Global Hiring

Finding the right talent is crucial for business growth. Top talent and knowledge workers in tech are becoming harder to find in the United States. The Great Resignation hasn’t helped, with millions quitting their jobs.

Many companies are taking the labor shortage as an opportunity to invest in global hiring, especially in Europe and Latin America. Gone are the days where employers need to force employees to commute to their offices 5 days a week.

As remote work expands, more and more companies will need to hire an international workforce in order to remain competitive. Focus on hiring the perfect person for the job, even if they live or are based in a different country.

Here’s a look at how businesses can hire the best talent across the globe.

What is global recruitment?

Global hiring and recruiting is the process of sourcing skilled workers for specialized roles or senior positions abroad. With global hiring, companies usually focus on finding team members with a specific skill set or past experiences that closely aligned with business goals.

Best practices for hiring globally

Once your talent team finds the right candidates, they need to create a plan to onboard workers that are based abroad.

Employee relocation

Previously, many companies only interviewed and hired people abroad who planned on working in-person at HQ or another office. However, this approach meant that companies spent large sums of money on relocation expenses. They also were responsible for helping some applicants complete the application for a work visa and permit.

Setting up an entity or subsidiary

Companies looking to operate in a new country can go through the process of opening a branch in the country. However, this process is rather time consuming, especially for small startups and SMBs that don’t have time to register with local government institutions, open a local bank account, and complete the necessary paperwork.

Partnering with a PEO service

If you decide to open an entity, your company can partner with a PEO service provider and enter into a co-employment relationship. The PEO is in charge of managing local HR processes, including payroll. However, since the PEO does not own the entity, your business is still liable for compliance.

Hire contractors for specific projects

If you’re working on a project that requires a highly specific skill set, then you might consider working with a contractor, freelancer, consultant, or agency abroad. Contractors are usually hired on a project basis, though companies can keep them on retainer for long term work as well.

Paying contractors abroad is a relatively simple process. For instance, you can partner with Via to ensure that you’re paying your workers compliantly and in the relevant currency. If contractors start to take on a more involved role in the company, then they are considered full-time employees and need to receive all of the relevant benefits.

Partnering with an EOR service like Via

For companies looking to hire full-time employees in a new country and scale up at their own pace, partnering with an EOR service provider can be a strategic business move. You pay a monthly fee per employee, and the EOR service takes care of all things related to compliance, including payroll, benefits, onboarding, terminations, IP protects, work visa & permits, and employment contracts.

Standardizing your global recruitment strategy

Too many companies begin to piecemeal together their global hiring process, since each country has its own requirements. They might have contractors in Portugal, an entity in the UK, and a misclassified contractor in Germany. To make things more complicated, companies often use different platforms, HR software, and payment systems for each country they operate in.

With an EOR provider like Via, however, you receive access to a platform that enables you to manage contractors and full-time employees in a number of different countries–all in the same place. This approach can help to reduce your tech debt as well.

What are the advantages of global talent acquisition and recruitment?

By hiring skilled workers abroad, your business will benefit in the following ways. Plus, it’s the future of work.

Improved hiring pool for highly skilled workers. 

Fill the gaps on your current team by finding talent abroad.

Opportunity to test new markets. 

Hiring employees abroad can also help you learn how to deliver products and services to a wider customer base.

More diversity. 

Studies show that a more diverse team leads to a better business, since you’ll gain a wider perspective that better allows you to empathize with customers and clients.

Build out your global brand. 

Going global is an excellent opportunity to improve your employer’s brand and spread awareness about their products and services across borders.

What are the challenges of global talent recruitment?

Time zones. 

Some countries have strict regulations regarding the working day, so you will need to respect those laws while also finding time for your global team to meet on a regular basis. To mitigate this, US-based companies might hire in Canada or Latin America.

For some companies, hiring staff in different time zones is actually an asset, since you can expand your time zone coverage. Having more customer support engineers or sales development specialists available in non-US working hours can be an asset to your business in the long run.

Visas. 

If you’re hiring overseas staff to work at your home office, you’ll need to fill out the necessary paperwork for visas, such as the H-1B visa, O-1 visa, L Visas, and EB visas. You can work around this process by partnering with an EOR service. Most applicants need a job offer before applying.

Language barriers.

 Many people speak English in the business world, but that’s not always the case. You will want to make sure that anyone you hire can actively engage with your team. Conversely, if you’re hiring workers from Brazil or Colombia, for instance, it will be advantageous to have someone on your team who speaks Portuguese or Spanish.

Global employment platform

As you begin to hire employees in new countries, you will want to invest in a global employment platform that enables you to onboard, pay, administer benefits, and manage other HR processes. Global employment platforms like Via enable you to:

• Onboard employees from 100+ countries

• Manage employment contracts

• Make payments in local currencies

• Keep track of time off requests

• Generate payroll reports

• Submit reimbursements, bonuses, and other payments

Why companies partner with Via

Not ready to open an entity abroad? No problem. Both large and small companies want to hire employees internationally, but are unsure of how to navigate the country’s payroll and labor laws. Via makes hiring international talent around the world and building your global team seamless.

Our easy-to-use platform helps you manage the local HR processes for benefits, payroll, background checks, and more. We have a local team of lawyers and on-the ground experts that understand compliance as you expand around the world. Our local experts help to ensure that compensation & benefits packages are excellent and tailored per country.

As your employer of record/entity abroad, Via assumes full responsibility for employment liability, so that you can focus on what matters: recruiting and managing your team. With Via’s transparent pricing, you can pay full-time employees or contractors across the world with no hidden set-up fees, no foreign exchange or transaction fees, and no minimums–start with 1 employee and scale up at your own pace. Get started in 1 or 2 business days.

Your company is responsible for finding the right people using your internal recruiting team or external services, as well as managing day-to-day operations and business processes. We simply take care of the paperwork and onboard your employees in days.

FAQ 

How do I find my global talent?

You can find global talent by building an internal recruiting team with knowledge of foreign countries’ HR processes or by partnering with a third-party staffing agency. Job seekers are used to looking for open roles on LinkedIn, Indeed, and other online forums, so posting there can also garner new and exciting leads.

What is global hiring?

Global hiring (or global talent hiring) is the process of recruiting, onboarding, paying, and caring for employees across the world.

How do I become an international recruiter?

You can become an international recruiter by getting experience in one country and then expanding your skill set by working with a company that hires in multiple countries around the world.

What does global talent acquisition do?

Global talent acquisition is responsible for recruiting the best talent around the world and helping people build their careers.