Brix | Brix Blog

PUBLISHED ON APRIL 11, 2024

International hiring is a great opportunity for businesses as they can hire the best talent from any corner of the world. So, they have a competitive advantage through their diverse team of workers with specialized skills. Most importantly, you can have all these benefits of overseas hiring without bearing huge expenses on recruitment.
Hiring overseas talent has become much easier than ever before, thanks to advancing technology. However, navigating challenges mainly due to navigating cultural and legal differences often leads to common mistakes when hiring overseas. When overlooked, these mistakes can hurt your business reputation in the long term.
So, it’s important to talk about common mistakes when hiring foreign workers.

1. Not Knowing Where to Find Remote Workers

When hiring overseas, you should have a solid onboarding process as an organization. Many companies want to hire remote international talent and put the requirements here and there without considering the procedure, legalities, and further necessary details.
So, the outcome is the hiring process becomes time-consuming and often brings unskilled employees. This can further disrupt you from your main organizational goals. Did you know the bad hire can cost you up to 30% of the employee's wages for the first year.
Therefore, you must have a thoughtful and informed hiring process that brings good international employees who can add value to your business.

HOW TO FIX IT

Fortunately, there are companies like Brix that specialize in overseas hiring, which also called "EOR employer of record". Simply, you have to add your requirements, and you will find a global pool of talented employees. Not only this, you can find a remote hiring company that would handle everything from recruiting to managing the tax benefits of your overseas employees on your behalf.
Having onboarding services that bring the best talent and manage the side processes is a bonus. It brings a competent workforce to your team and saves lots of time.

2. Not Setting a Right to Test and Trial Period

The test and trial period is a very upfront, honest, and beneficial hiring technique that helps you create the perfect overseas team. Screening, questions, personality, and skill tests are undoubtedly important. But assigning real tasks enables you to find out many things. Unfortunately, many organizations ignore this crucial step which welcomes future risks.
Therefore, you must have a right to a test and trial period. It helps you get familiar with the new employee, their working style, approach, behavior, and areas of improvement.

HOW TO FIX IT

Specify the trial period on the first communication day and request their approval.

Assign employees the real work, which can be small projects (low-impact tasks).

Assign a mentor for guidance.

Extend the trial period if needed.

You can opt for hiring services with a trial and test period and a money-back guarantee.

Not Setting Clear Expectations About the Job

One of the most common mistakes companies make is not setting clear expectations about the job. For example, you want to hire a skilled UI/UX designer from overseas. But did you mention the nature of projects, timings, educational qualifications, etc.?
International hiring means collaborating with employees from different education, working styles, work ethics, and cultures. Therefore, you have to acknowledge them and respectfully present your expectations.

HOW TO FIX IT

Mention all the requirements in job portals and hiring services.

Be upfront about time zones and working hours, if any.

Mention how remote workers collaborate with the others on the team.

Highlight benefits, technical equipment needed, expectations, and other details.

Before laying out the job description, you must mention the nature of the work, skills you are looking for, flexibility, working hours, means of communication, and every little detail. This will help you get the most compatible employees.

Not Addressing Oversees Hiring Laws

When hiring someone overseas, you must thoroughly know hiring laws. The most common mistake while hiring is ignoring taxes employees must pay to their own country. Several factors like citizenship, right to work, and duration of work play an important role. Also, the payroll and payment methods vary according to country. In addition, you must specify the nature of the contract.
Ignoring all the legalities in the overseas hiring process may welcome confusions and miscommunication later. So, seeking professional help is advisable.

HOW TO FIX IT

As mentioned above, you can seek help from an overseas hiring agency that takes care of the taxes, insurance, payroll, and contracts.

Discussing contract types, taxes, and payroll methods during hiring is crucial.

Not Fully Integrating Remote Workers as Part of Your Team

Are you sidelining the overseas hiring and the employees? Well, it’s important to understand that your remote team is part of the organization no matter where they are located. They are as important as your on-premise employees.

HOW TO FIX IT

Give your remote workers access to all employee perks that other employees enjoy.

You must address and explain all the policies, nature of work, and expectations to your overseas workers.

Make your overseas workforce feel welcomed and valuable to your company.

There must be enough interaction with all the employees of the company.

Invite them to all events held within your organization. They can join via video conferences or physically as possible.

Closing Lines

Overseas hiring is an attractive way to bring global talent to your team. It helps to get a talented workforce that benefits the organizational goals. However, it would help if you avoided all the abovementioned mistakes to welcome the best candidates. Accepting the cultural differences and upfront introduction of requirements are important.
At Brix, we simplify your process of hiring the best talent overseas. Brix offers the best contractors, freelancers, teams, and project leaders in minimum time while costing you reasonable expenses.