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My first day as Vice President of People and Talent at my company Vagaro was also my first day as Managing Director in the UK. We have prepared our recent office near London for launch in just two months. Even though our business development team brought in consultants to make sure the office was compliant with local regulations, we still had to pick out, train and prepare our people. Take it from me: opening a global branch is best planned well in advance.
As a software provider to the wellness, beauty and fitness industries, our launch in the UK was a part of our strategic plan to expand our global presence. We also opened an office in India, expanding our network beyond our headquarters in Pleasanton, California. The creation of each recent divisions taught key lessons in overseeing a people-first transformation that made them feel like extensions of the company fairly than isolated islands.
I like to recommend working back at least 12 months to place in place the right resources, systems and expertise as early as possible. This includes a CFO who understands global funds and an HR specialist with experience in global expansion who can lead the process. You also want employees to begin work at least a month or two earlier.
Through my work as an HR skilled helping firms arrange offices in various locations around the world, I have gained a different insight into these issues international expansion. Here’s a guide to avoiding common challenges.
1. Location, location, location
When we moved to India, we knew that location was really the first, second and third priority. If we had chosen a location in the south, the trip would have taken 9 to 12 hours a major center of intense competition. While such a location would offer a cost advantage, the talent pool would even be relatively smaller.
From an HR perspective, firms entering global markets must fastidiously balance costs and access to talent. If someone commutes to work by train every day, how will this be sustainable? If you have an office on the outskirts of a large city, be prepared to face attrition and retention issues. We had all this in mind when we decided to open an office in Ahmedabad, Western India – the right balance was struck.
Your employment structure may also influence your selection of location, whether or not it’s entirely distant, entirely office-based, or hybrid. This will determine how dependent you are on proximity when attracting talent. All these aspects underscore the need to begin conversations with local HR experts very early to make the right decisions. Remember, once you lock a location, you’re committed.
2. Choose systems for global growth
Once you’ve narrowed down your location, the next step is to establish systems to facilitate global hiring. Having multiple systems with multiple logins makes data retrieval difficult and can negatively impact the perception of a connected global company. Therefore, our goal is to maneuver to a human resources information system (HRIS) solution to trace global workforce data under one umbrella.
Many sole proprietors initially use HRIS and payroll processing systems to administer payroll and funds. However, as firms grow, they often move to more comprehensive global platforms that can store all worker information across regulatory environments, ensuring greater efficiency and compliance. It comprises different rules regarding additives resembling maternity leave, paid leave and health care. In the UK, for example, people get 28 days of annual PTO immediately.
Using a subject material expert is critical to make sure these systems are arrange to fulfill employment, pay, tax and advantages regulations in the goal country. Again, I like to recommend hiring a consultant 12-18 months before expanding to incorporate system design assistance. It might be a three-year contract: one 12 months before joining and two years after joining the team. However, leaders have to be open to their advice on how exactly to organize for success on the international stage. It is definitely value the investment to avoid unintentional violations of international law.
3. Learn to administer time differences
My final piece of recommendation for growing businesses is to concentrate on the time zones you select. Going global could mean Canada or Mexico, which is only a one or two hour difference if you live in the US. But once you start crossing oceans to Asia and Europe, you should be prepared to attach with the group during some of their working hours so that they feel supported.
Creating a global team environment requires flexibility and not expecting that different offices are at all times adapting to your time zone. Let’s open a business unit in Latin America for our call centers or a business unit in India or Romania for software engineers. Flexibility is normally one-way. But is it really a partnership? Compromising too much can make this division feel extremely disconnected. So commit to it maintaining fair boundaries around time differences.
As an HR leader, if which means getting up from 6am to 8am to fulfill with my team in the UK or from 2am to 3am to fulfill with my team in India, I’m flexible. More importantly, I would like these teams to feel that I’m flexible. There are no “off hours” as a world leader. Leaders must even be prepared to travel two or three times a 12 months to fulfill with people from our international operations. It is simply a part of fulfilling global responsibilities.
While the logistics of international expansion can be complex, all of those systems must support connecting like a global company. You can’t just do it digitally. Headquarters leaders must often visit their recent colleagues in person because this is how relationships are built. When your recent branches feel more like extensions of your business fairly than isolated islands, your company will grow to be truly global. So select a date, select your consultants and go back a 12 months to get your grand opening off the ground.