You may never hire an expat. But for a company that hopes to grow globally, when the time comes, how do you do that?
Before we explore — briefly — Courtney Bogaard’s DisruptHR presentation, a word about expats. They are foreign nationals working in a country other than the one that issued their passport. Bogaard, for example, is an American citizen working in Belgrade, Serbia, as head of talent acquisition for the European gaming firm Nordeus.
Among the reasons a company might want to hire an expat is to understand the culture of another country and make connections. Or the talent a company needs is not available in their own country. Regardless of the reasons, all expats have common needs, and that is where HR comes in.
Don’t bother handling the paperwork. Hire a partner to do that. Focus, Bogaard says, on adding the important value that will make an expat want to work for your company and stay with you. Start by thinking through the obstacles an expat will face. Even before you begin interviewing, “Start thinking what the obstacles are,” she says, listing a few: medical, language, cultural assimilation. “What are all those obstacles?”
Then create programs around them. Then make sure the company is there to support the expat, she says. “Have a team, or a person, whose whole job is to help you and your expat.” And make sure that support extends to their families.
Those key steps are unique to attracting and hiring expats. But don’t overlook two more that are universal to hiring anyone: Be an amazing company and be proud of the company, what it does, where you are and who you are.
Here’s Bogaard to explain in 5 minutes how these all work together.
In partnership with DisruptHR, TLNT presents some of the best Disrupt presentations from events across North America and now the world. Disrupt talks are modeled on the TEDx concept: Short, to the point talks on all things HR — talent, culture and technology.