The what, why, and how of global resource management. A primer for organizations that operate across borders and want to do it more effectively.
Global resource management sounds self-explanatory. Just managing resources on a global scale. The same thing as resource management, but bigger, right?
Well, yes and no.
Global resource management is a centralized approach to resource management that delivers efficiencies and strategic alignment on an international scale.
And while it shares many of the same goals and processes as localized resource management, operating internationally presents unique challenges and opportunities that set it apart from other resource management models.
How can you manage the process of deploying human resources effectively across different regions and continents?
And how does global resource management drive stronger business performance in a complex multinational environment?
Keep reading to find out.
Global resource management is the process of managing and deploying human resources across multiple countries or regions.
Much like resource management at a local or national level, it's about ensuring that your talent – no matter where they are located – are utilized effectively to meet client, project, and business needs.
Global resources management may be overseen by a centralized Resource Management Office responsible for strategic direction and operational oversight of resourcing.
Despite the similarities with resource management on a smaller scale, global resource management is much more complex, thanks to:
Global resource management takes the benefits of localized resource management and multiplies them.
Imagine the advantages of optimized resource allocation in a single location – like higher resource utilization, faster delivery, and improved productivity – and then applying that to your entire global workforce.
By strategically managing resources across multiple regions, businesses can unlock a whole new level of efficiency, flexibility, and client satisfaction.
Just like with local resource management, the goal is to make sure the right people with the right skills are working on the right tasks at the right time. With a larger global pool of resources, you have more opportunities to make those magic matches.
This can:
The result is a more streamlined operation, working as one global team.
One of the biggest advantages of a global workforce is the ability to provide faster – or even round-the-clock – service.
For example, a magazine publisher based in the US could outsource photo editing to a team in Malaysia, meaning the images are touched up and ready when the US production crew starts work the next day. This coordination between time zones could be a key competitive advantage, ensuring faster turnaround times and continuous progress.
Plus having a wider pool of resources to draw on means you’re potentially less constrained by local availability. In a localized scenario, you may need to compromise on skill set or billable rate to find an available resource – or delay a project altogether.
With a wider pool of resources, you have a better chance of finding the right fit to progress the project as planned.
Global operations also reduce risk by spreading your business activities across multiple markets. This makes you less vulnerable to economic instability. For example, if one market is facing an economic downturn, you don’t have to contemplate costly layoffs.
Instead, you can reallocate employees to markets with higher demand, or retrain them to fill talent gaps elsewhere. With effective global resource management, geographical borders are no longer a barrier to resource retention.
With so many benefits to global resource management, you’d expect every cross-border business to be doing it. However, there are also significant challenges.
Global resource management is inherently more complex than managing resources in a single country or location.
The challenges arise from the sheer scale of multinational businesses (often employing thousands of resources), the different markets they operate in, and the range of time zones employees work in.
These make it more difficult to get good visibility into resources, optimize allocations, and match supply to demand — but these are essential for seamless coordination and cross-border optimization.
If you’re a resource manager in the US, you may have a good understanding of the staff available in your Austin and Raleigh offices. But what about the offices in the APAC or EMEA regions?
Global resource management has to overcome these challenges to create visibility into all resources and build a comprehensive understanding of the global workforce.
Otherwise, there’s a risk of favoring known teams – and that goes against the entire point of global resource management – optimizing staff deployment across multiple regions.
One of the major challenges of global resource management is creating international teams that span different time zones. In the age of remote work and digital collaboration, there’s no reason for your dream teams to be limited by geography.
In theory, a well-scheduled global team could provide near 24/7 customer service. If your client is in the UK, for instance, a global team spanning Bangalore, London, and Chicago could provide round-the-clock progress.
But, in reality, cross-timezone working is more complex. Global resource managers need to harness this power to ensure resources and work plans are optimized to work together, not hindered by the time differences between them. For example, by implementing asynchronous working practices and strategically orchestrating global collaboration.
Client demand – and resource supply – can differ significantly from region to region, which can make it harder to manage organizational capacity. For example, in a software development context:
International resource management therefore needs a global understanding of market conditions, client needs, and talent supply – to ensure capacity is planned appropriately and the right resources are available where and when required.
Strategic workforce planning is about aligning people and resourcing strategy with the wider strategic goals of the organization. For example, is the business looking to enter new markets, diversify its client offer, make cost savings, or improve operational efficiency?
But how can you effectively plan workforce strategies in a global context?
Strategic capacity planning is essential in any business. It’s about supply and demand. You need to know what your future pipeline looks like, to ensure you have the right quantity and type of employees in your business. But global resource capacity planning is complicated by various factors.
Firstly, visibility into all of the resources and skills currently available to you, to understand whether you can meet demand with your existing workforce. And, secondly, awareness of skills availability and cost in different regions, should you need to recruit new resources.
To plan and manage capacity on a global scale, you’ll need global oversight of people and projects.
Resource allocation and optimization are the operational side of resource management. It’s about finding the right people with the right skills at the right time – so that projects run smoothly and deliver desired outcomes.
At a global level, this means allocating and optimizing resources from your international talent pool, unconstrained by geographic boundaries. And – of course – creating a working environment where diverse cultural styles and different time zones can work perfectly together.
Resource managers know that resource planning for multiple projects is challenging at the best of times. But when those projects are multinational, the challenges are multiplied – like balancing regional priorities with global strategic objectives. This means prioritization, strategic alignment, and workforce optimization are even more important in a global context.
Global resource management relies on technology for communication, coordination, resource visibility, and data analytics. Here are some you need to know.
Resource management software is essential for global resource management.
At an operational level, it provides a central platform to access all of the resource information you need for accurate allocations – like role, skills, billable, etc – and provides real-time visibility into resources’ availability, capacity, and allocations – so you can plan and prioritize projects appropriately.
It also has project management tools including a project planner and real-time metrics for tracking progress and financial performance.
Strategically, a resource management system provides senior leaders with a bird’s-eye view of resourcing data – such as utilization rates, capacity, etc – for confident data-based decision-making.
This can be via in-depth reports or through data visualization for faster comprehension – allowing you to track trends, plan capacity, and align resource strategy to organizational priorities.
Beyond resource management software, global teams benefit from:
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