How to Manage a Global Workplace

As the world digitizes and becomes more of a global village, having international employees is now becoming a necessity for businesses around the world. And it’s no secret most companies harbor dreams of reaching a global market at some point.

With organizations’ cross border growth ambitions and continued expansions, so too does their need for international staff and workers expand. By tapping into the international market and hiring the right international workers, businesses can continue to grow and achieve their goals.

However, without the right strategies to manage a global workforce, you are likely to face more difficulties and challenges managing the global workplace than is necessary. That’s why your company needs to have strong human resource strategies and employee management plans.

Technology is helpful for most companies with a worldwide reach. However, you still have to use other means to ensure your international workers are not only valued, but also motivated to deliver the best services in a smooth, effective and operational global workforce.

Tips for Better Managing a Global Workplace

Here’re are some essential tips you can use to effectively manage an international staff and global workplace where your organization exists in more than one country across the globe:

1. Maintain Open Communications

Build a community with all your global workers and open a channel of communication that favors them all. Accessibility and communication leads to better collaboration.

With good and open communication channels, you will receive different ideas from workers and suggestions to build a solid business plan. Use organized forums to promote discussions and encourage the diverse global workforce to swap ideas, brainstorm, and share knowledge.

The internet is your best friend in this case. Add virtual tools that aid in maintaining effective communication and the smooth flow of information, including apps that enable you to speak and understand the global employees’ languages as a way to overcome language barriers.

2. Cultural Awareness Is Crucial

Your company has to be sensitive to global worker’s different cultures. Cultural awareness training will, thus, go a long way in educating the global staff and building healthy relationships.

With a global workplace, you will be dealing with diverse cultures. What passes as normal behavior in the USA at the workplace may not necessarily be the case somewhere else. That is why your workers need to be adequately trained on how to be mindful of other cultures and learn to embrace them. This way, you’ll have helped avoid conflicts likely to arise from diversity.

Not sure how to best handle your employees in a foreign country? Why not arrange regular cultural awareness seminars that can educate your global team on appropriate behaviors.

3. Avoid Micromanaging

You don't have to micromanage everything around the company, especially when it has a global reach. Instead, learn to delegate and assign duties.

Hiring a highly qualified local management team is key to successfully managing a global workplace. They keep an eye on things on the ground and report to you periodically. Address issues directly with your international staff or equip the branch managers to do it on your behalf.

Micromanaging is exhausting and gives room for excuses. Delegate and have confidence in the team you pick for different positions. As such, it's important to seriously vet for management positions because they’ll be representing you and your company in international markets.

For example, let’s say you have a construction company and you can’t visit the work site for a variety of reasons. Instead of focusing on every detail on site, take a step back and let the job site manager handle the staff. Rather than having to micromanage everything, you can utilize an app to better keep track of the workflow and ensure it’s on track from a distance.

4. Visit Your Business’ International Offices

Visit as many of your business’ international offices as you can, if not all of them. Virtual reality is great, but sometimes you need a physical sit-down with management teams from different branches to really get a feel for the pulse of your business in international markets.

Spend time with your international workers; you might uncover things you wouldn’t have seen or noticed over the internet. Try to attend all the significant company events across the various markets your business operates, be it conferences, holiday parties, or award ceremonies.

Different regions and countries around the world have significant holidays, events, and festivals that happen once a year or after a long time you should plan to attend. Showing up for such events will usually demonstrate a positive gesture that you care for all your global employees and value their diverse cultures. This not only boosts your global teams’ moral, but also helps them feel more connected with the main company offices and headquarters.

5. Encourage Agility and Creative Application

Creativity and agility will help you manage the international workplace with greater ease and efficiency. Not all markets are the same and you need to adapt your business to each market. Accept that change may be inevitable when you are managing offices across different countries.

By embracing change and adapting your business offerings as necessary in each global market, you will help the company not only survive in overseas markets, but also come up with creative and innovations solution to meet both customers and employees’ needs. This makes for a better and more vibrant global workplace.

Innovation and agility should be the cornerstone of your global-focused organization. It's the best way to keep up with emerging trends. Once in a while, ask your staff for feedback and suggestions on what’s hot in the market to make the right, strategic changes. Diversity in ideas is an asset; your company can grow from such ideas and be better placed for world domination.