Interviewing and hiring staff for your global expansion can be a unique and challenging process. There are many things to worry about outside of finding talented people, such as unfamiliar cultures and human resources laws. The first step, however, is to find the people. Here are some great tips on interviewing candidates from different time zones.
Schedule the Interview
Remember that if you’re interviewing candidates from other countries you must consider their time difference. You’ll want to schedule the interview taking both your time zone and theirs into account to ensure you’re not making them get up in the middle of the night to be interviewed, but at the same time you want to be at the office at 4am to interview them.
Consider How You’ll Hire Your Successful Candidate
Hiring an employee directly might pose a risk to your company, particularly if you’re expanding into a new market in which you might not be familiar with the nuances of labor practices. Some alternatives to direct hiring are employee leasing and PEO model (Professional Employer Organisation). A PEO would be the employer of record and employ your staff, mitigating some risk and responsibility for managing human resources matters while you focus on their productivity. For example, New Horizons offers Vietnam PEO services and can help you with new hires by minimizing risk, allowing you rapid entry to the market and, providing essential services like payroll solutions. Visit https://nhglobalpartners.com/vietnam/peo-vietnam-employment-solutions/ to learn more. A PEO might even offer management solutions to assist with managing the daily management like timekeeping of your employees
Test Your Systems Beforehand
For a lot of us, the technology we are using now to run or attend meetings of all kinds, interviews included, is new to us. While we get more familiar with how to use our video conferencing hardware and software each passing day, there isn’t anything worse than joining a meeting room and being met with a non-functioning camera or headset. For this reason, in the hour leading up to the scheduled start of your interview, test your equipment with a colleague or fellow interviewer to ensure everything is working and you’re ready to interview your candidate.
Dress Appropriately
The jokes about virtual meetings wearing a shirt, tie and suit jacket but no pants might be flying around but dressing appropriately for an interview in a different time zone via video call is something you should take seriously. You certainly don’t want to conduct interviews for prospective candidates in your pajamas or a food stained sweater. Your candidate is likely not going to take the interview or your role seriously. Dress like you would for any in-person interview or day at the office because you’ll need to present yourself and your company professionally.
Conducting an interview remotely should largely be the same as one in person and you should try and focus on keeping it that way. Your questions and what you’re looking for from your candidate don’t change simply because they’re in a different country. Ask the right questions and use solid interview techniques to ensure you make the right choice.
