Building a Diverse Global Workforce

 This chapter as you know, looks into the often overlooked world of global HR. It is a fascinating field that requires detailed understanding of global issues, and if a company does it well, it contributes to its global success.

The french company, Sodexo, is one such company; and its case is very interesting. Below, you can see a summary of the case. You can find the full text of the case at the end of Chapter 17 in your book.

Additionally, I have added some extra material and videos to help you understand the issues better. It also helps those of you who might be interested in digging deeper into this topic.

As usual, after reading the case study carefully and watching the videos I have provided, you need to answer the questions that I have posted below and discuss it with your classmates. Make sure to number your answers accordingly and don’t leave any questions unanswered:

Summary of case

The closing case explores diversity at Sodexo, the worldwide leader in providing quality of life services. Sodexo believes that a diverse workforce contributes to higher company profits, and so the company, headquartered in France, is committed to building a globally diverse workforce. With 425,000 employees spread across 80 countries, Sodexo, seems to be achieving its goal. It was recently ranked number 6 in the world by Diversity Inc.

Please make sure to read and study the full case in Chapter 17 of our textbook.

In addition:  Here are couple of links and videos that are very informative about this topic:

Video: 

International Human Resources Management

Website: 

Here is Sodexo’s World-wide website (they also have country-specific websites):

Questions:

1. How might building a more diverse global workforce help Sodexo to achieve high performance?

2. What barriers do companies like Sodexo face when trying to increase workforce diversity in their global operations?

3. Sodexo’s strategy is to decentralize authority to develop and fine-tune programs and implement them to managers in each country. What are the benefits of this approach? What are the potential drawbacks?  

 300 words minimum (total)