Globalization in business has created a sophisticated, complex and competitive environment. The challenges facing companies today are unprecedented: Costs, regulatory changes, industry transformation, and product innovation. No surprise there. Right?
To be more than successful, companies need to continually carefully calculate new and better products and services against the bottom line.
Yet, internal challenges to new methodologies often exceed those pressures experienced externally:
• Not invented here.
• We’ve always done it that way.
• There’s no time.
A new, one-design-does-not-fit-all approach does not equate to higher costs. Rather, faster time-to-task competence results in lowering costs.
At GT Associates nothing we do is ordinary.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Return on Investment: Chasing an illusion?
Return on Investment: Chasing an illusion?
For years business has tried to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of overseas assignments. Financial departments hold all elements of business accountable to the tangible and measurable ROI as a cornerstone of fiscal responsibility. While ROI is incredibly important to any company’s bottom line, spending time trying to measure the intangibles or long-term return of an expatriate assignment is not.
Managing the high costs of global assignments is complicated, but attainable in terms of the tangibles: salary, housing costs, transportation, training, legal fees, travel, etc. And, businesses should continue to manage these costs. However, trying to ascertain whether the international assignment investment provides a return on this investment poses a unique challenge not achieved by traditional methods of measurement.
Successful global assignments are often determined by completion of the assignment itself (typically 3-4 years). Corporations also measure if business goals and objectives are met and determine if the costs associated with the assignment were controlled. What is not measured and oftentimes ignored: 1) Is the family happy and well adjusted? 2) Is the employee clear on objectives and his or her power to execute those objectives? 3) What specific skills the employee expected to gain during the assignment? 4) How will s/he apply these skills upon repatriation? 5) What job is the employee returning to? 5) What intangibles are learned and how is newly gained intellectual property shared?
Trying to measure these intangibles using traditional methods does not ensure success or solve failures of an international assignment. Addressing the long-term return and the ability to use and share the lessons learned on the assignment will yield answers.
At GT Associates we suggest that rather than focusing on trying to come up with a black-and-white ROI solution for expatriates, time is better spent addressing the intangibles and succinctly measuring long-term ROI; that is: employee loyalty/retention, long-term employee success within the company, and the ability of that employee to concretely define and share lessons learned from the expatriate assignment. We see the ROI for expatriate assignments as individualistic and highly unlikely to fit a one-size fits all formula. At GT Associates nothing we do is ordinary.
Managing the high costs of global assignments is complicated, but attainable in terms of the tangibles: salary, housing costs, transportation, training, legal fees, travel, etc. And, businesses should continue to manage these costs. However, trying to ascertain whether the international assignment investment provides a return on this investment poses a unique challenge not achieved by traditional methods of measurement.
Successful global assignments are often determined by completion of the assignment itself (typically 3-4 years). Corporations also measure if business goals and objectives are met and determine if the costs associated with the assignment were controlled. What is not measured and oftentimes ignored: 1) Is the family happy and well adjusted? 2) Is the employee clear on objectives and his or her power to execute those objectives? 3) What specific skills the employee expected to gain during the assignment? 4) How will s/he apply these skills upon repatriation? 5) What job is the employee returning to? 5) What intangibles are learned and how is newly gained intellectual property shared?
Trying to measure these intangibles using traditional methods does not ensure success or solve failures of an international assignment. Addressing the long-term return and the ability to use and share the lessons learned on the assignment will yield answers.
At GT Associates we suggest that rather than focusing on trying to come up with a black-and-white ROI solution for expatriates, time is better spent addressing the intangibles and succinctly measuring long-term ROI; that is: employee loyalty/retention, long-term employee success within the company, and the ability of that employee to concretely define and share lessons learned from the expatriate assignment. We see the ROI for expatriate assignments as individualistic and highly unlikely to fit a one-size fits all formula. At GT Associates nothing we do is ordinary.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Blow Up HR?
A recent feature in HBR suggests just that. While
this seems extreme, there is merit if one digs deeper.
It’s not recent news that HR is being pushed to contribute to business results as other departments must contribute to performance goals and objectives. No doubt, many HR departments are doing this. While others, unfortunately, haven’t finalized their formula for significant and meaningful business contributions.
GTAssociates partners with HR, Operations, and the C-Suite to ensure business success that, without question, contributes to talent and resources in an expedient and bottom-line results approach.
It’s not recent news that HR is being pushed to contribute to business results as other departments must contribute to performance goals and objectives. No doubt, many HR departments are doing this. While others, unfortunately, haven’t finalized their formula for significant and meaningful business contributions.
GTAssociates partners with HR, Operations, and the C-Suite to ensure business success that, without question, contributes to talent and resources in an expedient and bottom-line results approach.
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