The international business community is closer now than ever before. This presents numerous opportunities for companies to pick from the crème of employees from the world over. Political and geographical boundaries hold little resistance if an employee has the right qualifications and experience and a company offer great opportunities for growth and expansion. For a company that wants to have the best employees it needs to consider building an international recruitment department. The basic requirement is to understand how important this department is to the company and to make focused attempts to make it successful. Too often international recruitment departments make halfhearted attempts and this leads to less than desirable results.

Building an International Recruitment Department

The hub: It is crucial to create a hub for the international recruitment department that can coordinate recruitment that is taking place in various parts of the world. This central administrative part of the international recruitment department would also set up a basic norm for qualifications and experience for employees, to avoid any confusion. It is also important that the executive in charge of the actual recruitment process understand the cross-cultural differences that exist in different work scenarios and address them accordingly.

Using Sub-contractors: It is a good idea to consider taking on local sub-contractors or recruiting agencies to do the basic spadework and interviewing of candidates. This way you are assured that you understand the qualification process and experience of the aspirants. These sub-contractors would have a better understanding of the way the educational system works as also the local companies for which the individuals may have worked. Furthermore the use of sub-contractors allows you to focus on candidates who meet your specifications and the basic elimination process is handled by the local recruitment companies.

Getting access to the right resumes and candidates is the first step and contacting a good resume sourcing company is advisable. Such a company will not only be able to provide information about candidates you would be interested in recruiting but also help you locate top notch executives you may be interested in. Furthermore such a company will be able to work with your international recruitment department to provide it tailor made recruitment solutions.

Creating Local Presence: Even if you are a multinational company known well in many parts of the world it is crucial to create a certain image of competence and stability in the country you want to recruit from. It is an enormous step for employees to give up their jobs in their homeland to move to another country and a new company. Ensuring that you are taken as a serious contender in the international business community would require a certain image to be projected. You may consider taking on a local image management company that could work and coordinate with your company's recruitment and public relations department.

Creating an advertisement campaign that assists in brand recognition by aspirant employees would be useful to make your presence felt in various countries and to be taken as a serious employer. For a company that is making a clean start-up this is especially important as their will be little background information that people can go by,  and to take a serious decision like moving to another country requires plenty of assurance on part of the employing company.

Understanding Local Culture: It is important to make an appropriate offer to the interested employee so as to get his or her attention and interest. This would include a comprehensive package of compensation, added benefits such as insurance, a residence, etc. You would like to offer competitive pay packages and assure the individuals of great opportunities of growth and promotion.

 Joint Venture: Going into a joint venture with a local company makes international recruitment easier as you have a home base to which candidates can relate to and rely on. Also this kind of a business venture would provide a sense of stability and reputation for the international company and make international recruitment far easier. Furthermore you can consider doing basic training before sending employees to foreign destinations. This way you know that all employees have understood a standard format for work and are at the same level of understanding. Of particular importance are company policies for following a certain system of work, correspondence, etc. Without this kind of on-job training there may be confusion when employees begin work without really knowing how things are done.

Direct Employment by Off-shore Entity: A company with an international recruitment department may consider allowing an off-shore entity to handle direct employment. Outsourcing of recruitment has become a popular technique of recruitment in recent times. These off-shore companies specialize in the practice of understanding the needs and requirements of companies and translating them in a manner that is utilized in the recruitment of employees. Before direct employment is done it is vital that you ensure that the off-shore entity understand all aspects of the job offered including what the move to another country will entail for the individuals. The advantage of direct employment by an off-shore company is that it can take on recruitment at any level from freshers and college graduates to executive levels. Such a company may also have programs in language, etc, that will help the individuals settle easily in their foreign posting.

Expatriate Policies: One of the chief areas of concernin international recruitment is expatriate policy. It is vital that the department of international recruitment of a company is in complete picture over the legal and administrative aspects of expatriate policy of the country. The new employees would require assistance in this regard and the employing company should be ready with standard procedures that would make the process as simple and easy as possible. The last thing you would want an employee to worry about is being asked to leave the country due to incomplete papers or procedure in the expatriate policy.

Cross-cultural Issues: The department of international recruitment would need to take into consideration issues of cross-cultural differences that would help the new employees to settle down effectively in the work community and otherwise. An introduction to cultural practices of the country to newcomers followed by assistance in case of any hiccups in this department would be useful. It is essential that the human resource department of the company work hand in hand with the international recruitment department in this regard.

The success of an international recruitment department is based on its managerial capabilities, ability to co-ordinate with off shore recruitment agencies, creation of an appropriate image for the company and human resource management.