enables and employees to refresh their information knowledge and competence. The development aims to enhance the abilities of the employees related to some job or position in the future. Development helps in brushing up the skills and talents of the new as well as the existing employees. Training and development programs help employees to get a clear view of the expectations of the organisation. Managing time is also a crucial skill for an organisation, the development programs provide the employees with an opportunity to increase efficiency, and thus, management of time is done precisely by them. The aim is to enhance not only the quantitative index but also to administer a well-formed competence format. Strategies to meet the needs for training and development

a) Overall business strategy alignment
The alignment of the business strategy with the training and development strategy must be ensured as every organisation's training, and development requirements are unique.

b) Organisational preferences
The training and development strategy must be made an organisational priority. Senior officers should be provided with adequate budget, support, and resources to drive their professional improvement.

c) Considering the use of resources
In order to develop an effective corporate training package and leadership enhancement programs, considerations regarding the use of resources should be included in the training and development program (Rohayati and Wulandari, 2017, pp.2-8).

d) Assessment of internal stakeholder
An assessment of the internal stakeholders must be conducted to understand their requirements from the training and development program. Advantages can be gained by making them a part of the training and development process (Nawaz, 2018, pp.1084-1096).

e) Accessibility of corporate training tools and techniques
The best training and development tools must be considered within the organisation to ensure a better outcome of the program (Paulin et al., 2020, pp.4-20). Leadership coaching, leadership exercises, real-world training in global hotspots are some of the best tools valuable for centralised corporate learning.

f) Recruitment of employees and their retention
Training and development strategies should be developed with the concept that recruitment and retention of employees are interrelated, and the program should contribute to the value proposition to the staff.

g) Future requirements
The future of the training and development strategy should be considered prior to the development of the strategies (Maity, 2019, pp.651-663). The training and development strategy should evolve according to the evolution of the needs of the market and with the enhancement of the training resources and tools.

Literature Review
According to Kim etal. (2019, pp.269-284), In order to be successful, each subordinate of an multinational enterprise should be able to get obtain to the proficiency from organisationalheadquarters (HQ) as well as regional external clients. As the organisational managers are being provided with the dual plantations, they should be able to use the source information effectively in relation to the regional context. The matter of international staffing has captivated noticeable consideration in the domains of businesses done internationally. In international staffing, the organization may not consider the nationalities of the individuals but also their previous international experiences.

According to Shimp (2017, pp.239-258), the approach of the organisations related to staffing should be innovative and creative, which allows them for professional development, education, and empowerment. In order to encourage staff retention and recruitment, staff morale should be increased, and the control of the staff over their work conditions should be improved too. Lifelong learning opportunities should be provided to increase staff retention and decrease turnover.

According to Lakshman, Lakshman, and Cristophe (2017, pp.233-250), it has been noted from various researches that the field of global staffing is undergoing dynamic changes, which were disregarded previously. The use of host-country managers has been increased by present multinational corporations. Though it is very important to achieve congruence between international human resources and global business strategies, not much empirical work has been done in this field.

Conclusion
From the study of the aforementioned topics, important data regarding international staffing has been derived and it can be concluded that international staffing is one of the key factors contributing to the global expansion of an organisation.Almost every multinational company is trying to be a part of the process of globalisation for their survival and it is very important for the companies to shift their subsidiaries to the international market for the enhancement and improvement of their global presence. But, international staffing is not easy to carry forward; it faces various challenges in recruiting and maintaining the workforce in the foreign market. A very well strategised training and development module should be introduced in order to make the employees work efficiently. The training and development programs will not only help in increasing the skills of the employees but also will help in boosting their morale and competence. The organisations should develop their strategies prior to the recruitment process in order to recruit people the appropriate for the job and alongside to develop the skillsets of the existing employees.

References
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KIM, C., CHUNG, C. and BREWSTER, C., 2019. Beyond nationality: International experience as a key dimension for subsidiary staffing choices in MNEs.

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