IU’s Mission & Challenges
IU (International University of Applied Sciences) has a great Learn-Tech mission and vision “Empower people with the most learner-centric education approach” and “Everybody can access education to grow”. The company’s direction has proved to be a success as they are the biggest private university in Germany, counting 85.000 students across the country.
IU faces a twofold business challenge:
- A high-growth recruitment strategy, with 33% employee growth last year
- A business growth strategy to expand beyond the DACH market and explore other markets.
On the recruitment front, IU seeks two different profiles:
- Commercial: IT, Marketing, Sales, HR, etc.
- Academia: Professors, lecturers, professor assistants, tutors, etc.
IU’s key policy on hiring talent is that there should be a choice to recruit from a foreign country or the talent is allowed to work from abroad in another market for business expansion purposes.
“Everything is possible. We think beyond borders”
“Under the Radar”
Before working with WorkMotion, IU began launching internal initiative panels and project discussions to tackle their international expansion goals A few questions the company considered, created a need that WorkGlobal and WorkDirect could fulfill. The questions raised included “What do we do to hire and onboard Professors who live abroad but work for Germany?” “Can we onboard abroad while having no entity in the desired country?” and “Can we really hire and work from anywhere? If yes, how?“
Before a solution like WorkFlex, when it came to temporarily working abroad in a compliant manner, most companies operated under the radar. There would be no official channel for such requests. Problem solved with WorkFlex!
Real Cases Scenarios
The growth of the company must not be slowed down: IU makes it a point to hire and onboard from anywhere. This includes aross Germany and internationally. As an example, the HR team searched for an international payroll specialist for over half a year. Though they could not find anyone within Germany, they were able to in Belgium! This talent was hired and onboarded via the Employer of record model (WorkGlobal).
If these employment solutions were not available, IU would have had to reject key candidates.
As well, with WorkFlex, IU employees now benefit from the temporary work from abroad policy.
Benefits
- IU benefits from a largely flexible hiring strategy: key positions are filled regardless of where the talent is located. Their business expansion can happen seamlessly.
- Employees are assured to have an official assessment to be able to work from their home country, if they don’t wish to relocate.
- For a potential talent candidate and current employee,the ability to temporarily work from abroad creates a great company image.
And as Moritz says, WorkMotion “gives a wonderful liberty feeling for everyone”. #Employers retention!
How freeing is it from a company perspective to dismantle country borders to find our right talents and to expand the way we aim to? Regardless of nationalities and countries.
Besides, as an employee: knowing that I have the possibility to work from anywhere gives a solid trust base with IU.” Moritz Gamon – Teamlead People Operations & Services at IU
