Recruit international talent

According to a study by CEMS Nearly half of HR managers struggle to find and recruit international talent.

There are barriers that human capital departments face when recruiting international staff, including finding quality employees, work permits, etc.

That is why it is necessary to have a solid search strategy when recruiting international talent.

Table of Contents

How to generate a good strategy when recruiting international talent?

1. Build a global talent brand

Nowadays, the main thing to attract the best international talent is to create an attractive and solid brand that attracts the attention of your future candidates.

The statistics they say that 75% of candidates will analyze your company's reputation before applying for a job.

Build a good website

What should a candidate see when landing on your website? To begin with, you need to work on the design, make it easy on the eyes by choosing colors, fonts and logo. 

Lots of disturbing ads, auto-playing content and links will only frustrate the visitor and make them leave immediately. 

It should be a friendly and easy to use place, regardless of the device, make sure contact information and any buttons are visible.

It is important to have a page where you talk about the company, its business culture and where the candidate can appreciate everything the company offers.

Also, there should be a page dedicated to employees, where they share their stories and experiences, information on training, internal promotion and benefits they offer.

IMPORTANT! Create an FAQ section where potential candidates can ask questions and get answers quickly.

Do not forget to optimize your website in search engines, you can combine SEO and PPC (cost per click) to raise brand awareness and increase your reach. 

The implementation of a couple of recruitment marketing strategies will help you improve your visibility.

According to PWC 71% of young people would like to work outside their home country during their career. 

Use social networks

Share your offers through social networks, it is important that you create your company page on LinkedIn, this network will make your offers visible to more candidates. 

Share valuable content, answer user questions, and join relevant communities to drive reach and position yourself as a fresh company.

2. Find the right time to recruit international talent

Many business owners decide to start recruiting international talent right away. 

If you have recently launched a Startup and want to attract international workers, there are a few things to keep in mind:

  • To recruit international talent, start with your city, your goal should be to hire local workers and, at the same time, invest in the inclusion and diversity of your company. 
  • The nationality, religion, age or gender of the candidates should not concern you, as long as their skills meet the needs of your company. In this way you will create a good employer branding.
  • Look for untapped talent pools, such as people with disabilities, who often have trouble finding profitable jobs no matter how qualified they are to work. This helps you create a different and inclusive company.

3. Consult a lawyer

When recruiting international talent, you should learn more about the labor regulations of their countries. 

Depending on the country, legal matters vary, so you must have an immigration specialist lawyer on your team, who can provide the necessary information to the company and the future employee.

4. Work permit to recruit international talent

Depending on the country, work permits vary, so it is important to take these types of things into account before starting to search and select an international candidate.

They are usually long processes and a lot of paperwork, so keep this in mind when choosing a candidate who needs special permission.

To speed up the process you can have the paperwork organized depending on the necessary permit, to save you the search for requirements.  

5. Address the needs of new hires

Hiring international staff is an experience for both the worker and the company, which is why a complete plan must be in place for the arrival of the employee, which must include the onboarding to the company and the presentation of its new city.

You must offer him everything he needs to make him feel comfortable and at home, for example, introduce him to the lawyer so that he can help him with whatever he needs.

All this shows that you are really interested and will make him feel comfortable in his new destination.

Remember that he is coming to a new place and needs time to adapt, settle in and understand everything that is happening, do not pressure him, support him and help him in whatever he needs to make his process more enjoyable.

Phases through which foreign workers pass

  • The honeymoon: at this stage everything is positive, having moved is the best thing that has happened in life, it is so good that it is overwhelming.
  • Frustration: it is the most difficult stage that the worker faces in the new destination, since the distance and the culture of the new country begin to affect him, any small thing can trigger frustration.
  • The adaptation: the frustration begins to diminish when the traveler begins to feel comfortable in the destination country, becomes familiar with the culture, the food, begins to have friends and begins to feel comfortable.
  • Acceptance: to reach this stage it may take some time but, it does not mean that you understand the environment and the culture, you realize that you do not need a complete understanding of it if you do not have enough resources to cope with it.

Keep in mind that collaboration in the workplace depends on the culture of the company and this directly affects your international employee.

That is why, only by building a close collaboration between your organization, your local and foreign employees can you help them get through it.

In conclusion, to hire staff outside your territory, you must have a solid and structured company that can provide you with stability in every way.