When hiring the best talent in a highly competitive global market, it’s essential for recruiters to navigate cross-cultural differences among candidates effectively. Your recruitment process should accommodate candidates who come from diverse backgrounds and behave and think differently.
To ensure effective recruitment and a positive onboarding experience, teams need to be familiar with cultural customs and the variations in perspectives toward workplace culture within their hiring pool.
Our languages, gestures, body language, prime focuses, and responses can differ. These differences can lead to a disconnect when not fully understood, and if not approached properly they can cause your organisation to miss out on top talent.
Let’s go over a few ways businesses can resolve cross-cultural differences in the recruitment process.
Give a clear and detailed job description
Make sure to give a clear and honest description of the type of candidate your company needs. This is always good practice, no matter where you’re hiring. However, when it comes to searching globally, you need to be even more transparent about the details of the position.
Don’t get overly creative with job titles. Avoid superlative language or words like “marketing guru” and “accomplished computer scientist.” While wording like this can be a good indication of company culture, it can translate differently across cultures.
Exaggerated language can discourage qualified candidates from applying, especially people in groups or from countries socialised not to be prideful.
Write an engaging overview of the job in about 4 or 5 sentences, describing the purpose of the job, how it contributes to the company, and why it’s important to the company. Focus on describing responsibilities and career development.
Keep bullet points short, avoiding long paragraphs. And describe the key functions of the job in no more than 7 bullet points. Divide the bullets into categories to make it simpler to read, such as communication skills, technical skills, and management skills. This can improve readability and draw more applicants to the position.
Be sure to highlight the benefits of working for the organisation and communicate the company’s core values.
List job openings on appropriate sites
Popular job posting sites vary in different countries. While LinkedIn and Indeed are some of the largest professional social networks globally, some countries and regions prefer other platforms like CareerBuilder, SimplyHired, JobScore, and Zhaopin.com. Do research on job posting sites in the area you need to hire to figure out the best options for your future postings.
Be aware of how differences may affect the interview process
When an interviewer asks a candidate to tell them a little bit about themselves, the answer may vary vastly by region or country. However, the social standards of certain regions may lead some candidates to focus on different aspects of themselves.
Attitudes during the interviewing process can differ depending on where a person is from and how they were taught to present themselves.
For example, Americans are taught to list off their accomplishments and good qualities. This can come across as boastful or even misleading to an interviewer from China or Finland, two countries that generally practice a more humble approach when interviewing for a job.
Body language and gestures can also differ throughout the world. Some cultures may focus on the importance of eye contact, while in other cultures direct eye contact is viewed as impolite and disrespectful. It’s important for interviewers to understand cross-cultural body language and gestures so as not to misinterpret them based solely on their own cultural experiences.
For remote employees, take interview times into account. It may not always be possible to schedule an interview at a great time for everyone when the interviewer and interviewee live in different time zones. Be aware of the candidate’s time zone and make sure the interview isn’t scheduled for the middle of the night for them.
