As an HR specialist, which process gives you the biggest headache? The coordination? The communication? The compliance requirements? Now imagine these challenges on a global scale; coordination across time zones can be challenging, communication norms vary and you may be dealing with language barriers, and the local compliance requirements might be totally new to you.
But, if you’re even considering these challenges, then it’s likely that you already recognize the value of international talent and global recruitment. Luckily for you, Deel and Certn have partnered to make international hiring even easier.
Here are our tips on which global recruitment best practices to use to resolve cross-cultural recruitment challenges and reduce bias in hiring, and what to consider when setting up global payments and navigating local legal and compliance requirements.
Global Hiring
Here are some of the advantages of hiring a global workforce:
Tap the Global Talent Pool
A study by the National Federation of Independent Business found that 87% of HR professionals reported “few or no qualified applicants” for the positions they were trying to fill. In this case, when you expand your talent pool internationally, you increase the potential of finding more candidates and unique skills from more locations. One advantage of hiring a global workforce is that you’re no longer restricted to geographical boundaries. That is, the potential for candidates expands significantly. Another benefit of this is that you may build a more diverse workforce, rich with different cultures and backgrounds, which could lead to new, fresh perspectives and innovation.
Stronger Employer Brand
According to LinkedIn, an overwhelming majority (75%) of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job. If they don’t like what they see, they may not apply or accept your job offer. Furthermore, Corporate Responsibility Magazine found that 75% of people would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed! That’s why maintaining your brand is so important to attracting strong candidates. For some companies, hiring a global workforce is part of their employer brand strategy. By recruiting globally, you’re able to establish your company as a global brand.
Break Into a New Market
Without ever having lived in the market you’re trying to break into, how would you know about the needs of the customers who live there? Sure, there’s the benefit of research, but when you hire candidates internationally and build a global team, they likely understand the local market better than you ever will through research alone. Hiring a global workforce can offer insights and perspectives on local consumers, cultural differences, language barriers, and more. This is particularly useful in functions like marketing and sales. Moreover, having employees in close proximity to your clients builds trust within the community. A shared experience helps to establish credibility and authentic relationships with your clients.
Customer Support 24/7
While time zones can pose many challenges, the biggest benefit you experience when working across time zones is that there will (almost) always be someone working at all times of day. If properly planned and navigated, this can have exponential positive impacts on your business. For example, customer support can be 24/7, deliverables can be expedited, and most crises’ can be resolved at a moment’s notice without always requiring employees to work overtime, or having them available at all hours of the night. We think this is another benefit of hiring a global workforce.
How to Manage Cultural Differences
Global hiring may require you to change your way of working. Different cultures may have different values and expectations for recruitment than what you’re used to, like salary transparency, expectations around vacations and holidays, and communication styles.
But, as we discussed above, a workforce full of different cultures and backgrounds can lead to fresh perspectives and innovation. According to Gartner, highly inclusive organizations generate 2.3 times more cash flow per employee, 1.4 times more revenue, and are 120% more capable of meeting financial targets.
Important:
❗Employers that highlight cultural fit in their recruitment and selection process can be at risk of discrimination claims if they don’t have thoughtful diversity, inclusion, and equity policies in place. Read more about bias in hiring.
Inclusive Hiring Practices
Inclusive recruitment practices mean every candidate is given equal consideration. Some of the most common mistakes in inclusivity come from failing to identify unconscious biases that eclipse the candidates’ actual qualifications and the value they could bring to the team.
Here are some tactics for carrying out a more inclusive hiring process:
- Assess your Unconscious Bias: Leverage the applicant data from your applicant tracking system (ATS) or hiring platform to assess discrepancies in your recent hiring history and use the data to interpret possible shortcomings in your recruitment process.
- Develop an Objective Assessment Framework: While “listening to your gut” isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s not a best practice when hiring and should be swapped out for a standardized method of analyzing candidates to reduce as much bias as possible. Research published in Nature says humans tend to “underestimate how prone they are to error in inferring people’s intentions, skills, and mental states during interaction[s].”
- Ensure your Language is Clear and Accessible: A lot of terms that may feel familiar are actually coded with bias. Avoid jargon, slang, and expressions that discriminate against groups of people based on race, gender, or socio-economic status. Also, ensure your language is readable for second-language speakers. Some more tips you can use include keeping your job postings at an eighth-grade reading level (or lower), referring to the candidate in terms of the position instead of he, she, or they, and describing what different perks and benefits mean in more clear terms or with examples (some candidates may not understand what a “green” transportation credit refers to).
Inclusivity is important to us at Certn. Here are more tips on how fight unconscious bias.
Here are some tactics to use beyond the recruitment process:
- Regularly Update and Enforce Guidelines and Policies Surrounding Diversity: This is a critical step to ensuring your employees are aware of what’s acceptable and ethical behaviour in the workplace.
- Hold your Leaders Accountable: Culture management begins with committed leadership. How does your organization value diversity? How do they demonstrate their commitment? Make sure your entire organization represents your values.
Global Payments and Salary Negotiations
When you expand your business abroad, you also have to consider how you’ll manage international payments, and this likely won’t be the same as how you pay local employees. Global workers need to be compensated using the payroll and employment standards in their country. Aside from figuring all this out, it’s also vital that your employees get paid their salary on time and in the right amount each month.
Setting Up an Entity in a Global Market
One cross-cultural challenge of paying international employees in other countries is setting up the financial infrastructure. If you’re doing this on your own, you’ll first need to set yourself up as an employer in the country where each of your employees is a tax resident. The cost of social security charges varies considerably from place to place, not to mention the logistics of setting up a new entity.
Does this sound like a lot of work? Luckily, Deel makes this step a lot simpler for companies like yours. You can leverage Deel’s entity status or one of Deel’s verified partners to ensure you can hire in whichever country you need to.
Doing Salary Research
Before starting salary negotiations, make sure you understand fair wages according to the country. Deel’s Global Salary Insights tool can help you better understand fair and competitive wages on a global scale. Deel breaks down salaries for each profession through anonymous submissions from fellow contractors and employees in the same area.
Deciding on In-House Versus Outsourced
With the in-house approach, you handle everything yourself. Outsourcing in this context means external partners handle the payroll activities for you. Unless you have an extensive team familiar with international compensations and payroll, you’ll likely benefit from outsourcing your projects. Deel has a network of over 200+ local expert partners to ensure all things hiring follow regional laws and tax rules.
Compliance Considerations
Comply with Government Tax Mandates
Governments frequently make changes to employment legislation, most of which are introduced at the start of the new tax year. Make sure you’re keeping up with these changes as they happen in the countries where you’ve hired employees. Changes may need to be reflected in payroll and employment contracts. They may also impact the taxes your company files with local authorities.
Abide by Employment Laws
In addition to structuring compensation to align with tax mandates and picking the best payment method, be aware of the various regulations regarding health and safety in case of accidents, as well as absences like sick leave and working hours and paid time off. All these elements have to be negotiated as part of employment contracts.
Even seemingly small errors such as misclassifying employees as independent contractors or paying employees without making the required deductions can land you in a lot of trouble. You could face significant fines and penalties. Take advantage of Deel’s support team to help you stay compliant on international payments.
Simplify Hiring
In the spirit of simplifying things that can sometimes be complicated, Certn and Deel have partnered to deliver the first global hiring platform to combine background checks into the onboarding process. This is another step in reducing the manual work and the time it takes to hire.
With Deel providing access to top talent around the globe, and Certn running background checks and other verifications in 200+ countries and territories, this partnership delivers a simplified global hiring experience.
Now with Deel and Certn, hiring managers can seamlessly request a background check when creating a Deel contract, reducing manual work and streamlining the onboarding process. Read more about the partnership.
