More Employees Heading Overseas
Posted July 16th, 2012
If you work in human resources, you may have to begin thinking more internationally. Workers are going to foreign countries now at levels not seen since before the recession, according to a recent survey by Brookfield Global Relocation Services.
More than two-thirds of the companies surveyed increased the number of people they sent overseas in 2011, while fewer than half increased the number in 2010, according to the survey. The survey was based on contacts with more than 120 human resource managers of different size companies in the United States and elsewhere.
Even though the economy is still weak, businesses believe it is a necessity to send people overseas, according to Brookfield officials.
With Europe going through a major economic crisis, businesses are focusing their attention to other areas of the globe, such as China, Brazil, India, and Russia, according to the report. Among the newer markets, China has become the top destination. It is also one of the most difficult places to work because of the adjustments people have to make to a different culture and government.
Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies accounted for much of the growth in overseas assignments for employees. Every such company surveyed sent more people abroad in 2011 than in 2010. Energy, agriculture and chemical companies also sent more people abroad, while the financial services sector sent fewer people.
But some observers believe the growth is just temporary. They say that eventually the companies will begin hiring people who are native to the foreign countries. But the overseas assignments won’t stop entirely because companies still want to groom people for leadership positions by sending them abroad to give them a global perspective, according to Chris Collins of Cornell University.
And the flow will go the other way as well, Collins says, as companies bring new hires from other countries to their headquarters in the United States to introduce the people to the corporate culture and give them an opportunity to meet the leaders of the company.
At Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, for example, a German-Japanese conglomerate, employees are not only going from Germany and Japan to places such as the United States and China, but some are coming from Brazil to the United States to learn about the company, according to business writer Michelle Rafter.
What about you? Have you been sending more employees overseas this year than in the past? When you need workers for your direct-hire or temporary assignments at your San Francisco-area company, give Bayside Solutions a call. We look forward to hearing from you!
