Hiring International Employees
Hiring globally has been a practice for enterprise-level companies for a very long time. Consider the case of Apple. During and after the recession, Apple focused on sourcing remote talent across countries. The tech giant specifically targeted employees that could work remotely across borders, which helped them find experienced and skilled employees at relatively lower costs. As a result, Apple was able to maintain its market share consistently, and even grew in some aspects.
Today, hiring internationally has become easier, thanks to services like EORs and PEOs. A company no longer needs to reach an enterprise level before they start expanding globally. With this in play, many businesses today hire globally, start their global operations, and get a headstart on international expansion.
Why Hire International Employees?
Recruiting foreign workers helps enhance the global mobility of the firm. Besides this, there are many other benefits associated with hiring international employees. In addition to having unique and varied experiences, foreign employees can bring international knowledge to the organization, thereby scaling up the firm’s radius in terms of innovation and productivity. Let’s discuss in detail the other benefits associated with hiring foreign workers.
- Venturing towards Global talent: If the nation’s labor force lacks talented professionals in a specific arena, the hiring manager could decide on expanding the role across the globe to hire foreign nationals with the required skill set. One of the big fours, Deloitte surveyed around 450 companies over two years and identified some interesting metrics. Organizations that hire international staff are 1.7 times more likely to emerge as leaders of innovation within the industry and 1.8 times more flexible with adapting to evident changes.
- Have a competitive edge: The concept of hiring more international workers improves the diversity fostered by the company, thereby contributing towards achieving greater competitiveness. Hiring people from diverse cultures and backgrounds would essentially form a breeding ground for strong and innovative ideas.
- Increase in productivity: There are potential benefits caused by hosting a virtual team that works in different time zones rather than just the company’s location. This practice of getting work done around the clock would eventually increase productivity metrics. This module could also satisfy the clients because of quick turnarounds or just-in-time requests.
- Market exposure: The decision to extend full-time job offers for international employees would enable the company to plunge into the global market. Having a part of the organization’s pilot team operating from other countries could help the organization to familiarise itself with the local culture and etiquette. This reduces friction in the transition to a global market by not alienating international clients.
How to go about Hiring International Employees?
Although hiring international employees could be highly beneficial per the global trends, it does involve varied legalities and authorizations. The steps to hire an international employee are as follows:
Employment, immigration, and payroll laws:
The employment standards, immigration requirements, and payroll calculations set by the government remain distinct for every country. It is imperative to satisfy the laws of the home country as well as the host country. This is because the payroll is registered in the host country, and the employees are entitled to receive their benefits according to local legislation.
Hiring process:
You are expected to follow a distinct hiring process while hiring international employees. This is because hiring foreign nationals to work overseas would consume more time than dealing with domestic workers. Also, while hiring foreign workers, ensure not to expedite the process too much. Do not miss out on describing how and why the employee would be an asset to your company.
Onboarding checklist:
A streamlined onboarding process exposes employees to the desired expectations and company protocols. Researchers from Glassdoor believe that an extensive onboarding experience would make about 82% of the employees work for the company over a longer term, thereby improving employee retention. Thus, the onboarding process is bound to improve employee attention. Ensure you develop a dedicated onboarding checklist to provide the international workers with the required space to emerge with relevant questions or concerns.
Create better relocation packages:
Any employee would assess the employee benefits while deciding whether to accept the job offer or not. Since your foreign workers come from various companies to join your workforce, you need to provide them with appealing relocation packages or other similar benefits.
Obtain the certification and work visas:
Before hiring an international employee, the employer would have to provide evidence for the scarcity of resources within the country to serve an open position. While hiring foreign workers, you, as an employer, would have to sponsor a visa. This process may be time-consuming and incur significant cost overheads.
Common Mistakes in Hiring International Employees
Misclassification of the employment status:
While hiring a foreign worker, it is common to have a misconception about their employment status. If you pay a fixed amount to an individual at regular intervals, provide work equipment, and gain full access to their work schedule, they are deemed as your employees. This means the firm owes due contributions and other benefits to that individual.
Violating the host country’s laws:
Every country has employment and labor laws in place. It could vary significantly from the laws extended by the home country. Some examples include:
- Varying notice period durations
- Drafting an employment contract in the local language
- Remaining compliant with over-restrictive clauses and,
- Following the rules around employee rights
Apart from these, benefits and social deductions are a huge task. While some countries have minimal deductions, most nations have strict laws for social deductions, insurance, and other benefits.
Incorrect payroll calculations:
While employing foreign talents, you are expected to run a local payroll since international hires cannot be added to the home payroll. The process of understanding a foreign contribution list could be highly complex. One erroneous calculation or missing out on a contribution can affect the employee’s take-home pay in addition to the benefits acquired through social security or pension funds.
Although you can manage the recruitment and hiring stages with foreign employees, executing a compliant payroll by yourself could be increasingly difficult.
Tips on Hiring International Employees
International businesses should follow a strategic recruitment process to source and attract skilled professionals from foreign markets. Below are some tips that could be followed while hiring foreign workers:
Network and acquire referrals:
While hiring international talent, ensure to get references from trusted sources rather than just dropping the job role in employment sites. Ask for recommendations from local businesses in your industry or your employees who have a global network. This would result in improving the credibility of your firm across the world while also contributing to your global talent pool.
Plan a career roadmap:
Once you hire foreign talent, plan a roadmap for their career. This would include relocation and the specific visa programs that are appropriate for the type of foreign worker you are hiring. To maintain a long-term relationship with these employees, you will also have to consider on-site experiences or relevant immigration programs.
Prepare your company for the Global market
Remember that by hiring foreign workers, you are extending the working territory of your company. Hiring international professionals could contribute to cost reduction or overheads based on their local employment laws and benefits. Thus, it is essential to figure out well ahead which roles should be filled by international employees.
Foreign Labour certification
When hiring foreign workers, it is imperative to admit that no harm would be caused to the local professionals due to the admittance of international employees. As in, the citizens of the country would not face a decrease in job opportunities, wages paid, or working conditions because of hiring international employees.
Expanding your business globally may result in huge benefits, but hiring the right professionals to work for you overseas can be quite challenging. Keep the above-mentioned strategies in mind to ensure that your new business expansion attracts the right talent to put together an international team that can work toward success.
How can Multiplier help you with international hiring?
Multiplier has set up legal entities across the world, which helps our clients hire globally without incurring exorbitant costs of setting up an entity and running payroll. Our state-of-the-art platform helps in tracking employees, managing benefits, and even keeping a tab of leaves. Our robust legal teams work round the clock to ensure every penny that you process through payroll adheres to the local labor laws, and each contract is crisp in the eyes of the law.
Multiplier has over 150 entities, which means you can choose to hire international employees in almost any country in the world, and we’ll be there to support your business requirements!
Sounds interesting, right? Book a demo, and go global now!
