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Unit 13: GHRM Trends and Future Challenges

Then define the technical, functional and soft skills needed for success in each “lifeline” Notes
role. As Ms. Major of IBM notes, “It is important to understand what people need to
develop as executives. They can be savvy functionally and internationally, but they also
have to be savvy inside the organisation.”
This second step requires integrated teams of business and HR specialists working with
line managers. Over time, they should extend the skills descriptions to cover all of the
company’s executive posts.

Example: It took 18 months for IBM to roll out its worldwide skills management process
to more than 100,000 people in manufacturing and development.
A good starting point is with posts carrying the same title around the globe, but local
circumstances need to be taken into account. Chief financial officers in subsidiaries in
different regions of the world, for example, should know how to deal with volatile exchange
rates and high inflation. Unilever circulates skills profiles for most of its posts, but expects
managers to adapt them to meet local needs.
Compiling these descriptions is a major undertaking, and they will not be perfect because
job descriptions are subject to continuous change in today’s markets and because perfect
matches of candidates with job descriptions are unlikely to be found. But they are an
essential building block to a global HR policy because they establish common standards.
The lifeline and role descriptions should be revisited at least annually to ensure they
express the business strategy. Many companies recognise the need to review the impact of
strategy and marketplace changes on high-technology and R&D roles but overlook the
fact that managerial jobs are also redrawn by market pressures. The roles involved in
running an emerging market operation, for example, expand as the company builds its
investment and sales base.

Did u know? At IBM, skills teams update their role descriptions every six months to keep
pace with the markets and to inform senior managers which skills are “hot” and which the
company has in good supply.

3. Build a global database to know who and where the talent is: The main tool of a global
HR policy has to be a global database simply because multinational companies now have
many more strategic posts scattered around the globe and must monitor the career
development of many more managers. Although some multinational companies have
been compiling worldwide HR databases over the past decade, these still tend to concentrate
on posts at the top of the organisation, neglecting the middle managers in the country
markets and potential stars coming through the ranks.

Example: IBM has compiled a database of senior managers for 20 years, into which it
feeds names of promising middle managers, tracking them all with annual reviews. But it made
the base worldwide only 10 years ago. Now the company is building another global database
that will cover 40,000 competencies and include all employees worldwide who can deliver those
skills or be groomed to do so. IBM plans to link the two databases by 2000.

Unilever has practiced a broader sweep for the past 40 years. It has five talent “pools” stretching
from individual companies (e.g., Good Humor Breyers Ice Cream in the United States and Walls
Ice Cream in Britain) to foreign subsidiaries (e.g., Unilever United States Inc. and Unilever U.K.
Holdings Ltd.) to global corporate headquarters. From day one, new executive trainees are
given targets for personal development. Those who show the potential to move up significantly

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