Earlier this week, we were moderating a panel for the HCI track on Global Talent Sourcing. (If you missed it, we are running a similar topic next week live at the HCI conference).

First, the debate focused on the term Offshoring because it sounds a bit too Western-centric. Kent Kirch from Deloitte prefers to use Global Sourcing as it is more reflective of a global aspect of usage of talent and does not reflect on a side of a shore.

Another area of specific interest was the view of the panel on the total cost of putting some of your workforce in growing countries such as China and India. The key message was: do not limit your accounting at just a straight cost comparison. As is often done, we compare the costs of one engineer in India and one in Silicon Valley and we see potentially 80% of savings. But this view is incomplete because it ignores the lack of soft skills and management skills that increase the total cost. In short, a one to one salary equivalence is often too simplistic.

Finally, one area where we see global talent management strategic value not used enough today is helping management in their global talent deployment decisions. These key HR decisions should be based on several business drivers — but most importantly — on the availability of global skills. In other words, analytics and workforce planning will drive the truly successful global talent management strategies going forward. Are you ready?