What do you most value when it comes to building the best team? Results or comfort? You might say results, but then when considering going out of your comfort zone in terms of hiring from a global and remote talent pool, you’ll settle for what’s easier to manage. However, even thinking that hiring globally is too complex is actually a biased concept. The truth is that you’re limiting just how much your business can grow and how faster you can launch your product by not looking beyond your own borders.
The notion that overseas hires are “cheap but not as great as local ones” is outdated. The broader you set your sights to find talent, the likelier you are to find top notch applicants who are invested in supporting your product and customer service. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at how we get there, and then we can think about how to keep that talent along with the benefits for your company.
How to Recruit International Talent
It starts with a good scout. You really need to put yourself out there in terms of finding talent. It’s not just the one job board, it’s partnering with recruitment agencies or software, and writing a great description of what you need and what are your must-haves for their experience. Don’t go too broad, think specific. What’s more important, the university where they got a degree (do you even need them to have a degree) or how they are able to solve problems and become leaders in their own teams?
You need to get really specific and do the work of what you want so that the list of applicants is easier to sort through and so you’re not promising a job that just doesn’t exist. So many companies use platforms like LinkedIn to go fishing for talent, but they fail to really know what the role is about. They’ll spew out a couple of expected tasks without setting goals.
For example, rather than say that you want someone with 3 years of product development experience, say that you want someone who is able to work within set launch deadlines, strive for excellent product quality, and communicate effectively with the rest of the team to ensure that goals are met on time. The clearer the message, the better the candidates.
Benefits of Hiring from a Global Talent Pool
When you start to hire globally, you’ll soon realize that some of the benefits are new ideas and different perspectives. Since not everyone is on the same time zone, you have the opportunity of working asynchronously, meaning that things continue to work regardless of who’s online and who isn’t. Your customers can get support round the clock, no matter where they are, and even if there’s a crash, someone will be available to notice even if it’s in the middle of the night for most of the team.
This also helps you start building an employer brand in new markets. The better the experience, both for applicants and new hires, the more talented people will be looking up your company for any open roles.
Another important thing to consider is that a global talent pool does not just mean people from other countries or nationalities. It also means someone from your own country who’s working from another country or continent even. Despite what some companies or leaders want to demand from their employees, remote work is here to stay. The vast majority of people coming to the workforce want the flexibility to travel while they also deliver great results in every single task.
There are numerous other perks to having a remote global team but if you want your business to grow, you also need to change any set beliefs regarding who is working from where.
Creating an Inclusive Global Work Culture
When talking about the global talent market, Tony Jamous (CEO of Oyster) said that lifestyle disparity is a key element of remote teams that isn’t discussed enough. You can’t have 20% of your team earning way more than the rest, all while they are on the same seniority or leadership level. You might believe that they won’t find out, but it doesn’t take much to know who’s traveling, buying a house, while someone else is barely surviving paycheck to paycheck. If you hired them, then you think they have talent and something to offer your company. Treat them accordingly.
Ensure that everyone’s needs are met in the sense that they all get the same equipment, are provided proper onboarding and training, and have options for their benefits.You don’t have to do this alone. Recruiters can help broaden the search while your People team can work to find options that work for everyone.
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