All About Hiring International Employees For Your Business

Hiring International employees is one of the proven ways to access talent pools out of one’s home country and build the cognitive asset of the organization. It helps to hire employees at competitive wages and makes it easy to expand to new markets. Remote workers are known to render higher productivity than regular workers, which is beneficial to enhance work efficiency and business finances.

How To Hire International Remote Employees – 4 Different Ways

Hiring foreign employees helps combat recruitment challenges and allows the business to gain access to the top performers in the industry. But hiring international remote employees is not as easy as it sounds on paper. 

Here are a few ways to combat the challenge and get legally employed workers and be of professional support to the organization.

Instituting Your Entity To Avail Autonomy

The main issue in hiring an overseas employee is complying with the host country’s employment and labour laws, which includes having a registered entity in the foreign land. For organizations looking to employ many foreign workers, the best option is to invest in their entity. 

Though it is a costly affair and requires registration and legal requirements, it is still worth it while employing many workers for the long term. Also, it offers expert control over the entire employment process, as there is no third-party involvement. For businesses mandating autonomy, these set-up costs and long process time shouldn’t be a hurdle.

Combining with a Business Partner

The process of hiring international remote employees is a long and laborious one. The hiring company should set up a legal entity in the worker’s country so that they could be employed by observing the local laws and paid with all applicable taxes. 

Companies that cannot invest in setting up their entity can take help from a business partner, existing suppliers in a foreign land, or hire overseas employees through their business contacts and vendors. They will help with employment management and will take care of all tax credentials and social contributions. 

This is one of the quickest ways to hire foreign employees and works based on trust and partnership.

Taking Helps From A Global Employment Firm

Taking help from a Global employment organization is one of the best and easiest ways of hiring international remote employees. They will help in hiring, managing payroll, and fulfilling all legal requirements. The employer of record, set up in the foreign country, will legally administer and handle all the employment tasks. 

The company will only have to manage the payroll compensations. The GEO helps with local experience and makes it easy for the firm to hire overseas employees. They will also serve as a bridge between the employees and the HR department to manage the employment rights. 

These services are available at a fee that is far less than setting up a separate entity.

Shadow Or Remote Payroll

The biggest problem of hiring international employees is managing the payroll. Some organizations choose to run small payrolls for their foreign employees. 

A remote payroll is one in which the non-resident company makes taxes and payments to the employees of the foreign country. But the problem is that the workers on the home payroll of the organization will not be able to have taxes and contributions withheld in either of the countries. 

Running remote payrolls is not permitted in some countries, and others might impose registration requirements.

Things To Consider Before Hiring Remote International Employees

Remote employment has brought in a lot of advantages for organizations, and it helped them with productivity solutions, decreased overhead costs, and facilitated flexible working schedules for employees.

Here are some essential points to consider before hiring foreign employees.

Qualities Of Remote Position Recruitment

Generally, the remote recruitment process works on trust and clear communication between the managers, the employers, and the employees. To thrive in the remote employment process, it is mandatory that all the interested parties exist on the same level of understanding and should possess realistic expectations from the recruitment. 

All the information about overseas recruitment should be communicated clearly at every single step of the hiring process. For hiring international employees online, the employees should have their roles and job description communicated. They should also be informed on how they will be held accountable for their functions, and how their success will be measured and compensated within the tenure of the job contract.

Skills required for the remote job

The requirements of the overseas job will differ based on the nature of the job, the standards of the industry, the goals of the company, and its legal stipulations. While hiring international remote employees, it is important to screen them for high order skills such as adaptability, reliability, in-depth knowledge in the subject, troubleshooting skills, problem-solving skills, etc. 

They should also possess job-relevant certifications and licenses to work for an organization from a remote destination. The overseas employees should have cross-cultural awareness and respect it. They should be proactive and communicate with the team frequently and clearly in both written and verbal forms.

Framing rules in advance

While hiring international employees working for an organization across time zones, it is important to choose those who will stick to the rules and strategies, as they are not physically available in the unit. They should be able to accomplish the responsibilities of their remote job and the requirements of the business at all possible times. 

While working from a remote destination or home, the remote employee should be able to meet the deadlines of his work. He should be available at the specific block of the hour when the management requires them. 

Thus, it is mandatory to frame rules and schedule requirements early in the recruitment process of hiring foreign employees to find the best candidates for their positions.

Streamlining Work as Employees Work across Time Zones

Overseas employment offers flexibility in the work timings of the employees. But it is also a matter of consideration for the recruiters as they have to be careful while hiring international employees who work across time zones.

There are several tools, such as Zoom, DropBox, Microsoft teams, etc., to bridge this gap between the time zones. But to ensure smooth operations of the workflow, the hiring managers and the project leads must follow some work etiquettes such as framing real meeting times, setting deadlines in advance, etc. 

You should streamline the communication tools that help with remote work.  

Focus on the soft skills

The recruiter should focus on certain intangibles that are beyond the educational credentials of the employees. These include their prior work experience, hard and soft skills, open-mindedness, integrity, honesty, optimism, etc. 

While recruiting overseas employees, make sure they are resourceful and can follow up the work. They should also be kind-hearted and follow the cultural rules and other regulations of the organization. These are indeed some of the good qualities of a promising candidate that an organization can yield for itself.

Choose employees who are experienced in remote working

While hiring international employees, it is always beneficial to choose those with adequate experience. The organization can either start its recruitment process with a freelancing trial or instantly hire an experienced remote worker. 

While choosing the freelancing trial, the employee can be considered for the permanent role, depending on their skills and performance. 

On the contrary, offering instant recruitment for an experienced overseas employee will relieve the stress associated with hiring and get them on board to instantly start working on the project.

Reasons For High Failure Rate When Hiring Right International Employees

International recruitment and projects are generally exciting for the candidate and can be highly beneficial for the project and the organization. But they are still risky, and according to research studies, about 40% of overseas recruitment assignments fail. 

The reasons could be many, and the top five reasons are listed here.

Lack Of A Proper Recruitment Plan

Hiring an overseas employee should be planned strategically and implemented with utmost caution. The organization should take time and choose the right candidate and hire those who can support the project. 

The employees should also be given enough time to prepare for the job mentally, and the hiring contract should be signed with tangible and realistic terms. If there is no proper plan in place, finding and retaining the right candidate will never be possible for the organization.

Poor Communication

While recruiting top talent from international grounds, the organizations should communicate their values and culture to the recruits. If the organization is not clear with its communication strategies, it is transmitting the wrong impression among its new hires. 

Overseas workers could be highly sensitive to poor communication from their employers, which could affect the workplace culture’s image. If the employers fail to demonstrate their trustworthiness and credibility through a strong and consistent voice, their international recruitment assignment will fail extensively.

Poor Candidate Selection

Choosing the right person with the ideal qualities for the job role in overseas employment isn’t easy. It is important to choose an individual who has a successful track record of working in different projects and countries to hire an overseas employee. 

At times, the employee will adapt to the new business needs and shape their working style and behavior to fit in the new job role. But there are chances for the reverse to happen as well. 

Thus, organizations should be very clear to choose a candidate with a set of clearly defined values and perform consistently, effectively, and professionally.

Insufficient Support Systems

A lot could fail in the local conditions of the host country during overseas employment. The sponsor from the host country should help the organization get the employee fit in the job at both professional and personal levels. 

Without support from the local sponsor, the overseas recruitment process could go wrong. The laws and the Government policies of the host country also play a major role in hiring international employees online.

Lack Of Expatriate Training

The job roles could be quite different for a remote worker than an employee working in the office. They will not have a proper office structure or colleagues to guide and support them in their tasks. 

Thus the international employees should be taken through a smooth onboarding process with appropriate training to get familiar with their job-specific roles and responsibilities. The training should begin as soon as the offer letter is signed, and the employee should be introduced to his team members for a seamless working process.

Difficulties In Hiring International Employees

Managing a remote team and remotely hired employees is slightly different from managing a co-located one.

The following are some hardships that most organizations and recruiters face while hiring international remote employees.

Extra Requirements

There are a lot of logistical requirements that are involved in the overseas recruitment process. For instance, the employee should have a computer or laptop with a secure internet connection and a quiet and comfortable space to work from every day. Not everyone can say yes to these things, even if they wish to work remotely. 

Some companies offer equipment and internet allowances and the opportunity to work from co-working spaces for their remote employees. But it may not be possible for all organizations, and the ability of the company to take up such responsibilities decides the success of overseas recruitment.

Increasing Remote Applicants

Companies who hire remotely gain great access to talent. Similarly, the idea of working remotely delights employees as well, as they don’t have to commute to the workplace every day. But the flip side is that there is a massive increase in applications who wish to work remotely, which is higher than the number of remote jobs available. 

It becomes tough for HR managers to screen through the massive applications and filter the unqualified applicants early in the recruitment process, and it is also a time-consuming process.

Differences In The Time Zone

Hiring international remote employees helps the organization to hunt for global talent. This could be highly beneficial for the organization, but it has to deal with the differences in the time zones. 

This could often be hard to manage, and smart organizations still work through these hardships with the help of apt communication strategies, tapping the benefits of online resources, and making use of scattered teammates, so make sure no employee is left alone in the team.

Virtual Interviews

Conducting virtual interviews with a foreigner from a different cultural perspective could be easy for the organization, but it could be stressful for the candidate. It is thus suggested to offer them the instructions in advance to avoid confusion later on. Even after scheduling the interview, it is good to follow up with the candidate to ease any technical issues in advance. 

Though virtual interviews that could be attended from the comforts of one’s home is better than visiting a physical office, there are still certain things that the candidate should be prepared for, such as having the right gadget and the program for the interview, having the mic and speakers in good condition, etc.

Dealing With Technical Issues

No matter how prepared the candidate is for the international job interview, technology doesn’t simply give them a helping hand. But such unavoidable circumstances should not come in the way of judging the credentials of the candidate. 

For example, when the earphones or mic are not functioning properly, the questions get misunderstood. It also paves the way for wrong answers and gives a false interpretation of how well the interview has progressed. Thus, it is important to include multiple communication opportunities while hiring international employees online.

Conclusion  

Hiring International employees is tough and challenging, but it is worth the results. With only a little planning and proactivity, it is possible to hire international talents and integrate them with the existing team. 

The hiring managers should focus on the strategic business initiatives and ensure that the remote workers get included in the organization culturally and supported professionally to create a positive situation for the employees and the company. 

We Can Help!

Scale your business by hiring a team of trusted professional remote workers through Ninja Recruit. Recruit Ninjas is a single platform that provides a comprehensive solution for customers looking to hire and manage global remote talents. We understand the limitations and complexities of recruiting top talents to work with your company remotely. As your employer of record, we manage your entire recruitment process from hiring, compliance, contracts, payrolls, employee retention, and training support.