Managing the Complexities of a Global-First Company

Omnipresent is a Business Reporter client.

Becoming a global-first company may be the key to finding success. But what’s the difference between competing globally and being global-first?

Becoming a global-first company may be the key to helping businesses withstand the upheavals endured in the modern world, such as societal shifts, rapid advancements in technology, political volatility and public health crises. We need only look at online giants for evidence: Unlike retail stores that took a heavy hit during the pandemic, global companies thrived, seeing record-breaking profits.

Companies with an online presence are already competing in a global market, and their competitors are also thinking global-first. But what’s the difference between competing globally and being a global-first company?

A company with a global-first mindset views the whole world as a commercial opportunity and looks to tap into a global talent pool to access employees beyond the organization’s home country. These companies understand that serving the global market requires teams placed throughout the world to facilitate a deeper understanding of local customer behavior and needs.

What’s more, a broader talent pool brings greater diversity of culture, experience and thought. Instead of 10 people on a team who share the same background, location or lived experience, a fully remote, distributed team can reflect and support the global expansion of clients and customers. This is the global-first reality at Omnipresent, a global employment partner that has grown into a team of more than 230 people in 42 countries and regions in just over two years.

While a globally distributed group of talent may sound like perfection for companies wanting to stay globally competitive, managing a global workforce can quickly become a logistical nightmare, especially for small and medium-sized companies. Major challenges and complexities—both cultural and practical—come with operating in an international, asynchronous environment.

Building a global team is not a walk in the park. What works in a company’s home country may not be feasible in other regions. Each market needs to be treated as its own special entity, from sales to marketing, to product and service delivery. This global-first approach should be woven throughout every aspect of an organization.

Communication leads the way

Good leaders put themselves in the shoes of the people furthest from the company’s center. The quality of the experience for those employees and customers has the greatest potential to be far from perfect, which means that leadership teams need to be deliberate about their communications.

Communication is every company’s heartbeat. As your company becomes more global and your workforce more distributed, it’s vital to have a well-tuned, consistent internal system for sharing information to ensure that everyone in the company is aware of what is happening in the different operating regions and functions of the business. Ensuring that all team members have the same access to information, regardless of their location, can be achieved by setting up shared cloud-based communication channels and specifying how they are to be used company-wide.

Building a global team also comes with the complexity of managing people across several time zones. How do you organize a company-wide, all-hands meeting? Do you ask people to work outside the normal working day, or do you hold three different meetings?

Being global-first means finding solutions that keep the needs of the global team in mind. Our solution is to hold one meeting on Wednesdays, alternating weekly between mornings and afternoons, UK time. This allows our colleagues in Asia and America to join live during a traditional workday at least every other week. Having as many team members as possible on the call allows them to ask questions and get the information in real time. For those unable to attend the live meeting, recording software helps bridge any communication gaps.

Navigating cultural differences

A global workforce is a multicultural workforce, and with that comes the challenge of navigating different social norms and expectations. Leaders need to ensure that everyone in the company accepts these differences and understands how to operate cross-culturally. By instilling these values into everyday operations, companies can help create a solid company culture.

It takes commitment and good communication to create a corporate ethos that appreciates both cultural similarities and differences across a workforce. For a global-first company, it’s important to make this a priority and incorporate it into an organization’s values.

Get ready for complexity

Being global-first is also supercharged with administrative and bureaucratic complexities, especially in the areas of HR, legal, payroll, operations and finance.

For example, companies need to consider salary benchmarking across cities, countries and regions. What amount of compensation should someone in Lagos, Nigeria receive compared to someone living in New York City? Should employees be paid the same rate no matter where they live, or should market rates be applied? How do companies manage different currencies when paying salaries? These are all crucial questions that global-first businesses need to answer.

Companies also need to consider benefits, holiday pay, social contributions and health care, and how they may differ from region to region. For example, US companies typically offer employer-funded health care, but what happens in Europe, where government-funded health care is standard? And what social contributions or taxes should employers pay in Singapore versus Chile? How do you budget for the different corporate rates in different countries?

Importantly, many solutions that have traditionally helped multinational companies operate globally often don’t work for new, smaller companies at the beginning of their global expansion journey. These companies need solutions that are more cost-effective and agile, and which leverage today’s technology-enabled products.

Regardless of location, a global-first mindset allows people to build great things together and speeds up innovation. By recognizing the global challenges and complexities, and putting in place the right practices, tools and systems, companies can reduce pain points and friction, allowing them to benefit from the global talent pool and global market.

To understand how international businesses are embracing new work practices with global talent, download the Work From Anywhere report at Omnipresent.com.