An increasing number of HR departments are making steady progress to support a more dispersed workforce, according to a new survey by Hewitt Associates.
The survey found that organizations are moving in the right direction to develop global HR strategies that meet the diverse needs of their workforce across businesses and geographies.
Almost half (49%) of companies indicated that their global HR strategy applies to all of their operating regions—not just their primary location—with most organizations conducting HR activities at a global, regional and local level, depending on the process and the business needs.
Additionally, the study found that HR is leading the business when it comes to moving to a more global focus; 30% of companies describe their HR organization design as global compared to 15% of companies that describe themselves as global.
The survey also found that companies are looking to the future and searching for additional ways to better manage their global workforce and improve global operations.
• • •
Asian companies look to regulatory reform
A study from Greenwich Associates reports that large corporations and financial institutions in Asia are the world’s strongest private sector backers of a set of broad proposals aimed at reforming the world’s financial regulatory framework.
Participants were asked to rate their level of support for various regulatory reform proposals, to assess the appropriateness of the level of government intervention in markets around the world in combating the global crisis, and to predict the duration of the current economic recession. The results revealed the following:
• More than two-thirds of Asian companies and financial institutions support the creation of systemic regulators;
• Between three-quarters and two-thirds of Asian respondents support reforms to global derivatives markets, including shifting over the counter trading to exchanges and centralizing clearing;
• Almost three-quarters favour stricter regulation of hedge funds; and
• Seventy percent of Asian companies and financial institutions would support mandatory separation of investment banking and commercial banking activities within financial service firms.