The HR challenges that multinational organisations face when assessing new staff around the world, including dealing with legislation and languages. A new white paper from Talent Q, the assessment specialist titled, ‘Global assessment: Achieving scale and managing risk’ highlights on the benefits employers can gain by standardising the application of assessment processes worldwide.
There is a need for globally consistent assessment processes to aid recruitment strategies implemented by organisations. While it might not seem practical for MNCs to provide exactly the same assessment in every country, employers need to adapt their assessment process for certain markets.
“The challenge is to identify what can be standardised and which aspects need to be tailored to meet the requirements of different markets and the different areas of your business,” said James Bywater, Director of Product & Innovation at Talent Q.
Bywater adds: “Talent is now increasingly a global commodity and with the advent of multinational applicant tracking systems and assessment providers, it has become much easier to introduce and manage a consistent assessment process worldwide. The ability to recruit the right staff around the world is a crucial success factor for any multinational employer.”
With psychometric assessment practices being more prevalent in United States and United Kingdom, these countries will be the first starting points for anyone looking forward to implement a globally consistent assessment process.
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“Multinationals will usually review the markets in which their assessment process is working well and then look to export that model to other countries. By doing this, you can retain the essence and principles of best practice around the world but in certain markets you’ll still need to make local adaptations.”
If you have a consistent global brand, and reasonably consistent global values, you’re more likely to want to create standardised processes in each of your locations. This will impact on every aspect of your employer brand. Ideally, you’ll want to recruit people who are capable of providing a ‘consistent experience’ to local customers across different cultures.
However, if you’re a conglomerate, with diverse businesses and brands – or if your business proposition differs across your markets – the way you deliver your products or service may be very different in each country. Even so, you could still gain efficiencies by creating commonalities in your assessment.
Cultural value differences and economic differences will mean that your line managers – and your applicants – in different countries may have different expectations about assessment. For example, labour costs in India and China are much lower than in Western economies.
The market for assessments is also less mature in these countries, so local managers may need to be convinced of the business benefits of assessment. Flexibility is therefore required if you want to export an assessment methodology across different continents.
“Assessing candidates effectively should be an important objective for every local HR team, because people who are well-suited to the job and the organisation will perform better and be more engaged. Now that the infrastructure is available to support global assessment, multinational businesses can benefit by consistently recruiting the right people in every country,” Bywater adds.
It is important to conduct validation research to confirm that the people who perform well in your tests go on to perform well in the job. Keeping documented evidence of this will help you if any legal challenge arises concerning your selection process.
Also read: Why Do Employers Miss Out on Recruiting Brightest Talent?
