If you’ve been struggling to fill roles with local — or even national — candidates, you might start thinking about looking farther afield. Now that remote work is a widespread phenomenon, hiring skilled workers half a world away is a real possibility. Yet recruiting international talent requires a thoughtful, strategic approach beyond what’s needed stateside. Read on to learn four recruitment strategies you can implement to attract the best talent across the globe.
1. Build the Right Infrastructure for Global Hiring
Just as a city can’t function without infrastructure, nor can your international hiring process. Before you post your first global job ad, ensure your team is ready to recruit, interview, and hire foreign workers.
First, consider what type of employee category you’re trying to hire. Some organizations prefer to hire contractors, while others want full-time, permanent employees. Review your team’s goals, project load, and long-term needs to determine the best talent type.
Next, work with your legal team to determine how to effectively and legally hire global workers. If you go the contract route, some elements of the process may be simpler. If you’re hiring full-time employees, though, you’ll need to understand labor laws and norms in the country where you hire. Partner with an employer of record to maintain compliance with regulations regarding compensation, benefits, and employment where your global talent resides.
Alternatively, you can use a professional employer organization to reduce some of your team’s HR workload. Unlike an EOR, however, a PEO serves an administrative role and does not take on any legal responsibility for global employees.
2. Build Credibility as an International Employer
Whether this is your first foray into international hiring or you’re an old pro, be aware of your reputation. Do a pulse check on your organization’s Glassdoor page, online message boards, and job search platforms. Ratings by potential hires and current employees can show you your current reputation and where you might need to improve.
Update your careers page to highlight your international opportunities and your organization’s approach to hiring. International workers may already be familiar with contract work arrangements, but if that’s the nature of the role, it’s worth mentioning in bold.
If you’ve made global hires already, post quotes from these team members, featuring their names, photos, and departments. This display of social proof can further reinforce your position as an experienced international employer.
Get granular and share how your organization manages workloads on a global scale. Use onsite content and guest blogging on other sites to showcase your approach. Share how autonomous work, collaboration tools, and training play a role in your international team’s success. Encourage managers and employees to work with your communications team to highlight these stories.
3. Build a Diverse and Inclusive Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is more than an HR buzzword, it’s the heartbeat of your organization. Every company has a culture, whether it’s intentional or not. But if you want to be a competitive and attractive global employer, you need to build your culture intentionally.
Review your most recent pulse survey to determine your current employees’ levels of satisfaction and engagement. Then work with HR leaders, managers, and key employees to build your vision for a diverse and inclusive workplace. Next, develop a plan for how you’ll foster and reinforce this culture authentically.
Start wherever you are in your journey by sharing stories about your team members on your company’s intranet. This can help build a cohesive, kind team and reveal details that build empathy across cultures and generations. Your IT manager may share that she’s a first-generation college graduate who worked three jobs to make it happen. Your finance analyst might offer that his summer holiday is spent overseas with his family back in his home country.
By sharing more of who they are outside of work, your team members will become more accepting of each other’s differences. This practice will build over time and establish a positive organizational culture for global team members to be welcomed into. Such a culture celebrates differences and constitutes a safe place for being who you are, wherever you’re from.
4. Bolster Job Offers With Robust Training and Necessary Equipment
Training is one of the most overlooked yet critical components of a new hire’s success. Insufficient training, support, and mentorship are often cited as causes of attrition among U.S. employees. For international team members, ensuring adequate training and support is even more important.
Review your current training program and identify any gaps. Revise and improve your core training and, based on your hiring plans, add modules that cover global collaboration. Part of the training should involve preparing your current team members to work in a new way. Circle back to your diverse and inclusive culture priorities, portraying the move to international hiring as consistent with your core values. This can help collaboration practices to stick, even across the globe.
Next, develop training for your international team members that brings them into the fold of your organizational culture. Ensure the collaboration platform you’re using is robust enough to support language differences. Provide FAQs, definitions, and videos to help explain cultural norms and company jargon. Ensure your domestic team thinks about training through this lens, and encourage them to take the time to define terms.
Research technical capabilities in the countries you’re targeting for hiring. If broadband availability is slim, you’ll need to consider how to navigate that issue. Determine how you’ll deliver equipment, whether you’ll pay for internet or phone service, and what security protocols to follow. Work with your cybersecurity team to develop globally appropriate policies and protections for work devices and data. This tedious yet necessary step will ensure your team is protected and productive across the globe.
Source the Best Talent for the Job, No Matter the Location
Your dream candidate is out there, and with the right infrastructure in place, there’s nothing to prevent you from hiring them. Build your employer brand to tell your story and empower your current team to reinforce your message. Assess and adjust your international hiring strategy and tactics using feedback from recent and would-be hires. When you do, you’ll be able to attract the global talent you need to take your company to the next level.
