Global work fails on structure more often than on goodwill. The BASK names four HR structures that support global work, and this unit is about recognizing each one from the problem it solves.
The four structures
- Immigration and mobility specialists — dedicated expertise in visas and assignment administration.
- Geographic centers of excellence — consolidating scarce specialist capability so country teams stop duplicating visa processing, assignment administration and cross-border pay.
- Global job classifications — one framework of titles, grades and bands across countries, so transfers are not contentious case-by-case negotiations.
- International business travel policies — standing rules on work authorization, insurance and expenses for short trips abroad.
Matching the problem to the structure
- Same role, eleven countries, eleven different titles and bands: global job classifications. Not letting each country keep its own scheme, and not imposing the headquarters country's grades on everyone.
- Ad hoc questions before every client trip: an international business travel policy. Routing each trip to general counsel makes routine compliance a bespoke legal matter, and asking travelers to research entry rules themselves pushes an employer obligation onto individuals.
- Centralizing scarce cross-border expertise: a geographic center of excellence.
Items that are not on this list
Distractors here are pulled from other functional areas, and knowing their home is how you rule them out.
- Annualized loss expectancy is a Risk Management quantitative measure.
- Employee volunteerism is a CSR community engagement approach.
- Drug-free workplace testing belongs to Risk Management.
- A works council is an employee representation body, and a community advisory board is CSR. Neither is a BASK global HR structure.
The pattern in the keyed answers: build the standing structure rather than handle each instance individually, and never solve a global problem by restricting mobility or exporting one country's system.