“WE TRY TO HIRE PEOPLE WHO ARE NATIONALS IN THE VARIOUS
COUNTRIES TO THE HIGHEST EXECUTIVE POSITIONS POSSIBLE,
AND THEN SUPPORT THEM WITH PEOPLE WE BRING IN.”
– FRED DAVIDSON, THE ENERGOLD GROUP
A thorough knowledge of cultural norms and business etiquette
is important, as is familiarity with “the regulators you deal with:
customs officers, government officials and immigration – we don’t
waste time going in circles trying to understand the local system,”
said Davidson.
With our own diverse population, Canadian companies tend to
be pretty good at navigating cross-cultural waters.
“Canadians tend to be fairly sensitive to these issues compared
to some other nations that import their senior people and expect
things to work the same as back home, while they become isolated
from the locals – who may not have the technical skills – and also
feel disconnected from the foreign managers,” said Davidson. “We
find that where we have a manager who’s familiar with the country,
with the fact that we generate jobs and training locally, showing we
are local stakeholders along with the community, we gain mutual
respect and help build trust and support for our client’s projects.”
Another study participant was H2O Innovation Inc., which
works with water and wastewater treatment in 40 countries. The
company’s systems and projects are complex and require a lot of
people with different skills, says CFO Marc Blanchet.
“People who are open-minded and experienced with different
cultures will be better adapted for the company,” he said. “It’s essential
to be able to address a message that will be understood or
received properly by other cultures. If you don’t have the right people,
you may create an expectation from customers and partners
abroad that you won’t be able to meet, because they are your ambassadors
and your translators.”
Parachuting executives into foreign settings presents challenges.
“You need a special kind of personality to move to India or the
Middle East for an extended period,” said Blanchet. When it comes
to business negotiations, “here in North America, we’re pretty
straightforward; there, it’s not the case.”
Sales professionals seem to adapt better than some other types
of people, he says.
“By their nature, salespeople are much more chameleon-like;
they can bend themselves to adapt to cultures. Engineers and project
managers tend to find it tougher to adapt themselves,” said
Blanchet.
“We are a small organization compared to others. One of our
advantages is that the culture is really strong. We are a young company,
still growing; it’s exciting, so it’s flexible,” he said. Corporate
HR strategy is rolled out throughout the company by briefing senior
staff regularly. “In our organization all managers have a very
strong HR role to play. We expect them to know all the policies
and be able to answer most of the HR questions coming from their
team. That’s the way we’ve structured it. We don’t want to be a company
where HR is outsourced to an HR department; managers
have to be part of HR.”
In an age of globalization, “how an organization should be now
is different than it was,” said Blanchet. “When we hire, we choose
more than an employee; we recruit ambassadors of the company.”
Selling to the World demonstrates the shared qualities of the people
who head globally successful companies. HR has a vital part
to play in helping firms expand their reach in global markets by
targeting executives with these characteristics, as well as helping
develop overall foreign market knowledge, innovation capabilities
and international networks. Taken together, these are the building
blocks that will increase Canada’s share of the global marketplace. n
business
Do you conduct pre-employment
background checks?
Most employers do. But there are risks. If done
improperly, background checks can breach privacy or
human rights, and land your company in court.
See what you need to know on our blog:
www.somlaw.ca/blog
46 ❚ OCTOBER 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL