By
Leanna Seah
September 18, 2023
Updated
September 25, 2024
Finding and attracting the right talent in niche industries
Every decision you make as a business plays a pivotal role in your company’s success. Niche talent acquisition is perhaps one of the most important elements in the mix. This is especially so for companies in niche industries.
There are many challenges that come with hiring specialised talent. Employers must first contend with a fiercely competitive market with high talent demands along with skill shortages and talent gaps when and where it is needed. And perhaps most frustrating of all, finding the perfect candidate for a role, only to realise that the person has already been snapped up by another company (even worse when that company is a competitor).
While we're not ones to shy away from a little healthy competition, it would be disingenuous to deny that finding niche talent can feel like an uphill battle. However this should never get in the way of a business' growth.
In fact, many companies have found success in recruiting for niche positions by enlisting global mobility experts and this article highlights one of those success stories; Tenet College and their recent hiring of an Assistant Director of Enrollment and Marketing.
- The challenge
- The solution
- Hiring niche talent from an international talent pool
- Why is global mobility essential to niche talent acquisition
- Get global mobility solutions with Airswift
The challenge for Tenet College: Hiring specialised talent in an international location
Source: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
As one of the only accredited universities in the United States to offer degree programs for students who learn differently, Tenet College were faced with hiring an essential employee who would be in charge of recruitment process for students in Canada.
On top of being based in Canada and familiar with the systems holding its education climate in place, this person also had to be experienced in driving undergraduate enrollment, with strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to work effectively within a diverse community.
Fortunately for Tenet, they had found all of these qualities in a candidate based in Ontario.
The challenge for Tenet lay within their ability to hire internationally. Towards the final stages of the hiring process, Tenet faced an impediment: they learned that their payroll provider was unable to pay international employees based in foreign countries.
On top of that, they lacked the resources required to transfer net pay to a foreign bank account or submit all of the regulatory filings and tax payments to the Canadian Revenue Agency.
Faced with the very real risk of losing this potential hire, Tenet acted quickly and found help in the form of a global mobility partner.
The solution: Employer of Record and compliant payroll implementation
Tenet College had two objectives.
- To run a reliable and accurate payroll service for their employee in a timely fashion
- To maintain full compliance with Canadian labour legislation
By partnering with Airswift, Tenet were able to enlist them as an Employer of Record. This meant that Airswift would appear as the legal employer of their new hire in Canada, employing the new hire on behalf of Tenet College whilst supporting the college across a suite of fully compliant payroll services.
This included clear gross to net payment calculations, accurate and timely tax deductions and submissions, and most importantly, everything was done at speed and in time for the new hire’s start date.
Hiring niche talent from an international talent pool
Despite recent reports on skills gaps and talent shortages, talent is still a widely untapped resource around the world. Hiring internationally unlocks access to some of the most skilled workers in the industry, allowing you to unearth talent in locations previously unexplored. That's why having specialised talent teams and a great talent acquisition strategy is crucial and the best way to access these ideal candidates.
Sourcing talent from an international pool will not only steer your company forward in terms of competitive advantage, it also creates space for cross-cultural exchanges to take place; essential for fostering innovation.
45% of existing Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants or by the children of immigrant parents and among U.S. tech workers, 81% think international talent brings innovation to the industry, and 77% believe it brings necessary diversity to the workforce.
Expand your hiring capabilities with a growing network of global remote workers
Another major hiring model to adopt involves recruiting remote workers internationally. As a response to the pandemic, working from home has become the new normal. This has paved the way for a new working environment that potentially removes any geographic restrictions when sourcing niche and critical roles.
Ask yourself.
Does your new employee need to be in the office or can they work remotely?
Opening yourself up to the concept of building a remote, international workforce provides you with the ability to source candidates from a much wider area that can immediately add a wealth of potential talent to the mix.
Enlist skilled contractors for project-based endeavors with narrow timelines
For time-sensitive projects that require highly specialised skillsets? Consider working with contractors.
An Upwork survey predicts that freelancers will make up the majority of the US workforce within the next decade. It further reports that 50% of millennials already have a freelance gig lined up. If this is where the talent lies, shouldn’t the search follow suit?
Amidst an increasingly discerning workforce that prioritises work-life balance and employee well-being, flexible hours and remote working conditions are attractive incentives that strongly influence a candidate’s decision when accepting a role.
Companies that don't adapt to these market expectations will stand the risk of falling behind.
Use talent mapping for a strategic approach to finding talent for niche industries
The average amount of time recruitment processes take to hire an employee has been steadily increasing over the last four years. Some of the factors that contribute to this include an economy-wide shift towards higher skilled jobs, the growth in candidate background screening as well as a more competitive market due to globalisation.
However, there exists an approach that has been proven to streamline the hiring process.
Talent mapping is a recruitment solution that profiles candidates according to their company, role or department. It provides companies with a detailed market intelligence analysis that involves among other things:
- Identifying the specific skills and expertise of potential candidates
- Illustrating the geographical spread of potential talent pools
- Mapping out competitors and the employment status of their key employees.
All of this is utilised to help companies systematically identify high potential, specialist talent whose career goals align with a company's strategy.
Why is global mobility essential to niche talent acquisition?
Global recruitment can be a costly endeavor. Most employers in the US can expect to invest up to three times more than what they would for domestic hires and research shows that it can take up to six months longer to bring in an international hire.
Employers seeking to hire international talent must also navigate through complex immigration policies along with language and cultural barriers.
That being said, finding the right candidate with the proper talent search is worth it. Especially when the role cannot be filled locally. It is during this juncture where global mobility has proven to be a vital component.
Global mobility refers to an international business’ ability to transition its employees to its locations around the world. An effective global mobility is one that provides a company and its employees with structured and seamless cross-border mobilisation.
Whether you’re an up-and-coming startup or a multinational corporation, global mobility can bring many benefits to your company. For businesses facing skills shortages, global mobility can help them source and hire talent for roles that they might not be able to fill locally or even search in advance for future roles.
Aside from attracting new international talent, global mobility presents existing employees with greater growth opportunities that might involve them relocating overseas and experiencing new cultures while diversifying their current skillsets.
Get customisable global mobility solutions with Airswift
For many of these situations, a trustworthy and experienced partner like Airswift can help to efficiently mobilise teams of international employees and enhance talent mobility. Our Employer of Record service for example, can help you hire global remote employees in specialised roles without having to set up any foreign subsidiaries in the locations they’re based in.
To top it all off, a global mobility partner is accountable for ensuring that all benefits allocations, payroll administrations, tax deductions and more are done in a timely manner and in compliance with the labour laws that govern the country your international employees are based in.
Ultimately a global mobility partner is able to mitigate any risks that come with international hiring and expansion. By providing businesses with bespoke services that can be customised to fit their evolving needs, Airswift’s services are here to support you in every stage of your growth.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you hire international talent and facilitate your global expansion plans.
* Client names have been changed to protect the privacy of the parties involved
