7 Essential Steps for Successfully Hiring International Empl

Hiring international employees is an ingenious way to add diverse talents to your workforce. It also provides opportunities for seamless cultural exchange travel guide.  

But contrary to what many recruiters think, finding the best talents from a pool of international jobseekers isn’t a walk in the park. In this article, I’ll walk you through the essential steps on how to go about that. 

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1. Use a Reputable Recruitment/Staffing Agency 

Staffing agencies are companies that provide temporary workers to hiring firms. They differ from recruitment agencies, which usually focus on sourcing full-time employees.  

However, both entities can play a key role in helping you find qualified international workers. At a small fee, these firms will help you locate competent talents at a fraction of the time you’d spend scouting for the same using traditional methods.  

Moreover, such firms provide handy tools that are not only useful in hiring international employees but also in remunerating and managing your workforce.  

2. Attain the Requisite Certifications 

It could happen that you’re averse to the idea of hiring international employees through recruitment or staffing agencies. There’s no cause for alarm, as you can still undertake the process using the existing structures in your organization.  

However, you’ll need to possess the requisite credentials before you can think of hiring international staff. Most of these credentials are issued by the Department of Labor.  

The purpose of these certifications is to ascertain that engaging international employees doesn’t jeopardize the local job market.  

For instance, regulations stipulate that any company seeking to hire foreign workers must first have a sizable percentage of local employees in their workforce. This reduces any adverse effects overseas staffers may have on the employees working locally in terms of remuneration and overall working conditions.  

Therefore, be sure to review the state and federal regulations to establish what your business might require before sourcing employees internationally.  

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3. Make Internal Arrangements for Onboarding and Remuneration 

It’s essential to make sufficient arrangements with your company’s HR teams regarding the onboarding and engagement processes, even before posting a job ad.  

You need to establish ahead of time the possibility of training the new employees. And most importantly, who’ll conduct the training.  

Remember that you’re planning on engaging foreign staffers. Even if there are no significant cultural differences, the new employees would still need someone to walk them through your company’s culture and vision.  

The HR team also needs to put the requisite structures for compensation and other employee benefits in place. This includes, among other things, setting up payroll. 

4. Target Specific Locations 

There are 195 countries in the world and dozens of territories. Each of these countries has people seeking overseas employment opportunities.  

It may be tempting to target your job ad to as many countries as possible. After all, doing so exposes you to diverse talents. However, experts recommend targeting specific locations, and there are valid reasons why.  

First, countries differ in terms of their predominant talents.  

The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France are famous for producing the best doctors. So, if you’re in the healthcare industry, such are the locations to target your job ad.  

On the other hand, China, Russia, and Poland produce the best software programmers, whereas Germany, the US, and China lead in the number of engineers.  

Language barrier is another reason to target your job ad to specific locations. While the prospect of working with someone from a different culture may be exciting, you definitely want someone who can already speak English, even if not natively. 

5. Define the Working Parameters 

Working parameters basically entail the locations where you intend for successful job applicants to work from.  

The first option is sponsoring the foreign employees’ migration to your country. This is highly recommended for hands-on employment opportunities, such as engineering jobs.  

The sponsorship is usually in the form of paying their flight ticket and expediting their visa applications. Incurred expenses may be refundable or not, depending on your agreement with the employee.  

The second approach is setting up a local office in the country where you intend to hire. Expectedly, this approach works best for hands-off jobs, such as business consultancy.  

The last option is working with an Employee of Record (EOR). EORs can be useful in managing the hiring, onboarding, and remuneration processes. 

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6. Create a Detailed Job Description 

It’s a general recruitment practice that job descriptions need to be as detailed as possible. This is particularly important when posting a job ad for international employees. So, once you’ve defined the working parameters, ask your HR team to draft a detailed JD that aptly suits the role.  

At the minimum, the description should have a clear and concise job title. You don’t want to have the prospective applicants guessing what they’re being hired for.  

The description should also specify the specific location and timings. Spell out the country and city where the company is located and the working hours. Be sure to express the working hours in relation to GMT if the candidate will be working from their country.  

Other details to include in the JD include; 

Remember to reiterate the significance of employee screening. Performing rigorous background checks will help you determine that the job seekers are who they say they are.  

Through these screening processes, you may also establish an applicant’s criminal record, family history, social media conduct, etc. The goal is to hire someone whose ideals aptly fit within your company’s culture. 

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Final Word 

Hiring foreign employees requires in-depth research and due diligence to ascertain that the candidates are truly worth their salt. We hope you can use this article as your handy guide the next time you go looking for a competent workforce abroad.