Overseas expansion is a tough nut to crack. You need to open up a new office, learn about the country’s laws and regulations, and absorb the cultural differences — and that’s before you ever produce a single tender. The toughest challenge is getting your hands on the right people for different jobs, whether you’re hiring locally or bringing in expats. To complicate things ever further, you’ll need to provide compelling packages for future employees and present them successfully.
Different cultural backgrounds can also affect performance, so think about where you’re hiring from and how to make those potential hires suitable for the roles you’re offering. Drawing from our experience as leading recruiters, we’ve divided these challenges into three parts, providing three recommendations on how corporations can overcome them. By following these tips, your expanding business can have better success attracting candidates for its overseas endeavours.
Offer stimulating jobs
Prospective employees will always think “what’s in it for me?” This is where your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) comes in, so consider the kind of selling points that will bring in future hires. Start with the work itself: If a job seems boring or unpleasant, candidates are likely to shy away from your offer.
Location also plays a significant role in determining job desirability. Tata Motors, for example, have tweaked their EVPs to accommodate likely candidate preferences depending on where the talent and work are located. For example, they’ve realised that candidates in the US put a high value on how interesting a job is, whereas Indians seek out jobs working for high-quality managers, and Chinese look for professional development as part of the employment package. Though these are generalisations which may also vary between industries, this strategy of forming talent profiles can help greatly in the recruitment process.
It is also worth helping candidates see the difference their role will make on future projects. And it is important to decide whether to offer fixed-term or open-ended work, as such a choice may affect the interest level of certain types of candidates, especially if you are aiming to hire expats.
Remember also to present the opportunities for career advancement, while illustrating how new hires can grow with the company. Many people look for job stability and security, so highlight any specialised training and development that may help your candidates eventually move into more important positions in future within your company.
Tell candidates that their role will help build the company’s image globally. In return, of course, you’ll need to offer an attractive compensation and benefits package and align it with their personal goals. Salary is important, but newer generations tend to also value companies that share the same values (social, environmental) and priorities that they do.
Lastly, candidates with families might be tempted to accept offers from companies that include extras like healthcare and schooling for their kids, or help relocating seamlessly into a new community without hassle. Even candidates without such requirements would certainly appreciate any extra personal assistance you might offer, leading to an improved employee-company relationship.
Use software that each of your offices can rely on
On the technical side, your global HR departments will need to have software in place so that no matter where your offices are, every manager will have access to the very same resources. This level of integration will enable a high level of productivity and collaboration while saving time and costs.
Otherwise, your staff may feel disconnected if they have different tools which are not centralised. For example, the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and recruitment database in one office might prove useful to another branch in a different location. Interconnectivity thereby increases efficiency, as information can be gathered anywhere around the world and maintained on the cloud.
Advanced CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software will also provide your organisation with the best bang for its buck. Choose services with beefed up security integration, and your network will have greater protection against potential data leaks and breaches. Recent developments in AI have also improved overall functionality for these tools, providing better accuracy and organisation.
Consider the cultural context of your brand
People in different countries may not necessarily have the same mindsets or personal ambitions. Adapting the right recruitment strategy is therefore paramount when looking to secure the right candidates. Decide on your next hires carefully and ask yourself what you know about their cultural background. Does your company share the same cultural values of your targeted hires? Take another look at your company’s vision and mission. Do they fit suitably within what a new employee from Asia, for example, might consider important?
Find ways to connect your company’s values with the cultural norms and expectations of your new hires, in areas such as level of formality, work-life balance, autonomy vs hierarchy, and more. If you can carefully position your strategy on such questions, you’ll have a higher chance of bringing in your targeted hires.
It’s also important to understand how your brand looks in the eyes of your talent market. For example, if you’re hiring from China, candidates will scrutinise your company’s prestige. If you’re hiring from Brazil, potential recruits will pay more attention to your level of social responsibility. Always refine the delivery of your corporate message when you present your organisation to new talent. Pair this with a compelling hiring package alongside an effective presentation of company values and corporate culture, and you’ll have more luck recruiting new talent.
Remember that each country has its own cultural barriers, whether in the form of language or behavioural expectations, or how employees conduct their day-to-day business.
To smooth over such issues, in 2009 Goldman Sachs launched a “Cultural Dojo” in Japan to serve as a training ground to help specific employees overcome cultural obstacles within their teams. Areas of assistance included leadership skills, language proficiency, and especially cross-cultural communications. The firm later expanded their Dojos to other regions including China and South Korea, with such programmes proving to be essential for the continuous development of regional employees. Whether or not your company might need to embark on such an elaborate initiative, this level of respect for cultural expectations would certainly bode well for its recruitment efforts.
Putting the pieces together
Successful international recruitment boils down to three fundamental ingredients: Your offer for a challenging and interesting job with the right package, the right software tools to coordinate hiring and other HR activities, and a solid appreciation of the cultural differences that influence talent preferences and behaviour. By refining your recruitment efforts to accommodate these key elements, you’ll be able to propel your expansion plans forward with far greater success.
Need help finding the right talent for your international expansion? Get in touch at https://thehighfieldcompany.com/contact-us/
Author: Toby Ball, Managing Director, The Highfield Company
