Why learn about opportunities and challenges of managing human resources in the global business environment?

A large American hotel company, LMN Hotels, recently decided to expand their hotel chain into Europe. They just completed an acquisition of a hotel chain in Germany. They now own twenty hotels in Germany which they plan to redesign to embody their company’s brand. During the acquisition, 65% of the German hotel chain’s staff left the company. Therefore, LMN Hotels needs to hire a new workforce to fill the hundreds of positions currently vacant. Since this international acquisition is foreign territory (both literally and physically) LMN’s human resources team has a lot to plan and execute.

Working on a global scale can pose many challenges for a company. LMN’s HR Team begins to compile a list of tasks they need to complete in order to successfully open up their new hotels in Germany. Here are a few of the things they need to consider and accomplish:

• How do we address the language barrier? Do we have employees that speak German? Are their translation services or employees from the acquired company that can speak English?
• Who will we send to oversee the renovations and redesign in the German hotels?
• How can we effectively hire new staff members to fill the current open positions?
• How do we train the new staff members and the acquired staff members to embody company brand and meet their job expectations?

These questions are just the tip of the iceberg. International Human Resource Managers have a challenging and demanding role. This module will discuss the opportunities and challenges of managing human resources in the global business environment.