Recruiting top talent is a challenging and time-consuming process, especially in today's competitive job market. Isn’t it? To stand out and attract the best candidates, many organizations are looking to hire the best talent abroad. The process involves searching for candidates from other countries, often to find individuals with specific skill sets or to save on costs.
As a recruiter or HR professional, expanding your search for candidates beyond your local area can be a great way to discover top talent, but it's important to understand the process, challenges and strategy accordingly.
In this blog post, we will provide an overview of everything you need to know about recruiting great talent abroad, from international recruitment best practices to the best hiring platforms.
Why recruiting talents abroad
Before we talk about the best practices or ideal talent management platform, let’s find out why it's important for organizations to hire international employees.
As remote work options continue to grow, businesses now have access to a wider pool of international candidates. This enables you to potentially expand internationally and bring diverse talent to the company.
While the benefits of recruiting talent abroad are countless, here are three things companies witness when they hire people globally:
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Opportunity to build a rich culture
A workplace with a diverse workforce provides employees with the opportunity to develop and enhance their intercultural competencies, including active mindfulness and respect for individual differences. This ultimately fosters a more inclusive and harmonious working environment, where individuals can build productive and positive relationships with their colleagues.
Diversity in the workplace can lead to better creativity and problem-solving. When people come together with different ideas, knowledge, perspectives, and opinions, it leads to new and creative ways of thinking and problem-solving, which can have a positive impact on productivity and performance.
Research has shown that companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits.
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Valuable insights
International employees offer valuable insights into new markets. They are already familiar with the local market, language, and customs, and can provide businesses with strategic knowledge that can be used for market and customer research, competitor analysis, and branding. This can be more sustainable than hiring external consultants as the relationship with employees is long-term.
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Great custom service
Hiring internationally can also lead to superior customer service. International employees empower companies to provide better overall service to clients, no matter where they are located in the world.
They can also speak multiple languages, removing language barriers and allowing for a better overall consumer experience. Also, having an international customer service team in various countries increases the ability to understand and connect with customers, which can have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and retention.
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Potential cost savings
Companies often consider hiring international employees as a cost-saving measure, which can lead to unethical and exploitative practices. However, it is possible to hire internationally in an ethical and fair manner.
One approach you can adopt is identifying areas with a surplus of qualified professionals for specific skills, where salaries may be more competitive than in domestic markets. This approach can result in cost savings while also providing fair compensation for employees.
The best practices for international recruitment
While hiring international candidates can bring many benefits, it is important to consider several important factors beforehand, such as time zone differences, legal policies in other countries and other relevant factors.
Nevertheless, it's essential to take the time to fully understand the opportunities and challenges to ensure a smooth and successful experience for both the business and the candidate. The following international recruitment best practices will help you along the process:
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Understand relevant employment laws
When recruiting and hiring international employees, it is crucial to ensure compliance with all relevant employment laws within their region of operation. These laws can vary significantly across countries and even regions.
Thus, it is important for recruiters and hiring managers to familiarize themselves with the specific regulations that pertain to benefits, vacation time, taxation, leave, termination, and notice periods in the country of operation. By being aware of these regulations and adhering to them, you can ensure a fair and compliant hiring process for all international employees.
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Have the right technology in place
In 2023, it’s hard to imagine an efficient hiring process without a robust talent management system. Do you have the right HR management system to handle your hiring processes effectively? If not, you might not be able to recruit or manage the best talents abroad.
For example, expanding the reach of your recruitment efforts has the potential to yield a greater number of qualified candidates. However, it is important to have the necessary technology and resources in place to effectively review and evaluate the increased volume of applications.
Also, as the pool of candidates diversifies, the process of shortlisting can become more complex. It may be beneficial to review and potentially adjust the methods and criteria used for screening resumes to ensure an efficient and thorough candidate selection process.
Related: Freelance Management System: Everything you need to know
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Reinvent your company culture
Is your company culture diverse enough to facilitate international employees with varying cultures and outlooks? If you’re looking to hire people globally, you must work towards fostering a positive and cohesive work environment. However, this can be challenging when employees are located remotely across the globe.
To address this, actively work towards creating a sense of cohesion and belonging among all employees, regardless of location. This can be achieved through intentional efforts to promote effective communication and shared values, ensuring that all employees feel connected to the company's mission and values.
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Build an international employer brand
An effective employer brand is essential for attracting top talent, regardless of the scope of recruitment. For companies looking to hire internationally, it is important to position themselves as a global employer that embraces diversity and inclusion.
To effectively achieve this, you need to highlight your company's international presence and commitment to diversity and inclusion on various online platforms such as your careers website, employee stories pages, and social media pages. By emphasizing these values and promoting a global perspective, you can easily attract a diverse pool of highly qualified candidates.
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Redefine communication and collaboration
The next important thing to consider is the way you communicate and collaborate. Do you have the right communication and collaboration tools that make things easier for your potential new hires or employees?
While recruiting international employees is a crucial step, effectively managing and collaborating with a globally dispersed workforce is a distinct challenge. As companies expand their international presence, remote collaboration and communication become increasingly important.
To ensure success in this context, it is essential for you to provide your employees with the necessary tools, training, and flexibility to effectively work in a remote environment. This includes providing employees with the technology, guidance and support needed to work collaboratively and communicate effectively with colleagues and teams across different locations, time zones and cultures.
Best platforms to recruit talents abroad
As the number of online recruiting software options continues to grow, you must carefully evaluate and select the best provider to meet your recruitment and talent management needs. To make things easier, invest some time into evaluating top recruiting platforms.
We’ve come up with a few best platforms that can help you recruit and streamline the rest of your HR operations both locally and globally.
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Wiggli
Wiggli is a leading cloud-based talent management platform that not only allows you to build broad talent pools but also automates most of your time-consuming HR process. For example, Wiggli comes with a highly efficient applicant tracking system and candidate relationship management tools.
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Zoho Recruit
Zoho Recruit is another efficient recruitment software that offers quality hiring solutions for recruitment agencies and employers.
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Upwork
Platforms like Upwork and LinkedIn don’t automate your hiring processes but give you access to international talent. You should explore these channels to reach out to full-time, remote, and freelance professionals.
Final thoughts
In today's competitive global market, you need to take advantage of a dispersed workforce to achieve success. By building talent pools and assembling teams of individuals with specialized expertise from various regions, you can tap into the benefits of cultural diversity and diverse work backgrounds to tackle both strategic and operational obstacles.
