International recruitment

Recruitment is the process of attracting people to apply for job vacancies.

Global recruiting includes not only selecting in-company employees with high quality
academic and professional experience but also searching worldwide for the best people,
whatever their countries of origin.

The global recruitment methods are categorized into two types. They are Internal and
External.
The internal methods are described as:

job posting
skill inventories
Referrals
Transfer and promotion

The external methods are described as:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Advertising
Employee referrals
Internships
Internet and related software
Professional recruitment firms

. Internal method:
The most effective and most common form of expatriate recruitment seems to be internal
recruitment, where the international firm identifies the potential expatriate from within their
domestic or foreign operations.
Internal recruitment offers advantages to the international firm.
1. Selectors have personal knowledge of candidate.

2. Familiar
3. Cost effective.
4. Motivational value
5. Better utilization of internal talent
Job posting:
In this method, the organization publishes job openings on bulletin boards, electronic media
and similar outlets.
Skill inventories
Many organizations have developed useful databases and inventories on both local and
global level that facilitate an internal search for employees with interest and requisite skills
to fill an international assignment.
Internal network referrals:
It means using personal contacts to locate job opportunities. It is a recommendation from a
current employee regarding a job applicant who can be a friend or a family member.
Transfer and promotion:
This is a method of filling vacancies from within through transfers and promotions. A
transfer is an internal movement within the same grade, from one job to another.
Promotion , involves movement of employee from a lower level position to a higher level
position accompanied by changes in duties , status and value.

External methods:
1. Advertising : Direct advertising to the external public can reach a large number of
potential applicants in a number of ways, from a simple Help wanted sign in a shop
window to a transnational search involving multiple forms of media.
2. Employee referrals: In many companies and operations around the world, 25% to
30% of the new hires come from employee referrals. In this approach employees
typically are provided a financial reward and / or gift for referring a candidate who is
eventually hired.

3. Internships: Companies are increasingly working closely with domestic and

international university programs to develop internship arrangements where students
may work on a part time basis during a school year or full time during a summer prior
to graduation. This working arrangement whether in exchange for pay, academic
credit, or both can provide valuable experimental learning and resume building
experience for the student
4. Internet and related software: There has been tremendous growth in the use of
internet as external recruitment tool. As evidence, internet usage for recruiting
purposes in global 500 companies increased from 29% in 1998 to 88% in 2001.
5. Professional recruitment firms: There is a rapidly growing worldwide industry for
firms that perform various forms of assistance in sourcing or providing labor to fit
company employment needs.

Selection Methods for International Assignments:

1. Informal methods: In this method candidates are selected informally based on
personal contacts. Selection on the basis of connections or seniority thus has a
number of problems and is strongly discouraged as a means of selecting an
international manager.
2. Formal methods: This method includes selection on the basis of past experience
and skills.
a. Past Experience: Formal methods while more reliable are not entirely problem
free. Selection on the basis of past experience is often deemed a reliable guide
to future performance.
b. Selection by skill: It is unfortunately common among MNCs to treat
international experience or global awareness as a kind of bolt on. For
instance if you need a manager for car factory, you select a good engineer and
give him some inter culture training. The problem is that some skill and
experiences cannot be formally taught.
3. Tests and Examinations: As expatriate assignments become more common and
consequently more consideration goes into the selection of candidates more
emphasis is being placed on using formal tests examination and so forth. Some of
the means of selection are:

a. Interviews: When interviewing a candidate for an international assignment, it is

advantageous to have a variety of people from different parts of the organization
consider the candidate even perhaps to have them assessed by people from
both head office and the office to which they may be assigned.
b. References / Resumes: Success in one international assignment does not
necessarily guarantee success in another. Some assignments require a global
orientation rather than previous experience.