Lessons from Abroad

I have been very fortunate in my career for many reason. The biggest is that I was able to  live and work overseas in Human Resources.  I am talking about living in different countries and experiencing their culture, people, and customs. I learned very quickly how many of the overall labor laws are the same regardless of country – anti-discrimination, minimum wage, holidays, etc. While these similarities unite us, the differences is what makes it interesting.

Those difference have definitely formed part of my philosophy when it comes to human resources (HR).

In Mexico unions are mandatory. So unlike here in the United States where you strive to remain non-union or battle against a union drive, in Mexico a new company shops for a union. How’s that for a twist. I remember I had to explain to a new employees in a unionized role that he had to politely ask the union about his benefits and what he could expect in return for paying union dues. Also, I had to explain that they could not get kicked out of the union or decide to quit the union – as I would be left with no choice but to let them go as their position was a union position. Even in different parts of the country unions were seen differently, we were fortunate enough to have a great relationship with the union and they ensured we had the best employees where in another part of the country it was a very contentious/adversarial relationship. Here my lesson was treat people with respect regardless of their role and you will get more.

In Argentina you have to follow the union guidelines but you may not have a shop steward or a representative to hold you directly accountable. Since contracts were done by industry, you would pick up your industries contract and follow it. Just because someone wasn’t there to remind me of what the contract says, by following it we avoided having a representative and created a better environment for everyone who worked there. We were trusted!

The country which influenced me the most was South Africa. I arrived in Johannesburg in 1995. Early on in my time there, the country moved employment issues out of the courts and into another government body called “Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration”. What made this interesting was no attorney’s were allowed (although I did keep mine on speed dial) and it was free for employees to file complaints with a certain time frame of an incident and it had to be moved through the various steps in process within a certain time as well. This did allow for issues to be resolved very quickly.

Their labor laws did have an interesting twist in that not only did you have to be legally complaint, you had to be substantially “fair”. It has been over 14 years since I left South Africa and this concept of fairness has stuck with me until this day. In other words, just because you are legally able to do something doesn’t mean it is the right thing or the fair thing to do.

What does that mean? For example – if you are in an “at-will” state where you fire someone for no reason (as long as it is not discriminatory), is it fair? Don’t you think it would be better to give people a chance to improve or provide them with a reason?

What have you experienced that still influences you today?