BusinessWeek this morning calls to light an issue Knowledge Infusion sees HR dealing with more and more as the economy truly become global at its core - Global Workforce and Talent Management.  BusinessWeek highlights that organizations are moving more and more to outside firms such as Fragomen and Littler.  The firms have an interesting observation worth calling out:

Fragomen and Littler say that about 80% of their work involves getting workers into the US, which can be extremely frustrating.

Getting employees into other countries can be equally difficult requiring a series of tests, certifications and processes just to enter the country for work purposes.

HR has to change its focus from trying to do all of this by itself to working with firms such as Fragomen and Littler for assistance.  Where HR MUST focus is on the global workforce planning aspect of this problem. 

I, Jason Averbook, recently spoke at a Conference Board event for CEO's where I was quoted saying "in the future, HR is not just about getting the right people to the right place at the right time, but truly knowing what those people are good at, who is looking for career opportunities and how these people will continue to progress within the organization.  The days of find and drop into a job are over for HR, it is an ongoing, everliving process in today's global economy."

The other thing that is truly important about this issue is that for each of these people and to fulfill the future role of HR in a global economy, HR needs to have a solid GLOBAL FOUNDATION for its core HR solution and a GLOBAL talent management and workforce planning tool.  These are MUSTS as the world becomes flatter and an area that we at Knowledge Infusion continue to see growing interest in.

Take a read of this short, but informative article from BusinessWeek this morning.  Do you have a global view of your workforce besides employee number?

Another infusion of knowledge...

Link to BusinessWeek article