International Human Resource Management (IHRM) can be defined as a set of activities targeting human resource management at the international level. It strives to meet organizational objectives and achieve competitive advantage over competitors at national and international level.
IHRM comprises of typical HRM functions such as recruitment, selection, training and development, performance appraisal and dismissal done at the international level and additional exercises such as global skills management, expatriate management and so on.
In short, IHRM is concerned with handling the human resources at Multinational Companies (MNCs) and it includes managing three types of employees −
- Home country employees: Employees residing in the home country of the company where the corporate head quarter is situated, for example, an Indian working in India for some company whose headquarters are in India itself.
- Host country employees: Employees residing in the nation in which the subsidiary is located, for example, an Indian working as an NRI in some foreign country.
- Third country employees: These are the employees who are not from home country or host country but are employed at the additional or corporate headquarters.
For example, an Indian MNC, which has its corporate office in America, may employ a French person as the CEO to the subsidiary. The Frenchman employed is a third country employee.
IHRM vs. HRM
There are many similarities between HRM at the national as well as international level. However, let us have a look at the differences between them with the help of points given below −
- Domestic HRM takes place at the national level, that is, within a country and IHRM takes place at the international level, that is, in between two or more than two countries.
- Domestic HRM is bothered about managing employees belonging to one nation and IHRM is bothered about managing employees belonging the home country and host country as well as third country employees.
- Domestic HRM is concerned with managing limited number of HRM activities at the national level and IHRM is concerned with managing additional activities such as expatriate management.
- Domestic HRM is less complicated due to less imprint from the external environment. IHRM is comparatively more complicated, as it is deeply affected by the external factors such as cultural distance and institutional factors.
We can conclude that both IHRM and HRM share some grounds of similarities as well as dissimilarities, but both have their own importance. Further, they contribute to the development of a country in a combined manner.
Major functions of International Human Resource Management
In International human resource management, there are five functional areas that include recruitment and selection, development and training, performance evaluation, remuneration and labor relations. In the first function of IHRM, Recruitment and selection, company employs new qualified candidates for international operations.
The Selection requires choosing from this pool the candidate whose qualifications most closely match the job requirements. Staffing is a complex function of international human resource management.
In the global firms, the managing and staffing approach strongly affects the type of employee the company prefers. In a company with an ethnocentric approach, parent country nationals usually staff important positions at headquarters and subsidiaries. In recruitment and selection methods, firms consider both headquarters’ practices and those widespread in the countries of its subsidiaries. Local culture also have great impact on recruitment and selection practices, and in some countries, local laws require a specific approach. In choosing the suitable candidate, it is needed to make balance between internal corporate consistency and sensitivity to local labor practices.
Remuneration and benefits is other functional approach of IHRM. Remuneration of employees plays an important role in hiring new employees because pay is the major source of people to live in the world. To develop an international system of compensation and benefits, firms have two primary concerns.
The first is comparability. A good compensation system disperses salaries to employees that are internally equivalent and competitive within the marketplace. The international organization must also consider the salaries of people who may transfer from other locations. The second major concern is cost. Organizations struggle to reduce all expenses, and payroll is one of the largest.
Another significant function of IHRM is Development and training which is aimed to offer sufficient training to personnel in a company and enable them to fulfil their goals, as well as show better performance and growth with their work. At global level, human resource development experts must have responsibility for training and development of employees located in subsidiaries around the world, specialized training to prepare expatriates for assignments abroad, and lastly development of a special group of worldwide minded managers.
International HR development programs may be done in two ways such as centralized and decentralized. In a centralized approach, training originates at the headquarters and corporate trainers travel to subsidiaries, often adapting to local situations. This fits the ethnocentric model. A geocentric approach is also centralized, and trainers could be sent from various positions in either the headquarters or subsidiaries to any other location in the company. In a decentralized approach, training is given locally, following a polycentric model. When training is decentralized, the cultural backgrounds of the trainers and trainees are usually similar. Local people develop training materials and techniques for use in their own area. It is important that trainer must be qualified.
Performance evaluation is the effective function of international human resource management. In companies, the performance evaluation is regularly performed for administration or development intentions. Usually, administration conduct evaluation when there is doubt of performance of candidate and there is a need of performance evaluation on work conditions of employees, promotions, rewards and/or layoffs. In multinational companies, performance appraisals are usually done annually and use a standardized evaluation form. Performance evaluation is complex task for International HR managers because the organization must evaluate employees from different countries working in different subsidiaries. Performance evaluation depends on the organization’s overall human resource management strategy.
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