Year after year, the distances between different parts of the world are getting shorter and shorter. New information technologies and transport technologies enable us to consider international profiles that previously we could only have had access to through expatriation projects. What factors have brought us to the stage we are now in? What benefits can we gain from recruiting foreign talent? Let’s take a look at what this new scenario consists of and how companies should approach this talent recruitment opportunity.
Technology as a great ally
Like people, businesses must adapt and make the most of the possibilities that technology offers in order to remain competitive and relevant to their customers. The last few decades have seen a great technological revolution, and we will continue to see this for decades to come. The advent of new information technologies enables us to shorten distances, bringing talent closer together and laying the foundations for a new way of understanding employment.
A crisis, an opportunity
Major crises or moments of heightened uncertainty are periods when different trends accelerate, and they go on to become the new normal. Whether it be technologically speaking or socially, we experience great changes during these periods. By way of example, according to the National Statistics Institution, before the outbreak of the pandemic 7.5% of workers in Spain worked from home, either daily or sporadically. In Europe this figure reached 14%. With the arrival of Covid-19, these indicators have shot up to 34%, at the time of the most severe lockdown, and are at 14.5% at present. If we look at Europe, countries such as Holland and Sweden exceed 40%, although the average for the Eurozone is 21%. In fact, the EU estimates that 33% of jobs could be done remotely within its borders. This data represents the beginning of a paradigm shift in talent mobility, and it demonstrates that behind every crisis there is a new opportunity that can open up new paths.
Different generations, different needs
Each generation has its own priorities and ethos. Depending on the social and economic environment they have lived in, we find that older generations, such as those born during the Baby Boom, have a very different view and perspective of what work is from those belonging to the X and Y generations. While the boomers have a more binary conception of employment, work-salary; later generations do not place such a high priority on economic value, but rather seek a better quality of life. This is where international talent mobility and the emergence of remote working come to the fore. With the possibility of working from home, Generation X and Y talent is happy to move to a foreign company and work thousands of miles away if this means an improvement in their quality of life. Whereas expatriates used to have to be compensated financially, now new generations, who are also specialised in the most sought-after technical and IT profiles, prefer to enjoy a higher quality of life and happiness.
How can international talent mobility benefit me?
It is not very often that you are lucky enough to be able to find the specific talent you are looking for at a time when you need to complement your team. We are in an era of hyper-specialisation, with increasingly specific profiles emerging to carry out one process or another. Thus, finding someone who fits that profile can be much more complicated than it seems. With the global mobility of talent, and the adoption of English as the lingua franca, there is a window of opportunity to attract talent from other parts of the world. It is much easier to find the specific profile we are looking for in an international database with hundreds of thousands of candidates rather than in a national one with just a few hundred. The opportunities are multiplying, and this allows us to be more precise in our efforts to attract and retain talent.
Having a diverse team is enriching and provides greater creativity. Different profiles complement one other and can develop disparate perspectives and innovative solutions, which might not be possible with a more orthodox team. Of the companies that started a recruitment process during the hardest months of the pandemic, 60% had contracted workers who reside in a different country. This exemplifies one of the new trends that is gaining momentum: the internationalisation of workforces.
But international talent mobility is not limited only to large corporations; what’s to stop an SME having a Slovenian or South African worker working remotely from home? With remote working, it makes no difference whether the employee is 5 or 5,000 miles away; and with no infrastructure or transport costs, we also achieve a democratisation of talent mobility.
At Claire Joster International we specialise in identifying and recruiting foreign talent to complete your teams. Through our Matching Values methodology we ensure that we submit candidates who are not only highly qualified for the position in question, but also share your company’s culture and values. In this way we ensure that their integration is a success. If we can help you, please don’t hesitate to contact our team of specialists in international talent recruitment.