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Introduction
Company A (our company) is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is operating since 1970. The company grew from a small 20 people firm in the software business, to a global firm with 120 locations around the world and 60,000 employees. Revenues of the company for the last financial year were $52 billion. The company was built by the farsighted vision of its founders and it still places a lot of value in the development and care of its employees. The company is known for its HR innovations and is looking to grow its business in Asia.
Company B is a small IT services provider in Philippines. The company is located in Manila and Davao City. The firm started operations in the year 2000 and has 800 employees, primarily servicing the markets in Philippines and Malaysia. The company began as a small operation with two partners and has grown to sizeable revenue ($500 million).
In view of the synergies in business and the expansion plans, our company has merged with Company B in the Philippines. This merger will help provide key IT services to clients in the Asia Pacific Region. There are significant similarities in the skill and experience levels of the employees in both the companies. The merger will help our company to add IT services as a new business division to provide a full scope of services in technology, to global clients.
As the post-merger scenario is taking shape, both the companies are working on a strategy to set up new processes for various business functions and to abide by government regulations. Company A is also involved in formulating a HR strategy to help unify culture.
This paper will identify the key steps that are needed to ensure a smooth transition and building a unified culture across diverse geographies.
In our new globalized world, HRM will play a very important role. Today’s organizations have the opportunity to hire employees in any geography with their unique education, skills, gender, experience and salaries. An engaged work force will help organizations compete and be more productive. More productive employees lead to happier customers and healthy bottom lines. So the importance of evolving a unique culture within an organization, which will help employee engagement and boost motivation, cannot be over emphasized (Future Trends).
The first step in building a unified culture is to first identify the various facets of culture in an organization – not defined by the leadership, but defined by its employees. An employee survey which really engages and encourages them to talk about what makes the company tick; will help in understanding what’s unique about the company’s culture. Culture can be a function of the way a company works, its processes, the way it manages its customers or employees and even the way people talk on the phone. Some of these characteristics can be very behavioral and subtle. For example, some companies have a very informal culture where ideas can be discussed during coffee break (Markowitz).
Building Bonds. It is important that every employee in the company regardless of location or seniority or any other demographic factors, must feel that s/he is a part of a family. This is really important since, global employees have to collaborate, to solve for business goals and objectives. Without this feeling of belonging, it will be difficult to build productive teams. Team building activities like sports, annual days, music festivals and so on help in meeting this goal.
Celebrations. Employees do not live in a vacuum. They do have a personal life. Therefore celebrating becomes a key factor in enhancing motivation, whenever it’s a birthday, anniversary or a promotion. Managers across geographies must get access to important dates in their team members’ life to ensure that this plan gets implemented.
Leadership Communication. Every employee should be engaged in one single endeavor – business goals. Leaders must set this vision for employees and must constantly communicate with them. This can be done by e-mail communications (Newsletters), Blogs, Town hall meetings and sometimes even as simple as a walk-through in the cafeteria. Location leaders must be encouraged to motivate and drive employees towards common business goals.
Career growth. Organizations must ensure that employees are not only skilled for their current role but also for the future. In the globalized world, the need for a specific set of skills may arise in any geography. It is important that employees realize that the organization has a keen interest in their career development. Training and development should be more or less standardized across geographies. This can be achieved by using intranet and other technology and video based curriculum.
Consistency. Global organizations must build systems and processes which are consistent across locations. Whether it is type of furniture, color of walls, cafeteria décor, and design of the reception lobby or the design of communication materials; consistency will build a sense of uniqueness and belonging. Processes like performance evaluation, salary increments, travel policy, leave policy, gender and diversity policy and so on should be also standardized. A global intranet should also be developed and utilized effectively.
Connect. Developing a personal connect with employees really helps in imbibing the right culture. Management must have frequent one-on-one connects with employees in formal settings to ensure employees are mentally ‘connected’ to the organization.
Social and Community Activities. Organizing social and community activities really increases the engagement level in employees. Cross-geography, cross cultural teams can be selected to work on social activities in partnership with NGOs and other bodies (Black).
Works cited
Black, Tiffany. “8 Tips for building a great culture.” Inc.Inc.com, December 21, 2010. Web.
14 January 2016.
Markowtiz, Eric. “How to Create a Unified Culture in a Company with Multiple Offices.”
Inc.Inc.com, February 24, 2011. Web. 14 January 2016.
The Economist. “What's Next Future Global Trends Affecting Your Organization.” The
Economist. SHRM, June 2015. Web. 14 January 2016.
