How Global Companies Can Attract And Retain Talent

The talent competition is tough, especially in the tech space. Talented engineers and designers have many options open to them. What can global giants do to attract the most sought-after talent to their teams? How can they create a hybrid work environment that is hard to resist?

Some of the issues leaders face in hybrid work environments are that employees feel less connected and managers feel that control is slipping. Maintaining a positive culture and keeping morale up is more challenging when things get tricky.

In recent years, global innovation centers (GICs) have become an increasingly important part of multinational corporations (MNCs)—such as IBM, Cisco, Deloitte and Glaxo Smith Kline, to name a few—as companies seek to remain competitive in a fast-paced and digital world. Since these large business units are often located in a different country from the HQ and have a particular set of tasks, they need to offer a different employee value proposition (EVP) to attract the specialized talent they need.

Before the pandemic, many companies relied on providing attractive work environments and accessible services to lure in top talent. Today, in a world where many people want to work from home, these perks are less effective. Many GICs are responding to this shift by offering more flexible, hybrid and remote work options, which can be a crucial part of their EVP.

Let's explore how you can learn from GICs' practices and leverage your hybrid work environment.

Get The Basics In Place

First, get your hybrid work environment right. How much face-to-face interaction do you need and want? What type of interactions does your culture require? Looking at your employee profile, how much flexibility is needed and desired? What kind of infrastructure do you have in place? What do you need to create the best hybrid work environment for your employees?

The second step is fully leveraging technology. Make sure you have clear guidelines on which software is used for what. Big companies use up to 50 different social and collaborative software platforms, which can get confusing. Try to reduce the number of platforms you use and clearly define what they are used for, e.g., email for more in-depth content, Slack for quick questions and coordinating meetings, etc.

Give your teams access to exciting technology to get their creative juices flowing and enable them to work most efficiently.

Thirdly, communication is now more critical than ever. Put some effort into achieving maximum clarity in your communication. Text updates are usually not enough; most people won’t read them, so think of efficient ways to do live updates at regular intervals. Make sure everyone has access to all the information they need.

Also, when speaking on Zoom, ask people to keep their cameras on whenever possible so that there is more of a connection. Leaders should set an example that others will follow.

Leverage Your Hybrid Work Model

When you’re offline:

When you’re at the office, make the most of personal interaction time, especially as a leader. Use this time to interact with your people face-to-face and build rapport. Nothing can replace meetings in real life for relationship-building. It’s also a great way to gauge morale, hear people’s ideas and create open and transparent communication opportunities.

So organize some nice "away days" or retreats to take your people on, and make sure they spend time together in person regularly. You need that real human interaction to keep morale up and your culture alive and thriving.

Offer some engaging personal and professional development opportunities. Let key people travel to conferences and events where they can engage with other industry leaders, offer in-person workshops on days when people are at the office and have some fun with team- and culture-building activities.

When you’re online:

Since most people are working remotely now—at least part of the time—you can create new cross-border collaborations. Get people from different teams together, and let them exchange their experiences, challenges and successes. Encourage cross-functional collaboration to accelerate innovation.

You no longer need to have separating lines between countries and departments; working online opens up a whole host of opportunities, and most MNCs should exploit these more fully. Allow yourself to be daring and creative to come up with new ways of working together.

Another thing that becomes easier online is mentoring across levels. Embrace both classical mentoring, where more experienced professionals mentor the younger generation, as well as reverse mentoring, where the more youthful generation mentors the more experienced colleagues on some of the latest trends in tech, etc.

Finally, give your team members access to coaches and counselors, provide mediators to help resolve conflicts and offer your leaders memberships to critical networking and mastermind groups for your industry. Opportunities for advancement and development are a big part of the EVP for most employees.

In Brief

In addition to offering flexible working models, GICs also provide a range of other benefits and perks to attract top talent, like opportunities for professional development, access to cutting-edge technologies and tools, and the chance to work on innovative and high-impact projects. Consider what other elements your global company can borrow from these centers to appeal to employees.

First published on Forbes.com in June 2023