The ADP Research Institute® surveyed 725 HR decision-makers in global multinational organisations to provide insight and help HR and corporate executives. Find out more here.

1. Can HR Support Global Business Growth?
ADP Insider
Is HR Prepared to Support Global Business
Growth Priorities?
April 7, 2015 - by ADP Insider
Business growth through market expansion will
be the primary business strategy of multinational
corporations. 63% of executives say the number of
employees outside of their company headquarters
will increase in the next year or so. That is up 4%
from 2013, reflecting a consistent 3-year trend
and supporting other stated goals of realising
growth through new markets. At the same time,
there are multiple disconnects in this same
group of organisations where Human Capital
Management (HCM) capabilities are not aligned
with the stated goals. If these and other critical
infrastructure issues remain unaddressed,
success of their business strategies could be
undermined.
The ADP Research Institute®, a specialised group
within ADP®, surveyed 725 HR decision-makers
in global multinational organisations with 5,000
or more employees to provide insight. Helping HR
and corporate executives to better understand
the correlation between corporate goals and
HCM, the study explores the value of global HCM
components as well as the plans and needs of
global executives.
Plans for Growing are Growing
Whether entering new regions or committing to
a stronger footprint in existing global markets,
the study found that as a business objective,
expansion steadily gained priority in both 2014 and
again in 2015. Over the past three years, corporate
objectives have stayed the same, with the notable
exception of growing by entering new markets
having increased in priority. The trend is critical
for HR leaders in all size companies.
HR will face pressures to support the decision
process, whether predicting workforce impacts or
estimating workforce investment costs.
Which HCM elements will have the most impact?
49% of the survey respondents confirm that talent
management continues to be the overwhelming
challenge global companies face in achieving
their objectives. Although executives considered
the challenges of managing cultural differences,
acquisition, and training to all have a high
impact on successful outcomes, performance
management had the greatest trend increase
from previous years. HR executives cited talent
acquisition and applicant tracking as the HCM
elements with the most impact on global
business objectives.
Desire for System Unification
More than two-thirds of the HR leaders in
this study want more unified systems. Global
companies now try to manage, on average, 33
payroll and 31 HR systems. That number has
grown 40% compared to the previous year. The
numbers run even higher for multinational
organisations with headquarters in emerging
markets such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Having workforce data in one place globally takes
Human Capital Management to entirely new
levels by increasing efficiency and effectiveness,
as well as by enabling the analytics and predictive
modelling capabilities HR will need in this
competitive environment.
The “Big Data” Need for Unification
While the number of systems grow and
complicate HCM efforts exponentially so does
the amount and types of data being maintained.
The concept of “big” in data applies whenever the
volume overwhelms the capacity to manage it.
Most organisations are there already considering
that few, if any, of their numerous systems are
designed to do analytics or even to integrate with
other systems. Transactional automation was the
focus and about all that can be expected from
them.
Supporting overall business initiatives has to
be the focus of any viable HR organization.
Prioritising areas of greatest impact to achieving
those goals is smart. But a weak, inefficient
infrastructure will prevent the very agility,
analytics and access that HR will need to execute
any of those priorities with any real effect.
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"49% of the survey respondents
confirm that talent management
continues to be the overwhelming
challenge global companies face in
achieving their objectives."
The ADP Research Institute®