Your company may have to look farther afield for employment candidates. If you have been unable to fill positions for IT professionals within your own country, you may want to hire someone from overseas. There are good reasons to hire foreign labor.

Globalization has created a huge shortage of qualified professionals in the IT area. HR managers are redefining the way they recruit as competing companies battle for the attention of job hunting IT professionals.

Rather than winnowing out hundreds of candidates for a position and picking the best and the brightest, an extreme shortage of qualified job seekers have some companies scouring the parking lots of competing businesses for talent. This is only one of the bizarre techniques that recruitment personnel have been using.

Nortel, for example, has a contest, rewarding friends and strangers for successful hirings as well as doing regular recruiting at job fairs and colleges.

How is your company perceived by job hunters? Does your company have an edge over other companies? Do you have a unique selling point for potential employees?

High wages are no longer an incentive as IT professionals are already well paid. Online companies are getting quite creative with the 'perks' offered to prospective employees. Trips, cars, discounts on housing, and relaxed working conditions are just some of the ways companies are enticing new talent.

Your company may have to look father afield for employment candidates. If you have been unable to fill positions for IT professionals within your own country, you may want to hire someone from overseas. There are good reasons to hire foreign labor.

Building A Diverse Organization

Dr. Nancy J. Adler, of the Faculty of Management at McGill University says, "A global organization needs to understand cross- cultural differences both inside and outside the organization. In order to mass-customize products, it is necessary to keep well informed about ideas from all parts of the world, about the sources of raw materials worldwide, and about political and economic trends across geographies.

"Managing global boards and senior executive committees requires a sophisticated understanding of cultural differences in interaction patterns and in attitudes towards time, influence, and problem solving styles. Attention to developing cross-cultural skills is needed for working both inside and outside the organization. "

Diversity is the trend in all Anglo-Saxon countries, changing demographics indicate that the biggest portion of immigrant labor today is from Asian countries. Hiring foreign-born residents gives your company access to buying habits of the consumers in those immigrant communities.

Foreign-born employees can be a big help when preparing marketing or customer service materials ensuring that your company's cross-cultural efforts will be practical and positive. Adding a foreign-born team member can broaden the scope of problem solving and brainstorming on creative projects. Not limited by the same frames of reference as the lifelong resident of your country, immigrant personnel might offer new insight on common problems and present new ideas that are fresh and different.

Should your company decide to open offices overseas, you will already have someone on staff who will be sensitive to the needs of that country. This l makes setting up a foreign office easier, as you will have a native born person to place who is familiar with your policies and procedures as well as the structure and needs of that local community. It will be valuable to have employees who can communicate with, and understand, clients and consumers of different countries and cultures.

© 1999-2002 JBJustice
Part 1 of a series called "Recruiting the IT Professional"