9 Steps of International Candidate Journey
No matter the industry, all businesses will become more digital. Hence the need for tech talent is continuously growing. The Technology Industries of Finland has estimated that the tech field in Finland will require 130.000 new talents in the forthcoming 10 years.
As there is not enough talent graduating from our local educational systems to fill this demand, one strategy to tackle the urgent talent shortage is to recruit tech talent from abroad. The recruitment process considers several steps and starts already before the candidate applies to a position. In the following we will walk you through the whole international candidate journey that a company recruiting from abroad should take into consideration.
International recruiting and relocation require lots of effort from the hiring company and the candidate – don’t go at it without a careful plan
International recruiting is an extensive process that requires careful planning. An international candidate is not just providing the hiring organization with their skills and experiences but is also making a huge life decision when moving to another country for work. Often the candidate also brings their family with them, which adds layers in the already complex process of decision making, relocation and social integration.
Hence, to tackle the possible challenges in international recruitment, relocation, and retaining international talent, it is essential to plan the international candidate journey carefully. A candidate journey helps to ensure that the hiring company takes both the employer brand and the country perspective into account, and communicates in a differentiating and attractive way via different assets on essential touchpoints, where the (potential) candidate is in contact with the (potential) employer. Possible touch points may include e.g. career site or social media channels and assets such as a video or blog post.
International Candidate Journey Step-by-Step
It’s crucial to tailor the candidate journey for international talent. Here we have defined 9 steps of an international candidate journey that will help you craft your own process for recruiting candidates from abroad.
In the Awareness phase, the potential candidate does not yet actively search for information about the employers or country but rather spontaneously pays attention to the shared information. In the Interest phase, the first dialogue with potential employers takes place, and what counts is foremost the information about the country to be relocated. In this phase the candidate might find out that Finland is not only the happiest country in the world, but also known for interesting tech-companies, or find interesting prospective employers.
The first extremely important step is Consideration, where the potential candidate starts evaluating their personal interests and values with the country and potentially interesting companies. They might start asking questions directly from the potential employers – you – and the dialogue might get more intense. If the potential candidate agrees that the country and your company could fulfill both their career and life ambitions, they take Action and apply.
If both sides are still convinced that they have something to provide for another, the candidate is hired and the process of Relocation starts. Even a well-planned relocation could take months. During this time you need to make sure that the new employee is kept aware and excited about the new work and life situation. This requires careful planned, active communication to make sure that the future employee would not change mind. There are several administrative tasks to be completed, which can be done either in cooperation with an external partner or by yourself. Please note that even if you use a partner, make sure you have the time and knowledge to do your own part.
After a successful relocation process, the employee is ready to start and the Onboarding process begins. Here the employee should receive extra good support to get the feeling that they are welcome and have everything that is needed. This also considers private life.
After an hopefully inspiring and informative start in your company, it is important to make sure that the new employee feels Engaged to the company. To put extra effort on this makes sense after a long and expensive recruitment and relocation process. Hopefully, when coming to Offboarding you receive great feedback and also ideas for improving your international candidate journey. If you’re lucky, you might also get great Advocacy for your company to support further recruitment efforts.
If you could use a little support in designing your international recruitment process and candidate journey – from relocation to integration and retention – we’ve a perfect workshop for you!
In the future, every company will be a software company. To prosper in the digital future, winning the talent war is a paramount. That means succeeding across the entire employee lifecycle – attracting, recruiting and retaining the best IT professionals. Talented helps organizations to do just that through Talent Acquisition, Employer Branding and building winning Employee Experiences.