Guide
A Guide To Recruitment Compliance When Hiring Across Borders
Legal & compliance
Global hiring
Global expansion
Get the resource for free
In this guide:
- Key considerations to make before going global
- Five steps you can take to increase your speed to hire
- Actionable ways to improve your recruiting strategy
Key takeaways
- Borderless hiring is the clear next step for companies that want to build a future-fit workforce. But, not every company is prepared to hire international employees efficiently and compliantly.
- While traditional methods of global hiring (such as opening up a foreign subsidiary) are time-consuming and costly, there are other more accessible routes you can take to increase your speed-to-hire and get new employees onboarded and working compliantly in less time.
- Compliance with global legal and tax regulations does more than help protect your company from fines and penalties. When you have a robust compliance program in place, it increases your candidate reach, quality of job offers, and business efficiency.
Who will benefit from this guide?
This guide is designed to benefit companies aware of the benefits of cross-border recruiting but concerned about the complexities and compliance risks that come with it. It will help you build and refine your global compliance program to hire top talent quickly, minimize global growth risks, and avoid non-compliance.
By the end of this guide, you will understand the critical compliance requirements when growing a global team, how to improve your recruiting process, attract job applicants abroad, increase hiring speed, and easily hire anyone, anywhere.
💡 See also: The Business Case for Global Hiring.
In this guide, you will learn the following:
- Your company's readiness to recruit abroad, including its existing knowledge of international compliance, employment laws, candidate data protection, data privacy, and global hiring costs
- Ways to accelerate and streamline your global hiring process, including effective recruitment practices, seamless onboarding, contract localization, classifying new hires, running global payroll, upgrading your human resources (HR) tech stack, and improving your global mobility process
- How a robust compliance program can ensure compliant recruiting, boost your recruiting efforts, broaden your candidate reach, cut recruiting costs, boost retention, and maintain employer brand and reputation
Instead of taking people to where the work is, you can take work to where the people are. This opens up a global pool of talent that can be deployed immediately thanks to platforms like Deel that handle compliance and payroll for international remote workers.
—Shannon Karaka,
Head of Expansion at ANZ
More resources:
- Discover effective global hiring practices with a complete guide on international hiring.
- Find the best candidates using our job description templates.
- Learn more about AI in talent acquisition: A guide for global teams.
Here are some frequently asked questions related to international recruitment compliance:
FAQs
What are the key legal considerations when recruiting internationally?
Hiring an employee from another country is much more complex than hiring a domestic worker or an independent contractor. There are various recruitment laws, tax obligations, employment standards, and immigration requirements and regulations you must comply with to avoid facing fines, penalties, and reputational damage, and they’re constantly changing.
💡See also: The Key to Continuous Company Compliance in Today’s Global Landscape.
How do data protection laws affect international recruitment?
Adhering to local data protection and data security laws, like GDPR in Europe, which dictate how your candidate or new hires' data can be collected, used, and stored.
What should we consider when drafting international employment contracts?
Ensuring that contracts comply with local labor laws, including terms about termination, compensation, work hours, and benefits.
💡See also: HR Compliance: How Can Startups Use HR Automation Tools.
How can companies keep up with changes in international employment laws?
Regularly consulting legal experts or using compliance management tools, such as Deel’s Compliance Hub to stay updated on legal changes in each country.
💡See also: Compliance challenges companies face when growing globally.
What are the risks of non-compliance in international recruitment?
Identifying potential legal penalties, financial costs, and reputational damage associated with non-compliance.
How can companies source international talent?
Companies can source international talent through a variety of methods:
- Job advertisements: Companies can place job postings on global platforms. This includes popular job portals, social media channels, and professional networks that have a wide international reach. By doing so, they attract a diverse pool of applicants from different countries
- Recruitment agencies: Specialized recruitment agencies that focus on international talent can be invaluable. These agencies often have a vast network and understanding of various job markets around the world. They can identify and attract candidates with the specific skills and experience needed
- Applicant tracking systems (ATS): An ATS can be used to streamline the recruitment process. These systems help manage the influx of applications from international job seekers efficiently. They can filter candidates based on specific criteria, manage communications, and track the progress of each applicant through the recruitment pipeline
- Flexible interview process: The interview process should be adapted to cater to international candidates. This might include offering flexible interview times to accommodate different time zones and using video conferencing tools. Cultural sensitivity and understanding are also key when assessing international candidates
