SKILLS CLUBS - TASTE HR
Tuesday 1st April 2008
WHAT HUMAN RESOURCES DO FRENCH COMPANIES NEED FOR THEIR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Participants
-Alain Lebagousse, Advisor to DG HR, Postal Service, Co-Founder of the ECHR European Club for HR Managers
-Armand Sohet, HRD, Thales Land and Joint Division
-Arnaud Guillen, International Development Consultant, International Development Director, Dalkia
-David Boublil, Staffing Manager Europe, Google
-Emeric Bodineau, International Development HRD, Servier
-Pierre Richard, DG, Protéines
-Pierre-Olivier Landry, HRD, EMEA Regus
-Daniele Scherma, Corporate HR Integration Director, Bureau Veritas
-Cyril Dechelette, former Vice-President Internal Communications and Corporate Image, Alcatel Group
-Didier Bruneau, Compensation & Benefits Manager Europe, Middle East, Africa, Corning SAS
-Olivier Petit, VP HR Europe, Ascott International
-Pierre Fontaney, Human Resource Director, Continental Europe and North America, HBOS Group (Halifax Bank of Scotland)
-Anne Bitz, Director Human Resources and Communications, AOS Group
-Leslie Asch Guillon, Former Director Communications, Areva T&D
“At what stage of international development should the HR dimension be considered?”
Arnaud Guillen
In this matter, you have substantial freedom of action. Should the HRD be involved very much upstream of the development process or would it be better to wait for the country – or the market – to grow sufficiently mature to set the HR process in motion. It all depends on the company’s activities and objective. If just project management is concerned, there is no need to activate the HR from the outset. It is important to ask yourself then whether reliable local manpower is available (for recruitment) or whether you need to send expatriates? The HRD can intervene subsequently when the country has been “opened”, when the local network has been established and partnerships forged. In any case, the Director General can call in the HRD only to allocate long-term human resources. Otherwise, it might be appropriate to send “trade” or “market” specialists on short or extended tours.
Olivier Petit
You know, HRs always come in too late. Of course I am just joking! Perhaps it is a cultural issue! The problem is much more complex when there has been an acquisition and you have to proceed with a merger. In such a case, it is important to build an experienced HR team, which can manage the crucial inter-cultural dimension. Failure usually occurs in such cases when you under-estimate the difficulties in making two or more cultures co-exist.
Armand Sohet
Difficult to find a magic formula. It all depends on the organization’s business model. Are we looking for an acquisition set-up or ex-nihilo creation? Are we aggressively seeking to build an all-out international HR organization with a strategy and procedures to be applied in all situations - for instance, % of national staff, % of mobile executives, replacement of expatriates every 2 years. One of the major difficulties in the matter is distinguishing which in house profiles are the most likely to adapt to a new cultural context. It is extremely complicated to predict the inter-cultural abilities of people, even though adaptability is one of the determining criteria for being successful in one’s mission abroad.
Should you send expatriates or recruit on the spot? What about the intercultural dimension?
Didier Bruneau
Apart from identifying profiles with an inter-cultural vocation, you still have to convince the concerned person to spend several years in an environment that is not always the most comfortable. The spouse’s career, the children’s schooling, the unpredictable prospects of returning are often difficulties managers of international mobility face in finding candidates right away. Hence, the need to favor local solutions most often.
Emeric Bodineau
75% of the Servier group’s sales are achieved abroad. We systematically launch our subsidiaries with local teams, especially our medical reps, and as we grow, we look for more staff. In absolute terms, our expatriate % is relatively limited. Initially, our foreign subsidiaries are managed by locals. We send expatriates (employees from the head office or expatriates from other countries) when the critical size goes up substantially. This is followed by an in house process to disseminate our corporate culture among the staff and make sure that it subscribes to it. In Servier, the threshold for setting up a well-developed and autonomous HR structure is 100 employees.
Anne Bitz
To get a clear idea, it is necessary to distinguish between what we can call “proximity” international development (Brussels, Madrid) where it is relatively easy to manage HR remotely, in a dematerialized manner, and international development with a capital I (China, India, Brazil) where inter-cultural issues are much more “critical” and where it is important to build a local HR policy, bearing in mind the country’s specificities in terms of remuneration and staff development. This distinction does not mean that inter-cultural differences are ironed out on crossing into France’s bordering countries. Don’t be surprised by complications!
Pierre-Olivier Landry
In Regus, when we are in the prospecting phase followed by the recruitment phase in so-called “difficult” countries, such as, for instance, in Khartoum in Sudan at present, we send a seasoned HR team of professionals (called RIOT). This is a sort of “Task Force” that spends 3 to 6 months on the spot, depending on the situation. We manage the recruitment process from Paris and the “Task Force” recruits and trains future employees on the spot. Once its mission is over and the new local team is operational, it leaves for other destinations.
Daniele Scherma
Some French groups have adopted an approach that I would describe as traditional as far as sending representatives abroad is concerned. A grey-haired, therefore experienced, executive who manages to impose his authority and respect vis-à-vis his interlocutors. Though rather questionable under certain aspects, such an approach has demonstrated its effectiveness. In other companies with a highly international culture and in which travel is a sine qua non prerequisite of harmonious upward mobility (e.g.: Total, Schlumberger), the profiles are obviously more diversified.
Is there an international culture?
Arnaud Guillen
The following is a legitimate question to raise: is there truly an international culture? Wouldn’t it tend to replace cultural differences at a certain skill level? Abroad, we often rub shoulders with people who have done the same studies (often in the USA) and who speak the same language - in short, with whom communication is simple and easy even if they conform to a cultural ritual: prayers, tea, cricket at specific times during the day.
Emeric Bodineau
I have a different opinion, in the light of our experience. According to me, training or common affinities are just a veneer. An Indian remains an Indian, a Russian remains a Russian, irrespective of the context. When there are no expatriates or they are momentarily absent, the nationals tend to revert to their local specificities. This is a fascinating problem although it is difficult to manage.
Pierre Fontaney
When the question of the integration of expatriates in their host country is raised, we don’t usually question the state of mind of the local staff that is supposed to take them in. Were they trained or sensitized to their arrival? I am aware of cases where bringing them “face to face” turned sour in the absence of local sensitization.
In what way is developing an employer brand abroad relevant?
Armand Sohet
The company’s image abroad is crucial. Thanks to its “branding” and reputation, it can attract the talent it seeks.
Pierre-Olivier Landry
Even if our brand’s renown gradually increases, we frequently “land up” in countries that are still virgin territories in terms of advertising. This is not necessarily a handicap because then there are no prejudices (negative or positive). In a way, we can tell a “new” story and thus arouse interest and curiosity.
Leslie Asch Guillon
It is important to nurture your image as soon as you enter the country or geographical zone in question. It is the right time to institute a proper communications and brand policy and show or demonstrate that we are in a position to offer a professional career path worthy of its name to future candidates.
David Boublil
In Google, apart from the brand’s strong attraction, which is an advantage, the development of a corporate culture is primordial. In our international development policy, we do not reason in terms of expatriation because the costs are prohibitive. We favor local skills and send experts for short missions to intervene in countries in which we wish to “raise the competency levels” of the local management at a particular time. Our recruitment process, which is very long (6 to 7 interviews) particularly seeks to determine how attached our employees are to our project.
Alain Le Bagousse
Within the framework of setting up a subsidiary abroad, it is very important to rely on existing employees to attract future candidates. A company has no better ambassador than its existing employees within the specific framework of co-option. Another decisive vector in instituting the employer brand is the opinion of clients.
Emeric Bodineau
Hence the importance of ensuring staff “development”, and cultivating their feeling of belonging to the company. An ambitious HR policy abroad almost definitely guarantees returns on investment.
Taste’s opinion:
International development is not always based on a logic of business development, corporate processes, R&D, production, etc. viewed globally. In some cases, the HR problematic is at the heart of a project.
It is true that the internationalization phase plays an important role in formulating the HR response, depending on whether it is the organization’s first phase of internationalization, local expansion or multi-nationalization. Staffing logic varies accordingly: international development or export professionals often from the country of origin, in house experts who are expatriated to disseminate the in house culture and know-how, local profiles to “nationalize” the company and members of the International Board, which we hope would be the most representative of the group’s geographical presence.
The question is knowing how and where you can find an expert – local or expatriate – who will be able to adapt best to the corporate culture, and also, does your company have all the arguments necessary to draw the best talent in a specific market.
We are convinced that borders should not be a barrier to seeking experts or the “rare skills” that you need. The value addition of an international HR company is to be able to identify talent irrespective of where it can be found. Ideally, these experts should already have international and multi-cultural profiles, therefore more visible, but that is not always the case. That is why we believe that international skills clubs could become an additional and effective tool to deal with such issues.
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