Headlines are full of RTO (Return to Office) announcements and mandates including the U. S. federal government. In our practice, we see a trend in the opposite direction as more companies move toward leveraging a global workforce. The reality is that employees are located around the globe and function in different time zones with different holiday schedules making collaboration and team management more challenging. Based on our experiences, here are our recommendations:
1. Ensure that a communication plan keeps employees engaged and up to date on policies, programs, and opportunities. There are many tools available and the delivery mechanism can be as simple as an email. Here is a communication resource from our partners at True Project.
2. Share calendars and set expectations that vacation time and holidays must be clearly communicated via shared calendars.
3. Set an expectation regarding language usage. If you choose English and some team members are not native speakers consider accommodations such as AI translators, pre-meeting agendas, and notes to ensure that all team members are able to communicate and understand.
4. Consider cultural differences, not everyone approaches work and building business relationships in the same way. Here is a great resource to better understand elements of culture such as communicating, leading, persuading, deciding, trusting, scheduling, and disagreeing.
5. Manage expectations including assignments, deliverables, and productivity measures. As a team leader, project manager, or functional manager, you will not have the option to manage by walking around. We recommend taking the time to establish clear expectations on performance, collaboration, and communication with your team. In addition, using regularly scheduled 1 on 1 meetings can be a way to virtually stay in touch on a crucially important level.
6. Promote collaboration across the team as well as cross functionally. Collaboration tools are useful if clear roles and work assignments have been communicated so that individual team members can work on and document their portion of a project in a shared drive or environment. Establishing guidelines on meeting notes, task assignment and follow up help avoid misunderstandings and encourage participation and progress.
7. Establish cross-functional collaboration protocols and encourage frequent communication. We find that most digital transformations are not siloed in one function. Even if the project is a Finance or HR tech stack enhancement, effective adoption requires cross-functional collaboration.
8. Create a culture of belonging and encourage team members to contribute fully. Seek feedback from your global team members to better understand what changes might be needed to help them feel values and appreciated allowing them to fully contribute their experiences and ideas. There are many feedback tools that can support getting feedback from global teams.
9. Leverage technology effectively. AI is everywhere but using it effectively takes planning and change management. A significant gap remains between employees thinking about AI and using it in their daily functions. Establishing policies and resources for positive AI adoption and user experience facilitates closing this gap.
10. Establish and follow data privacy policies. While General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most well know policy, many countries have these types of policies. When engaging with a global workforce, it is crucial to be aware of the pertinent regulations and to establish protocols to ensure compliance.
As global workforce management becomes the norm rather than the exception for all size organizations, we are here to help you with your global Finance and HCM digital transformations.