MightyRecruiterHiring for STEM Jobs: Recruiting Top International Talent
It’s not a secret that those in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields are generally getting older and nearing retirement. It’s also not a secret that there just aren’t as many American-born students pursuing these types of degrees. If your business has STEM jobs to fill, this means that you will have to try to recruit international talent.
This can be a challenge for your company. You have to appeal to international candidates, get familiar with new hiring channels, know what skills you’re looking for, make sure to fill out all of the right paperwork, get the help that you need and use the right tools. Consider these tips as you start trying to fill different STEM-related jobs through international hiring.
Appeal
The only way you’re going to be able to hire international workers for STEM jobs is if you can make your company appealing to them. Social media is a great way for businesses to get connected with potential employees. The problem is that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may not be the most popular social media networks in other countries. You have to do your research to find out how you can make your company more appealing to candidates from other countries.
Another way you can make your company more appealing is by making it more inclusive. International workers are coming from completely different cultures, so you have to be able to show them that they will be included in the company culture. Otherwise you will have a hard to appealing to anyone used to a different life.
Hiring Channels
Where you look for international talent will be different than where you look for American workers. If you have STEM jobs to fill, you need to know the proper hiring channels to use. There are different resources you can use to find candidates who are currently in America and their home countries. Try to familiarize yourself with multiple hiring channels. This will give you a greater likelihood of finding the employees you need.
Skills
You also have to know what skills you are looking for. Consider the STEM jobs that you need to fill. What sort of expertise, knowledge, skills and abilities do they require If you want to successfully attract an international employee, you have to know what you’re looking for in said employee. This fact is the same whether you’re trying to hire someone from this country or a different one. You have to know what you’re looking for before you can find a proper candidate.
Paperwork
Hiring an international worker means that you will have to know what paperwork needs to be filled out related to their visa. Your company should have a few people who are experienced at filling out the I-9 form. This will ensure that everything will go smoothly after you make the hire for STEM jobs. This aspect may seem like something that you can just think about later, but you want to make sure to think about it before you hire someone from a different country. If you won’t be able to properly fill out the paperwork, your recruiting efforts will have been wasted.
Help
With the technicalities related to visas, your company needs to make sure that everything is legally correct. You need to talk with a lawyer who specializes in immigration. They will be able to help you fill out the right paperwork, take the right steps and, in general, avoid making costly mistakes when hiring international workers for STEM jobs. Many companies feel that it would be cheaper to forgo the immigration lawyer, but the fact is that if you’re going to be hiring a number of international workers, it will save you money in the long run.
Tools
There are a lot of resources that you can turn to that will make hiring an international workforce a little easier. As was discussed previously, you can use social media that is popular in foreign countries, such as QZone, Facenama, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Draugiem. You should also use the E-Verify system. This system helps you make sure that potential employees are eligible to work in the United States before you make the hire official.
As you try to fill STEM jobs, you have to start looking internationally. There just aren’t enough American-based people involved in the STEM community to fill all of the available jobs. As you try to make international hires or grow your business in another way, make sure to use all the tools that are available to you. Check out Mighty Recruiter to get more information related to making all-star hires and improving your business.