Global Human Resource Strategy and Main HR Issues Facing United Health International - Case Study Example

HR Strategies for United Health International Table of Contents Question 3 Main HR Issues facing United Health International (UHI) 3 HR Strategies for Resolving the UHI Issues 4 Question 2 7 Global Human Resource Strategy for UHI 7 Reference List 12 Question 1 Main HR Issues facing United Health International (UHI) United Health International is a global NGO (Non Government Organization) functioning in twenty-four countries. It was formed through the merger of two different NGOs, one situated in Canada and another in Austria. The Austrian Non Government Organization was concerned mainly with health procedures, non-medical staff training, and medical supplies. The Canadian Non Government Organization was concerned principally for conveying front-line services related to health and responding to the health emergencies in difficult environments. United Health International has two head offices, in Montreal and Vienna. The two Non Government Organizations were merged to offer a sustainable facility by joining up long term emergency and developmental response services. Both headquarters offices are maintained to keep prevailing connections with private and public sponsors and also with other Non Government Organizations in the areas concerned. The two areas of United Health International have dissimilar methods of operation and diverse approaches towards staffing. United Health International Montreal functions in five different languages with an extremely diverse global employee most of whom are on the contracts of short term. The Montreal headquarters is geared towards quick reaction, drawing on a wide group of experts at short notice. They depend on regular contractors and medical volunteers and also have unskilled volunteers on the support roles. There are strains among management and core experts who dislike the broad standards and rules which have been set up to protect the United Health International from the legal challenge. The core experts encompass experience in West Africa and Latin America markets but little in Middle East, East Africa or South East Asia. These are the main regions where the UHI is failing behind other suppliers and also losing its international profile. The Vienna headquarter operates through a narrow group of wholly employed staff. There are comparatively few unqualified assistants working for this office. The Montreal office is facing difficulties in retaining qualified neighbouring employees because most of them have moved to other NGOs or the private sector within a year of appointment. The Vienna offices comprise few volunteers and more number of local staff, but all main roles are occupied by the expatriates. The local staffs are selected for the technical qualifications and all the development and training task is done by means of expatriates. This is because the managers think that the locally employed experts would not encompass the mixture of participatory flexibility and technical proficiency needed for the work. There is a thought that widening employment for main roles would need establishing an uncongenial reporting system and performance management that would not appropriate with the present culture, which underlines methods and shared experts’ values. The administration at Montreal is in support of the system of performance management, even if it is disliked by its qualified agents as well as considered irrelevant or intimidating by volunteers. There exist gender dissimilarities between both headquarters even though both of them are in support of gender fairness; women are inclined to be symbolized at a senior rank in administrative roles rather than main management roles because the latter is likely to be employed from male who have experience in the roles of expatriate over several years. HR Strategies for Resolving the UHI Issues United Health International is facing several issues related to human resources management. In order to solve these issues several HR strategies could be put into practice. The HR strategies are discussed below: Recruitment and hiring the correct people: Recruitment normally refers to the method of recognizing and attracting qualified personnel in order to apply for unfilled positions (Cullen and Parboteeah, 2009). United Health International should look for the people who are interested and intrinsically motivated in growing their skills as well as careers. They should also clearly establish their expectations from the employees at the time of recruitment so that dissatisfaction on both sides could be avoided. It is equally crucial to understand the culture of the organization and how prospective employment fit into it (Careeronestop, 2014). Recruiting and training programmes will facilitate in developing the skills of employees of United Health International and to gain more experience. The organization should hire employees on the contracts of long term rather than short term. Orientation and on boarding: Fair treatment of employees in the significant initial stages of recruitment has been demonstrated to boost retention. It has been seen that the organization was giving more importance to male employees in comparison to the female employees. United Health International should treat all employees equally irrespective of their gender. They should not do the gender differences because this creates the feeling of inferiority among the employees. So, the management should offer equal responsibilities and roles to both male and female based on their knowledge and skills and not on their gender. Training and development: Training and growth are the main factors which help in the growth of the employees with the company as well as stay profitable in their respective field. Training programmes will help to develop the skills of unqualified volunteers of United Health International who are on the support roles. It will help the employees to carry out the main functions of the organization and then there will be no need of the expatriates. Pay and benefits: These are one of the important human resource strategies which increase the performance of the employees. While today most of the staffs rate the factors for example career growth higher than compensation, benefits and good pay still count. Employees expect their payment according to their performance and efforts they put in their task. If United Health International will provide training programme to the staffs to improve their performance and should also pay handsome reward according to their performance. It will involve no hiring of expatriate when the local staffs will themselves perform well. Good system for performance evaluation: Both the employees and the organization gain from knowing precisely where they actually stand relative to the expectations of one another. By sharing and monitoring outcomes, it becomes apparent which staffs are meeting performance expectations. Evaluation will provide United Health International with the opportunity to recognize as well as reward excellence, which is regarded as a main aspect of staff or employee retention. A positive feedback is expected by the employees and they prefer to leave the organization if they are not getting adequate compensation (Leddy, 2014). Good communication skills: There should be good communication skills between employees and managers so that the expectations between them can be frankly established. Employees normally does not give up on the organization, they give up on their supervisors or managers (Leddy, 2014). The effective internal communication between supervisors and the employees of United Health International guarantees that the staffs will stay with the company. The workforce require to be reminded and to know on a daily basis how the company is doing as well as what the employees can do in order to help increase the output of company. Good communication skills will help to resolve the tensions between core specialists and the management of United Health International. Offer staff a career growth plan and a career path: This will permit the staffs to have an enhanced vision of long term of their growing role in the organization. It will also let the organization to show their commitment towards developing the talent of the employees, which benefits employees as well as the organization. If employees contain gaps in the experiences or skills, a career growth plan allow the employee to understand that the organization wants to seal that gap as well as prepare them for the subsequent step. In this way, staffs don’t feel trapped and without the prospective of growth in the organization (Rudani, 2011). By offering a career growth plan, the United Health International could retain existing staffs. Before setting the standards and rules it should be well communicated to the core experts so that there doesn’t arise any conflict between the experts and management. Recognition program: United Health International should include a recognition program which celebrates staffs with exceptional performance. Anyone who performs beyond their assigned task deserves recognition. UNI should reward their employees on the basis of their good conduct and performance. This will help to generate a culture where each one desires to become a part of it. Further, managers should look for the opportunities to appreciate the employees informally. These are the moments remembered by the employees and those who consider valued generally respond through offering their faithfulness to the organization (Armstrong, 2006). Customize work expectations and benefits for each employee: This requires ample time and endeavour to recognize the particular requirement of each employee in a better manner. Different staffs desire dissimilar things, so providing the similar benefits and working situations to all will certainly create dissatisfaction. Therefore the companies should offer benefit package suitable for their performance and efforts (Leddy, 2014). This strategy will help the United Health International to retain their existing local staff, who moved to other Non Government Organization and private sector Resolving conflict situation: There are strains among management and core experts who dislike the broad standards and rules which have been set up to protect the United Health International from the legal challenge. To manage argument effectively, the managers of United Health International must be a skilful communicator. It includes generating an environment of open communication in the business unit thereby encouraging staffs to discuss about their work issues. Listening to staff concerns will promote open environment in the workplace. Multiple alternatives should be provided to the employees to solve their issues. If the disagreement is leading to disturbance in the division and it stays unresolved, UNI require discovering other avenues. Employee Ombuds office might be capable to present other insights on resolving or explaining the problem. In most of the cases the disagreement becomes a presentation issue, and might become a subject for performance appraisals, coaching sessions, and disciplinary actions (Berkeley, 2014). Question 2 Global Human Resource Strategy for UHI A global human resource strategy is required for the United Health International in order to make best use of the talents and maximize human resources value on an international basis. The global strategy will enable to promote the utilization and development of human resources globally, including the institution of leadership values for managers. The international human resource strategies include: By cooperating with every division, the United Health International should execute a talent management procedure by organizing individual growth plans for skilled workers who will play main roles and take additional responsibilities in the growth of profits and revenues overseas. Through these proposals, the UHI can reinforce the recruitment, growth, and exploitation of staffs who will add to international business development (Shukla, 2009). The UHI can invite talents from all over the world to add in their success. The employees who would be recruited will be provided with the chance to learn the business functions, gain an organization understanding of their corporate culture, and create interpersonal network. The global strategy will encourage the organization to turn out to be more global in their viewpoint (Aycan, Kanungo and Mendonca, 2014). The United Health International can assign, encourage, and expand human resources on an international basis irrespective of their nationality. To become successful, human resources should be completely engaged in the business operations and should have good connections with the development of business. Human resources have consent to manage and set expectations at each levels such as business development, country managers, and corporate level. The benefits of appointing expatriates for UHI are that they know the culture and products of the organization and possess the business and technical skills that are not accessible locally. They relate efficiently and easily to corporate head offices. The expatriates may have extraordinary transferrable potentials such as opening business operations in the emerging markets. They may also promote and protect the headquarters’ interests in global acquisitions and joint ventures and other circumstances necessitating tight financial management. The expatriates fit the needs of the organization to develop general managers and future leaders with global experience (Alkhafaji, 1994). Besides appointing expatriates, United Health International can also appoint local nationals as they are cheaper and they have knowledge about the local market norms. They know how to inspire other local staff to contribute their efforts towards the organizational success. The local employees enable the global organization to develop a local image. They are increasingly more qualified as well as available due to the advances in overseas study programs, and management education (Alkhafaji, 1994). The global strategy also include conducting the cross cultural education/training programme which aims at providing education or training with the purpose of increasing organizational and staff knowledge, skills, and performances towards cultural responsiveness and cultural competency. It is essential for the UHI because it assists to develop effectual communication between the staffs. By giving education to staffs through intellectual training courses, for example international communications programmes and team building, the organization will be considered as more competitive and proficient in the international market because the intellectual synergy in the headquarters and workplace grows (Qld, 2010). United Health International can adopt the adaptive strategic global human resource management approach, which means that they can create systems of human resource management for the affiliates that replicate the local atmosphere. This signifies high external reliability with local environment and low internal reliability with the company. Differentiation is underlined and the multinational corporation normally copies the systems of human resource management that are being applied locally (Brynningsen, 2009). UHI can further adopt integrative strategic global human resource management approach, which means that the supervisors of the organization can select the best human resources and make use of them throughout the company in the formation of worldwide system. Each part i.e. headquarters and affiliates could make an outstanding involvement with its inimitable competence. Staffing process of the company should focus on employing the most competent staff regardless of ethnic group, which incorporates both home and local country nationals (Brynningsen, 2009). The supervision of human resources is the duty of all the managers in the organization. Managers of United Health International can contribute towards the augmentation and success of the organization by directing and operating branch on the personnel matters (Kumar, 2010). Moreover, they can help in developing the workforce potential which further helps the employees to perform in the best way for the growth of the organization. The management of human resources is considered as a challenging duty because of the vibrant personality of the people (Robbins and Judge, 2009). United Health International should integrate international human resource practices and methods in the local system. The international human resource tools should have the ability to perform well within the prevailing local system. They should develop a resilient and strong organizational culture. They should encompass a global network for the system growth as global input as well as reporting is crucial for accurate and faster decision making (Robbins and Judge, 2009). It is important for United Health International to recognize the common human resource practices or elements across nations and regions. There should be flexibility and clarity in management and performance measurement across nations. There should be stipulation for local accumulation in the international human resources practices ahead of the core elements of human resource management (Durai, 2010). United Health International should make a distinction in human resource approach and practices, if required. Further, comprehensive and continuous interaction throughout the company is very important. Their global human resource practices means that they should have staff who possess experience and knowledge and should have contact with people who have knowledge about the official requirements in every country (Durai, 2010). The technical, managerial and functional abilities and skills are essential for the international managers to carry out their task. Moreover, location-specific abilities, adaptability to every situation, and personal characteristics are very important to do a job in overseas location. While selecting expatriate, the managers of UHI are required to make selection not exclusively on their technical proficiency but also on their cross-cultural fluency. The managers can also reduce rates of expatriate failure by recuperating selection procedures (Durai, 2010). United Health International should make the selection criteria for recruiting expatriates so that they can attract best personnel in their organization. The selection criteria should involve managerial and technical skills, relational abilities, personality traits, local language ability, and international motivation. Dissimilarities between the strategic and operational approaches may exist in several human resource areas. Therefore, the role of management in UHI requires that human resource professionals be practical in addressing the realities of business and in focusing on the future requirements, such as compensation strategies, workforce planning, as well as improving the human resource value for top supervision. United Health International should carry on the planning process of human resources on a global basis. It includes considering the strategies and objectives of organization, performing the internal and external assessment of human resource needs, and forecasting should be developed. Once the evaluations are complete, disparities between human resource demand and supply should be identified (Flynn, Mathis and Jackson, 2006). Expatriate managers is considered to be a feasible means for applying control over overseas operations and therefore they can have a straight impact on the organizational performance. United Health International must follow the process of supervising expatriate on global assignments as they are considered of having the extraordinary transferrable potentials in the emerging markets. So, the management should take into consideration the recruitment and training process before assigning the international task, adjustment and incorporation during the global assignment and also repatriation after the global assignment (Brynningsen, 2009). If United Health International will not pay interest or attention to the method of supervising expatriates on global assignments it could result in vicious cycle. It means that resistance toward global assignments could lead to fewer employees for the global tasks, which could result to a great possibility of more failure rates. Therefore, the organization should correctly follow the process of managing expatriate on global assignments. Reference List Alkhafaji, A.F., 1994. Competitive Global Management – Principles and Strategies. Florida: CRC Press. Armstrong, M., 2006. A Handbook of human resources management practice. United Kingdom: Kogan Page Publisher. Aycan, Z., Kanungo, R.N. and Mendonca, M., 2014. Organizations and Management in Cross-Cultural Context. California: Sage Publications. Berkeley, 2014. Resolving Conflict Situations. [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 Jan 2015]. Brynningsen, G., 2009. Managing Expatriates on International Assignments. [pdf] Available at: < http://www.academia.edu/4145476/Managing_Expatriates_on_International_Assignments> [Accessed 13 Jan 2015]. Careeronestop, 2014. Retention strategies. [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 Jan 2015]. Cullen, J. and Parboteeah, K.P., 2009. International Business: Strategy and the multinational company. New York: Routledge. Durai, P., 2010. Human resource management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Kumar, R., 2010. Human resource Management: Strategic Analysis Text and Cases. New Delhi: I.K. International Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Leddy, C., 2014. 7 Employee Retention Strategies for Keeping Your Talent. [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 Jan 2015]. Qld, 2010. Cross Cultural Learning and Development Strategy: 2009-2012. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 8 Jan 2015]. Robbins, P. and Judge, A., 2009. Organizational Behaviour. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Rudani, R.B., 2011. Management and Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Education. Shukla, R., 2009. Talent Management: Process of developing and integrating skilled workers. New Delhi: Global India Publication. Read More