Latin American companies that have expanded across the region and onto the global stage have long been analyzed and celebrated in the regional press. Think of Telmex, the Mexican communications giant, Falabella the Chilean retailer, Cemex the large Mexican cement producer or even Embraer, the world-renowned Brazilian aeronautical manufacturer. Behind the expansion of these so-called “multi-Latin” companies is more than solid cash flow, healthy profits and a good eye for business. There is also a vision on how to manage the skills and talents of your employees through their expansion momentum. So understandably human resource management has become vitally important in this process. Unfortunately, not all companies understand this fact. And this could prove to be a fatal mistake. For example, 15% to 30% of executives sent abroad by Latin American companies fail to meet their goals. And 30% of managers who return to their country of origin also leave the company within two years. Today on the Latin American continent there is fierce competition. This is why companies cannot afford the luxury of relegating human resources management to the background. Talent is quickly identified by rival companies and they will not hesitate to drag it into their field. The study on human resource management by Latin American companies carried out by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, demonstrated that companies have destroyed their old practices and that what used to be regional methods are believed to no longer be applicable. There are three main aspects in which the change in method is most evident: recruitment, salaries and benefits and repatriation policies.RecruitmentAccording to the study, almost 80% of "multi-Latin" companies maintain a workforce abroad and 45% expects its foreign workforce to grow in the near future. This new form of doing business has imposed changes in the profile of the people they hire and the people they promote. The profile of a successful executive in 2008 is very different from that of the 1990s. Traditional recruitment relied on the candidate's technical knowledge and postgraduate studies. The fame and prestige of the candidate's university was also taken into account. Today this is not enough. For a successful career, most candidates need a postgraduate degree in Economics, they must also have excellent knowledge of the English language and, hopefully, they must have had experience abroad..