Increasing global competition, regulation and worker expectations are driving the need for global workforce management among multinational and international manufacturers alike.

Multinational corporations have long felt pressure to control labor expenditures and improve productivity to avoid losing business to foreign competitors with lower labor costs. Now, as local markets emerge, companies in developing nations, such as India and China, find themselves fending off competition from surrounding nations with even lower labor costs. Workforce management systems give manufacturers visibility into productivity and labor costs for production facilities worldwide.

These challenges are compounded by the complexities of compliance with an ever-growing array of international labor laws and growing employee expectations in developing economies. Global workforce management systems simplify compliance by automating manual processes. In addition, by improving productivity, workforce management systems help manufacturers grow so they can offer workers the greater opportunities, pay and benefits necessary to retain top talent.

Yet successfully implementing a global workforce management solution requires that manufacturers understand and manage the unique challenges of managing the global workforce.

Why is Global Workforce Management Challenging?

As manufacturers seek to implement global workforce management, they face three unique challenges: Cultural differences, language and currency differences and regulatory variations.

Cultural Differences

Expectations for roles within the workplace have a significant impact on the success of a workforce management implementation. For example, if a company's structure is strictly hierarchical, with rigidly defined roles and responsibilities, empowering operators with decision making authority will deliver fewer benefits than in companies with a more horizontal approach. Companies must align the tools they provide with their corporate culture or risk facing the uphill battle of changing their culture before they can benefit from the tools. Since cultures can vary from one location to the next within the same company, manufacturers must strike the right balance between standardization and localization.

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