Conference Call Provides Little Comfort Regarding Global HR Challenges in 2012

In the year ahead, global companies will likely see rising operating costs in Asia, social unrest across much of the Middle East and North Africa, increased labor legislation in Latin America and economic chaos across Western Europe; in short, probably more of the same, according to participants on our global conference call briefing this week.  "2011 was one of the most challenging years in recent memory," said Chair of HR Policy's Global HR Initiatives, Bill Allen, Group Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources at A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, “and who knows what else will be put on the table in 2012?”  The call covered the various regions of the globe:

• Asia  Asia Pacific Employee Relations Group  Executive Director Amy Lau noted how Asia’s increasing prosperity, particularly in China and India, is affecting multinational corporations by raising costs (primarily through wage hikes and new labor regulations such as China's new Social Securities Law) and forcing many to consider relocating their headquarters to less expensive regions.  In addition, she predicted increasing opportunities in the ASEAN countries, most notably the Philippines and Indonesia: “These countries are benefitting from a pull factor caused by increased investment in Asia as well as a push factor from China because of the higher costs of doing business there."   
• Middle East and North Africa  Steve Gilbert, Vice President of Human Resources at A.P. Moller-Maersk, described the current situation in the region as one where there is growth and opportunity coupled with significant and often unpredictable risk.  The economic environment is also one where there are marked differences between the oil exporting and importing countries.  He pointed to two clear trends which have impacted Maersk:  1) social unrest as “a real and continuing factor,” which plays out differently in every country, and 2) the fact that employers will continue to see “very significant government mandates to address social and economic issues.”
• Latin America   Rafael Medina, McDonald’s Managing Counsel for Latin America, said he saw three key HR trends developing in the region: 1) a talent gap making it difficult to fill certain professional positions (notably in accounting and financing); 2) the continued growth of human rights and pro-union activity (largely related to ILO initiatives); and 3) a huge increase in data protection legislation (a development that is also a major focus in Europe).
• Europe  BEERG’s Tom Hayes observed that Europe’s current economic woes make it very difficult to predict where European labor rules will be by the end of the year: “At the national level, we are seeing the dismantlement of a significant amount of labor and employment laws, but at the same time we have the European Commission agenda at the EU level which seems to be pushing in the opposite direction, with scores of new initiatives.”