4 Top Challenges in Global Hiring and How to Overcome Them

Global companies have access to a larger talent pool and they’re able to reduce costs by hiring in areas with a lower cost of living. While these are some of the benefits that make global hiring advantageous, there are also challenges that come with hiring internationally. Organizations need to navigate the unique characteristics of each market and make sure that employees across the world are able to work together effectively, but these challenges can be overcome as long as organizations are willing to adapt and learn. 

Identifying and Recruiting Local Talent

Companies that are entering into a new market for the first time may find it difficult to compete with established companies and will need to learn the ins and outs of hiring practices there. For example, there are several differences between recruiting in India and the U.S. Due to India’s massive talent pool, talent leaders hiring in India need to conduct 42 more recruiter screens and 25 more technical interviews compared to the U.S. Indian candidates also move faster, completing technical interviews 19% faster than candidates in the U.S. If your recruiting team and hiring managers aren’t ready to move fast and manage significantly more candidates, you may find it difficult to hire the best candidates in India.

It’s also important to identify the best places to recruit, depending on the skills and experience you’re looking for. Universities, bootcamps, research institutions, and online job sites can be good places to look, but you’ll need to narrow down all the options. 

Solution

Research the market. You can learn a lot by simply researching and reading up on the hiring landscape. It’s easy to find information on the top universities, popular online job boards, talent hubs, and professional conferences and events. Looking at local news can also give you an idea of how competitive the market is and current hiring challenges that companies are facing. 

Consult experts. Tapping into the expertise and experience of local consultants, recruiting agencies, and hiring technology partners like Karat shortens your learning curve. These experts also have firsthand knowledge and experience, which translates into insights and best practices that can’t be found through doing your own research. For example, they may have proprietary data on compensation or they may know about an up-and-coming talent hub that’s being overlooked by most companies. 

Hire a local site lead. If you plan on opening an office, hiring a local site lead as your first employee there can be extremely valuable. The site lead will be familiar with how the market works and what the hiring landscape is like, and they can help translate your business needs into hiring needs. As demonstrated by Zillow, your site lead can even help bridge cultural differences.

Embracing Different Cultures and Languages

One of the biggest advantages of hiring globally is bringing different cultures, perspectives, and opinions into your organization. However, you need to be intentional about making sure these differences are fully embraced by everyone, rather than shunned. 

Having talent from across the world results in differences in communication and working styles, such as how punctuality and hierarchy are perceived. This can lead to biased candidate evaluations, miscommunication, and collaboration challenge that hinder, rather than help, your growth. 

Solution

Remove bias from interviewers through training. When interviewers evaluate a candidate that is different from them, it can result in a biased assessment or the conclusion that the right candidate doesn’t exist in a certain location. You can prevent this from happening by using a scoring rubric, implementing a consistent interview process, creating a candidate program where candidates can practice interviewing, and hosting practice interviews so that interviewers become familiar with the cultural differences they’ll encounter. 

Provide cross-cultural training for employees. Cross-cultural training improves intercultural communication, awareness, and understanding. It provides employees with skills to interact with people from different cultures, resolve conflicts, and adapt to a foreign culture. This fosters an appreciation and respect for cultural differences and mitigates potential issues. 

Provide language training and encourage clear, simple communication. Communication breakdowns are a common reason why teams fail. Language barriers can not only lead to misunderstandings, but it can also prevent employees from working together. Language training can help employees communicate effectively, increase their confidence in meetings, and improve interpersonal relationships with colleagues and managers. Companies can also encourage employees to use straightforward language and avoid slang that could be difficult to understand. 

Navigating Laws and Regulations

Perhaps the most operationally challenging aspect of global hiring is navigating all of the employment regulations and tax systems. This includes labor, business, income, tax, and data privacy and security laws. There may also be licenses that companies need to get in order to operate in their desired country. Additionally, companies need to not only comply with their own country’s laws, but also that of the country they’re hiring in. Understanding this enormous amount of laws and regulations is time-consuming and difficult, and there are significant consequences if companies don’t get it right.   

Solution

Research and learn local laws. To understand and comply with local laws, your organization’s legal and operations team can conduct research and navigate the process on their own. However, understanding the enormous amount of laws and regulations is time-consuming and difficult, so this may not be the best way to spend your resources.

Partner with local experts or a global professional employer organization (PEO). If you’re targeting talent in one or two locations, working with local legal experts there is faster than trying to understand the complicated landscape of laws and regulations on your own. Companies that are eyeing talent in multiple locations may want to work with a global PEO instead, as global PEOs are equipped to handle all aspects of international employment, including contract creation and tax compliance, across any number of countries. Working with experts also mitigates your risk, as failure to comply can result in expensive fines, legal battles, and a damaged brand reputation. 

Working Across Multiple Time Zones

Hiring talent in different time zones can be logistically challenging, especially when it comes to scheduling interviews. If there’s a significant time difference between candidates and interviewers, one party will likely need to compromise and conduct the interview outside of regular business hours. Companies that are not prepared for this risk frustrating candidates and slowing down the hiring process. 

Once you’ve hired people located in various time zones, employees need to figure out how to effectively collaborate and communicate. Some may not be used to working asynchronously, and scheduling meetings can be challenging. 

Solution

Offer 24/7 interviews. The best way to accommodate candidates is by offering 24/7 interviews, and we’ve found that flexible scheduling reduces time-to-hire by 50%. This provides incredible flexibility, allowing them to interview whenever it’s most convenient for them. Around-the-clock interviews aren’t possible for most companies though, as it would require asking employees to interview at odd hours. So how is it possible to provide 24/7 interviews? Karat has over 500 trained Interview Engineers located around the world who can conduct interviews the same day, in the evenings, and even on weekends. By leveraging Karat for 24/7 interviews, you can accelerate hiring without keeping your hiring team up at night. 

Set up or improve your remote working infrastructure. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most companies have adapted to remote work. When you have a global workforce, it’s even more important to make sure that the remote working infrastructure you’ve set up can work on a larger scale. This includes having effective communication and collaboration tools, coming up with strategies for asynchronous work and communication, and setting clear expectations. 

Now that you know the challenges you’ll face and how to overcome them when hiring globally, it’s time to figure out where to find the talent you’re looking for. If you’re looking to expand your software engineering team, consult our list of the top 30 cities to hire software engineers based on engineers’ interview performance, labor costs, and market size.