It has never been easy to fill vacancies with talented staff members, but recent developments have made things significantly more difficult. Across the globe, labor shortages have meant that a range of sectors has struggled to fill positions, even with post-pandemic levels of unemployment remaining relatively high.

Looking further afield

As a result of recent labor shortages, many markets have sought to make it easier for firms to secure talented workers from abroad. In Germany, for example, the Skilled Immigration Act was launched in March 2020 to make it easier for non-EU nationals to work in the country, even allowing them to live in Germany for up to six months while they seek employment. Other nations, including Canada, Israel, and several others, have also moved to reduce barriers around employing foreign workers.

Although one can’t attribute the tight labor market entirely to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, government measures to curb the spread of the virus have certainly been felt by employers and job-seekers alike. Pandemic-enforced lockdowns and social distancing measures have reduced labor mobility and increased the number of digital nomads. Moreover, there is a growing school of thought that employers don’t necessarily need to source talent from a domestic pool of workers if digital tools mean that employees can carry out work remotely.

The challenges of global recruitment

While securing workers from abroad may sound like a simple solution to the current labor market shortages affecting organizations, the reality is quite different. Various challenges make it difficult to secure talent from abroad. Firstly, language and cultural barriers may not necessarily be apparent when sifting through CVs. Then, there’s the fact that employers need to navigate regulations carefully even with a post-pandemic relaxation of rules around employing foreign workers.

Moreover, how should companies even begin reaching out to talent outside their domestic market? What should their messaging be? Where should they advertise? These questions are understandably challenging – particularly if an organization has not recruited globally before. To formulate an appropriate solution, recruiters need to show more flexibility than ever before, looking outside the usual talent hot-spots. Most of all, they need an open mind.

In an earlier blog, WCC SEO Jan Jensen provided the following comment:

“Employment strategists working with multiple industries and whole economies need to focus not just on where people have worked previously, but the skills that enable them to slot in and make an immediate impact in any sector. Since these aren’t always the lateral moves we’ve become accustomed to making in the past, we’ve developed software solutions for the employment market that remove expectation and bias to discover a bigger pool of candidates with a wider range of competencies.”

As our CEO explains, just as digital tools helped companies continue operating during the pandemic, they also hold the answer to the current challenges associated with a tight labor market. WCC’s employment market solutions allow advisers to interpret free text entries to uncover the candidates best suited to the role in question – wherever they are based.

WCC’s high-quality data provides a starting point for recruitment teams that may not otherwise know where to start when sourcing workers from abroad. The company’s Employment Platform Analytics module offers targeted graphs and analysis to help craft a successful labor market strategy that lets firms make the most of the global talent at their disposal.

Published on: January 25, 2022