ADVICE FOR GLOBAL RECRUITERS

ADVICE FOR GLOBAL RECRUITERS

If you can’t find the talent you want in your own country, there are recruitment firms and Internet Websites that will enable you to look beyond your nation’s borders. Likewise, these same resources can help you people overseas operations with nationals rather than use expatriates to staff them. Whether you use an international headhunter like Korn/Ferry International Inc.

or a Website that specializes in overseas jobs like Overseas Jobs Express (www.overseasjobs.com) which lists entry level to senior executive posts, your description of the job will influence the response you get from talented employees to your job opening. Here is what Peter D. Weddle, publisher of Weddle’s, the newsletter about online recruitment, suggests that you talk about.

Challenging work

Stay away from a list of requirements and responsibilities. Instead, describe the opening from an applicant’s perspective. So talk about the opportunities that the job will offer for the holder to be involved in important and meaningful work. Discuss the corporate mission and the value of that mission and then describe how the job holder will contribute to achievement of the mission.

Personal development

Yes, you will provide opportunities for additional training but that is expected, particularly if the job is in the IT area. The candidate is looking for development beyond that; that is, professional development that comes from an opportunity to be mentored by leaders in the organization and to participate in key decisions that impact the success of the company. Still, do mention if the company will subsidize higher education degrees and support involvement in professional associations.

Advancement

Demonstrate that there are opportunities for upward mobility in your organization by posting examples on your own Website. This should catch the attention of foreign nationals willing to relocate to build their career. Let those hired to represent your firm abroad know, too, about specific examples of personal advancement within your company, ideally by others recruited abroad.

Collegial relationships

Let executive recruiters know about other superstars on your management team so they can mention them to prospective candidates. On your Website, play up these individuals. Says Weddle, ‘‘Include their picture and a description of their work, in their own words.’’ Update the site regularly with new profiles; you want prospective employees to see that your organization isn’t limited to one or two ‘‘names.’’

Support/resources

If you will be relocating a manager and family, you want to be sure that services are available to help them make the transition – physical and cultural. At the very least help them locate a home, even for the short term, and a local school for any children. Provide training in the language and career placement assistance for the spouse if that is an issue of interest. Depending on the position, mention should also be made about workplace resources like special computer systems, access to technical libraries or data, or information on new research that can make relocation seem worthwhile.

Compensation

‘‘Competitive salary’’ or ‘‘salary commensurate with skills and experience,’’ says Weddle, will mean little to someone coming from another country, particularly someone whom you truly need on your staff. Don’t try to pay less because you are recruiting from a developing country. It will take little time for a new hire to understand how he or she stands financially to peers. If the pay and benefits aren’t comparable to that of colleagues, you are likely to lose your new hire to another firm quickly. Better to talk about stock options and base plus incentive early in the recruitment process. Certainly include that information in any international Internet postings. As Weddle’s research has found, salary information must appear in the first five lines of a job posting or most candidates will read no further. What about staffing overseas subsidiaries with nationals? The same rule applies. Big distinctions found between expatriate and local national pay, benefits, and bonuses can encourage the brightest local nationals to learn as much as they can from you, then move on.

Source : Recruiting & Retaining People .Florence Stone. 2002

EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

What do we mean by ‘‘employee loyalty?’’

We’re talking about employee commitment tied to an organization, one made from the first day of employment in return for guaranteed employment, with a career ladder for promotion, for those employees who show up on time and give more than a full day’s work for a full day’s pay. During the economic boom, the impact of the past economic downturn, with downsizing after downsizing, likely contributed to the job-hopping that companies experienced among their most talented employees. Past experience had given employees little reason to stay with one employer if a prospective employer had a better offer.

HR managers found themselves occupied with filling one vacancy after another. It was hard to keep employees because many chose to ‘‘go solo;’’ that is, become independent and work on a contractual or freelance basis. Called ‘‘contingent workers,’’ these individuals were used to fill workforce gaps. During boom years, many IT experts chose to become consultants and work on contract. During our economic downturn, contingent workers can save employers money, working only during peak job periods or otherwise doing short-term assignments. In the beginning, one thought only about contingent work in relationship to clerical tasks. Temp agencies provided administrative assistance when an assistant was out sick, on maternity leave, or on vacation. But today, contingent work is that and much more.

Assignments vary. Attorneys, business executives, HR professionals, software engineers, accountants, hotel workers, nurses and other medical professionals, and technical support staff – all can be contingentworkers.

The boom period also prompted companies to study their existing personnel to determine if they could take on more responsibility. It was felt an effective way to fill a vacancy, particularly since experienced workers would bring some loyalty to the company, along with past experience in the company, with them to the job. This led to creation of employee skills inventories.

Source : Recruiting & Retaining People .Florence Stone. 2002