Today’s workforce is no longer made up of 9-to-5 office workers. Increasingly, companies are leveraging remote workers from all around the world to help strengthen their workforce and overcome talent gaps.

Human resource professionals can consider how to incorporate the global talent pool into all aspects of talent management, workforce planning, training, engagement, and retention. However, talent strategies must make sense for the organization, be aligned with the overall talent management plan, and be incorporated into the general strategic plan in order to be successful. This requires support from the executive team as well as floor managers and supervisors.

Performance evaluation tools and techniques should also be reviewed to ensure that they fit the company’s global focus. 360-degree assessments and global competency profiles are becoming more popular as human resource professionals realize that one size does not fit all.

Having a strong corporate culture can help organizations build a cross-cultural talent pool. That doesn’t mean that employees lose their culture, but instead become a part of a new culture that they already identify with. For example, Swedish manufacturer IKEA focuses on recruiting employees that value innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. Hiring for fit is very important to IKEA, and is becoming an increasingly larger focus for many organizations.