Week 2 Discussion

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Dealing with the Global Workforce" Please respond to the following:

From the “Business Etiquette: Dealing with the Global Workforce” reading in Chapter 3 of the text, determine two (2) reasons why using the identified tips are important when you are using virtual team members for your organization. Provide at least two (2) examples of where these recommendations would be effective for a company that operates internationally.

Dealing with the Global Workforce

The new global workforce, or “Work 3.0,” offers 24/7 access to “the best people no matter where they are in the world,” says Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, a freelancers' website. Key to success is being able to “work with those people as if they're in the room with you.”

Here are some tips for finding and working with global employees:


1		Judge language skills wisely. If you need someone to interact with customers, superb command of written and verbal English is a must. If you need a tech worker, don't be put off by slightly less fluency.

2		Set up formal rules for keeping touch with employees you can't see, and make sure everyone adheres to them.

3		Make your expectations clear, and communicate them to all, as often as necessary.

4		Connect time zones to your needs. If you depend on meetings and real-time collaboration, choose remote workers with whom your workday overlaps.

5		To simplify compensation, identify your top candidates and weigh what they can offer you and focus less on what their competitors halfway across the world might earn.

6		If you need to train employees, customize your program to their culture. Find out what motivates them and how they can best learn.

Sources: Yanawan Saguanasataya Hurlbut, “Best Practices for Managing Remote Offices,” uSamp Blog, http://blog.Usamp.com, accessed February 29, 2012; Darrell Etherington, “Work 3.0 Is Just Getting Underway, Says oDesk's Gary Swart,” Gigaom.com, December 8, 2011, http://gigaom.com; Alison Green, “How to Manage Remote Employees,” The Quick Base Blog, November 17, 2011, http://quickbase.intuit.com; “How to Leverage the Global Workforce: 5 Quick Tips,” ODeskblog, April 13, 2011, www.odesk.com; “Modern Workforce: Managing Remote Workers,” Working Girl, February 12, 2011, http://li-workgirl.blogspot.com.

As global trade and investments grow, events in one nation can reverberate around the globe. But despite the risks of world trade, global expansion can offer huge opportunities to U.S. firms. With U.S. residents accounting for just over 1 in every 22 of the world's nearly 7 billion people, growth-oriented American companies cannot afford to ignore the world market.¹⁸ U.S. businesses also benefit from the lower labor costs in other parts of the world, and some are finding successful niches importing goods and services provided by foreign firms. Still, it is extremely important for U.S. firms to keep close track of the foreign firms that supply their products. A number of U.S. companies have tried having their goods manufactured in China because production costs are significantly lower than they would be in the United States. But there have been so many product recalls of Chinese-made goods during the past several years—ranging from toys and pet food to construction drywall and drinking glasses—that the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has opened an office in Beijing. The goal is to provide the CPSC with closer observation and better communication between U.S. and Chinese firms about manufacturing standards.¹⁹

U.S. firms must also develop strategies for competing with each other and with foreign firms to meet the needs and wants of consumers overseas. In the huge and fragmented beverage industry, experts predict that the Japanese and Chinese markets for healthy soft drinks, including juice-based and tea-based drinks, will grow significantly over the next few years.²⁰