Why new technology and broader horizons are rewriting the rules of global recruitment – and how to stay ahead
Carol White shares a dilemma with many fellow HR professionals responsible for sourcing talent in today’s fractious labour market: the possibilities just got endless.
As head of recruitment at WSP Group, a leading engineering consultancy with 2,500 employees in the UK, White turned her focus inwards during the recession, ensuring internal teams were fully utilised and outside hires kept to a minimum. When clients began to reinvest and projects were de-mothballed in 2012, she realised she needed a whole new strategy.
“There’s a finite community of engineers in the UK, and lots of people went abroad during the recession to continue their career development rather than wait here for the market to improve,” she says. Facing increased competition, WSP needed to proactively scour the globe for talented candidates and bring them to the UK.
Technology has made that dream a reality, and LinkedIn has become like an extra member of the recruitment team. WSP uses a company profile page, content and targeted advertising to offer a feel for its values and opportunities, rather than simply approaching candidates out of the blue. “We talk to them about our growth strategy, our network, our market intelligence, and we use it to seek referrals,” says White.
The business has an in-built advantage in its existing physical reach. With offices in the Middle East, South Africa, South America and Australia, an interview can be arranged with a manager local to the candidate. White prefers a face-to-face meeting where possible, she says: “They can get a feel for us as a business, we can get a feel for them – then the manager reports back and we might have the candidate fly over to meet us.”
When that’s not possible, the team uses Skype and video conferencing to speak to candidates, working flexibly to manage early morning or late night calls across various time zones. Working with international candidates can mean a longer lead time, so White must keep on top of hiring managers’ expectations. “If it’s someone based in the UK, the process can be condensed and an offer made quickly,” she says. “But if you have to factor in Skype, having the right technology, arranging to meet a local person and a potential interview in the UK, it can make for a long lead time.”
There are other compensations, however. WSP previously used recruitment agencies to find candidates; today, technology means it directly sources 70 per cent of roles, whether international or local, offering better control of costs and the candidate experience.
Organisations of all sizes are realising globalisation is both a threat and an opportunity for their recruitment models – it opens a huge pool of potential candidates, but gives nimble rivals a level playing field to poach with impunity.
“The market for candidates has definitely changed. Technology has allowed us to get our hands around it, to see opportunities to hire globally,” says Gareth Jones, chief technologist at talent consultancy Chemistry Group. How employers choose to engage with this broader pool of talent will be a huge factor in how successful they are at recruiting, he adds, citing fabled US shoe retailer Zappos, which recently announced it will no longer post job ads but will rely on the online community around its brand to bring in recruits.
If you’re not Zappos (or Google or Apple), building that brand presence on a global scale will be a challenge. Brad Cook, vice president of talent attraction at data integration company Informatica, operates in “two of the most competitive markets in the world for tech talent: Silicon Valley and Bangalore”. He says: “The challenge for us is how do we make our message personal, how do we bubble to the surface? We need to think of ourselves not just as pure recruiters but also marketeers.”
The volume recruitment market is slowly recognising such truths. Those looking for specialists are already fully conversant in them. Informatica finds that in many markets, candidates with high-demand technical skills tend to ‘disappear’ from sites like LinkedIn so they won’t be bombarded by calls from recruiters.
“They’ll have content on LinkedIn but won’t link their name to their company or job title because that’s what recruiters search for. So we have to go deeper, for example on [technical programming forum] Stack Overflow,” says Cook.
The company also has a research facility in Bangalore dedicated to keeping up to date on the market for candidates with the right skills. The 12-hour time difference between India and Silicon Valley means someone is on the recruitment case round the clock.
In such an environment, it’s important to ensure the brand message is consistent across different countries. Consulting firm Deloitte is a network of member firms, so recruitment is managed on a country-by-country basis, but the look and feel of a job advertisement is deliberately the same wherever you apply.
Recruitment teams from diverse countries come together to examine their brand and talent pipeline, while the practical aspects such as interviews and offers are managed domestically. “If we place an advert globally, we won’t just be looking for someone in India, for example. We want to appeal to the internal and external market,” says Stevan Rolls, head of HR for Deloitte UK.
Hays, the recruitment group, has adopted an innovative approach to extending its brand reach. A game called ‘The Hays Challenge’, which it shared via social media channels, invites people to take part in an interactive video where they select candidates and experience life as a recruiter.
“We face two challenges as an employer: how do we hire recruitment consultants who might not have considered it as a go-to career, or in countries where it’s not a mature industry? And how do we replicate some of the DNA from our UK leadership base in other countries?” says Barney Ely, Hays’ HR director.
So much focus in recruitment is around measurement. How can this be translated when you’re hiring across multiple countries, often with different legal requirements and expectations? Don’t try to oversimplify, says Jones. And look at richer metrics such as quality of hire or customer satisfaction feedback. He adds: “In theory, it’s easier than ever to pull data together now, and gain insight into global trends or patterns. Unfortunately it seems that most of the noise around this area is based on short-term measures like cost of hire.”
Bringing talent into the UK from countries outside the European Union also carries the added complexity of managing the visa process, an issue around which Hays’ CEO Alistair Cox has been vocal. He has described the UK’s tighter rules around immigration as “arbitrary hurdles” which are damaging economic growth and forcing businesses to relocate overseas to find workers.
The government aims to reduce net migration from 182,000 in 2012 to tens of thousands by next year. Employers are under pressure to prove they cannot find a suitable candidate here before they take someone on from outside the EU. This needs to be built into lead times, says White at WSP: “We have to ensure we have done all the market testing and have all the evidence – if there’s a risk they won’t get a visa, we need a plan B.”
Applying a consistent background screening process can also throw up challenges. In some countries (such as France) pre-employment screening is less culturally acceptable, while asking for proof of qualifications or a reference in others could involve a laborious bureaucratic process. In Russia, for example, employees are obliged to carry a formal document known as their ‘work record book’ from job to job.
Traci Canning, managing director for EMEA at screening company First Advantage, says: “At a policy level, it should be proportionate and role-based – if you’re handling money it’s appropriate to do a credit check, for example. The risk is that one office says ‘This is how we do it here’ rather than appreciating that other countries may do it differently.”
Dealing with these practical hurdles and managing expectations means recruiters require well-tuned negotiation skills. In specialist areas, it can be frustrating. “The process of securing visas and the necessary work permits can be very time-consuming, which can be a problem if you’re a hospital in urgent need of more staff,” says Ron Stewart of Jobs4Medical.
And while technology can help recruiters reach further than ever before, a local presence will help deepen relationships with candidates and flag up potential problems before they arise. Knowledge of cultural nuances such as how to approach candidates or communication preferences can be invaluable, according to Sue Brooks, executive vice president at recruitment process outsourcing company Cielo. “It’s vital that in-depth research is carried out into the drivers and cultures of the workforce in the specific country,” she says. “Having access to someone on the ground will be hugely beneficial in identifying the opportunities and potential pitfalls in recruitment activity.”
Video interviews mean that at least some of the process can be handled virtually, but in terms of candidate experience, nothing can replace meeting someone face to face. Some companies may be tempted to outsource elements of that process, but the need to get a feel for a brand means this might not produce the best results, says Cook. “People often remark that the world is getting smaller, but I believe having someone in the region who understands cultural dynamics is essential.”
Being able to offer a global career does have plenty of upsides, though. “I like recruiting internationally because it means people have options. They’re not restricting their career to the UK, so we can promote WSP as somewhere they can build a lifetime career,” says White. So while her team deals with calls across time zones and all the paperwork thrown up by a global recruitment operation, they know it’s for a good cause.
Discover how OD is managed in global organisations at the CIPD Organisation Development Conference on 24 September: cipd.co.uk/events