80% More or Less

I was recently asked "So, what is Global HR" exactly? My thought it this: Human Resources Management as a discipline and function within any corporation tends to be about 80% the same no matter where you go. That is to say that HR needs to be concerned with hiring the best people for the positions, managing the performance and contribution of the people, providing the people with due compensation for efforts made and, at some point, managing the people up and or out of the organization.

Of course, laws and customs are different in each country so there are disparate restraints and flexibilities across organizations. But fundamentally, HR management is just about "people alignment".

So what about that remaining 20%?

That's where culture and customs come in to play.

For example, in the US people tend to specialize in a functional discipline and change jobs in order to advance their career within their field of specialization. In Japan, although specialties do exist, companies tend to raise up generalists who can shift from one department to another. Both approaches have their merits-- on the one hand, specialization breeds competency whereas being a generalist provides for employees who can better grasp the operations of the company and avoid "siloization."