In recent times, the concept of recruiting overseas staff has gained momentum. Many businesses have joined the bandwagon in their attempt to meet the unprecedented and increasing skills shortage. To keep afloat and to stay ahead of competitors, it is important that you recruit skilled staff to deliver what the business stands for. Recruiting overseas staff is a boon for many small and medium sized businesses to meet this challenge. International recruits may possess the skills and attitudes that will prove beneficial to you and your business.

It is a known fact that to have a migrant worker is a financial decision. It is less desirable to have this worked out wrongly. You need them as an asset to your business rather than a liability. A wrong choice will result in lost visa space on which you spent your time, money and effort. Hence, it is required that these international recruitment agencies are more diligent in choosing the right candidate.

The exercise to bring in overseas staff will be rewarding if you are able to choose an appropriate overseas staff recruitment agency. There are numerous businesses claiming to be the best in the industry. How would you differentiate the good from the bad? This write-up is essentially to give an insight to the key aspects, which you need to be aware of when engaging a recruitment agency for overseas staff.

Choosing a Recruitment Agency for Overseas Staff

Recruitment is a dynamic industry and it becomes overwhelming and confusing for prospective employers and candidates. In this maze, to choose the right recruitment agency for overseas staff becomes even more daunting. Some of the characteristics that you need to look out for when availing the service of a recruitment agency, especially for Overseas staff, is listed below.

Global Presence

A well-established recruitment agency with numerous clients and offices in different locations across cities, provinces or countries is a safe bet. Be cautious when signing up with a start up agency or one with a single office location.

There are international recruiters who claim they have offices in different countries. To affirm their claims are true, request for the business registration documents for the respective countries. This could be beneficial, as it will quickly tell you whether they are being honest or misleading you with false claims. They may be in reality working with an associate agency and this might cost you more dearly. This also means that the recruitment process and most importantly screening of the applicants are not under their control.

Experience

It is important that the recruitment agency has the relevant experience in recruiting international staff in addition to guide and lead you smoothly through the transition process. It is advisable to choose a recruiting agency, which has been continuously working with Overseas recruitment and with good reputation.

An experienced recruitment agency is more likely to be aware of the laws of the countries from which the applicant hail from. As they are empowered with this knowledge, this will quicken the process to get them to your country after visa issuance. This requires experience in visa and immigration rules of both countries. This is a salient feature to look for when engaging a recruiting agency for overseas staff recruitment.

Reference Check

It is wise to carry out a thorough check on the recruitment agency that you wish to engage for recruitment. You should request for client testimonials and case studies to confirm their authenticity. Ideally, they should provide these without much delay. Needless to add, this should be followed up with a background check of the testimonials to ensure they are clients and not pseudo businesses.

Some shady recruitment agencies are famous in providing Client contacts with a foreign sounding name. Do not hesitate to insist in getting a reference from a client in your own country or in a similar country. This way you can verify the legitimacy of the referred Business entity.

There could be occasions where an international recruitment agency might pass their relatives or friends as client or business references. They would impress you with their polite, feasible and article manners. However in reality they might not be a business. Easier way to ascertain this would be to do a search on Google maps. If they are a listed business, the chances are very rare that you wouldn’t find them on google maps or other business directory.

Brand

Websites depicts the degree of professionalism maintained by an organisation. This platform serves as a tool for interaction and serves as the public face of the business. Being part of the social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the like is a clear indication of whether they are with the flow.

Reputation

Website would be a good start to obtain information about any prospective recruitment agency. Other sources to check their reputation would be through newspapers, magazines and word-of-mouth. This will give you information on how the business is viewed in the public eye. Review their website to see whether they are informative, articulate and influential with a reputation in the industry.

You have a reputation and brand name in your industry. You are gauged by the way you conduct your business and especially your HR practices. You definitely will be concerned that your reputation is upheld in all circumstances. There are occasion where international recruiters overcharge their applicants. This in turn would mar your reputation. It would be advisable to get them disclose how much if any they charge their applicants for their services. What has been portrayed as free or low cost could actually cost the applicant. This in turn can damage your brand identity with the unassuming applicant believing that it is being charged rather than the agency itself.

Consultation

A genuine recruiter is ready to offer good, helpful and honest advice and is foresighted. It would be beneficial if your international recruiter is capable of providing relevant information that you need to know, preparing you what to expect and assist you in making the right decision drawn from their past experience. However, this is possible only with recruitment agencies that has a global presence and/ or networked with industry partners, to source skilled staff from different countries.

The recruiting consultant would work out options in the best interest of the client drawing from previous work experience. He/She would be willing to spend atleast 30-40 minutes of friendly and professional initial consultation to gain a complete understanding of your requirements and follow-up for further information as and when the need arises.

Response

Recruitment agencies that provide quick turn-around-time for emails and telephone queries, is a good sign that they take their profession seriously. This can be anything from phone calls being answered quickly, politely and in a professional manner; email etiquette; regular updates on websites etc. It would be advantageous to have your queries answered quickly so that you have a smooth sail in this entire process. Turnaround time is an important feature to look-out when choosing a recruitment agency.

Staff

How the recruitment agency consultants conduct their business is a reflection of the business image and principles. Evaluating and assessing all aspects of the consultants’ performance is important. Acting professionally in all circumstances, being knowledgeable about their clients and industry, keen to listen and offer advise accordingly, are some of the desired qualities in a recruitment consultant. It is crucial to ensure that they will be able to represent your business values and thereby attract skills appropriate to your business.

A combination of these key traits will help you zero down on the appropriate recruitment agency that will provide efficient professional service and from where you can build a lasting business relationship.Retailers Forum magazine features wholesale merchandise from the country's top wholesalers.