What To Know About Hiring International Employees

One of the most challenging parts of becoming a large-scale company is eventually dealing with that international barrier. Whether you’re hiring new employees for your international office or bringing on someone who is from another country, there are certain procedures you need to follow for doing so. That’s why we’ve put together this guide on what to know about hiring international employees.

Get Your Company Certified

Before you start your search, you’ll want to ensure that you have the proper certifications to hire employees from other countries. There is a whole government program set up for filling vacancies in your company with foreign workers. The main thing to note is that you must have a good reason for needing people from outside your country to work for you. If you have a long list of nationals waiting for jobs, this will likely not be allowed.

Ensure They Receive Proper Documentation

Once your company’s certifications are out of the way and you start looking at candidates, you’ll want to make sure they have proper documentation. Work visas, permanent labor certifications, and a Social Security Number are a few things they’ll need. Although they won’t need all these things before the interview, it’s good to keep them in mind and ask about them to ensure you won’t break any laws by hiring them.

Be Patient During the Interview Process

The key thing you’ll want to remember from this guide on what to know about hiring international employees isn’t all the formalities and paperwork, though. It’s that you’ll need to be more patient and understanding with your potential candidates. The distance will slow down the process, and you’re going to have to do things differently.

The first thing to consider is that their resumes might look different from those you’re used to seeing. Each country has different standards for what is and isn’t worth mentioning on a resume. That means that instead of ripping one up, ask what they would have put if they had known what you were looking for. If they give an answer you like, you’ll feel more confident when inviting them to an interview.

Another thing to be ready for is the change in background checks and other behind-the-scenes processes. There are many things that will improve your international background checking procedure, but the most important one to remember is that the turnaround will take much longer than usual. For all these practices, though, you might have to experiment to determine which methods work best for your future foreign workers.