Jim Gifford
J. Gifford, Inc.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Incorporate it into your business plan
Develop “NPA international” as part of your company and personal business plan and have a strategy and formula to implement it.
Proactive vs. reactive strategy
Instead of waiting for the phone to ring and reacting to those job orders, progress to proactively identifying and marketing to clients
who can provide you with international staffing opportunities.
Marketing to the right person
Do your homeworkfind out who makes hiring decisions on international staffing, and make your presentations to that person. Find
out who at both the staff and operations levels has hiring authority and responsibility.
Involve your international affiliate. Have a 3-way teleconference among you, your local hiring representative, and your in-country NPAaffiliate. Or, have the hiring representative meet face-to-face with your in-country affiliate if the company person responsible for that
staffing is located in, or traveling to, the affiliate’s home country.
Have a formal presentation
Develop a formal presentation that presents your business as part of an international network rather than a casual “seat of your
pants” plan.
Feature benefits & services (e.g. local in-country recruiting experts able to not only provide candidates on the local level, but also cultural information relevant to hiring/placing candidates, local compensation rates and ranges for positions, unusual benefits [i.e. 13-month salaries, superannuation], visa or immigration issues and processing).
Highlight areas of specialty expertise these international affiliates have relevant to the types of positions your client is looking to staff.
Focus on “case study” success stories of international placements using NPA.
Presenting features & benefits
Efficiency of the Internet for candidate identification, communication between client and affiliates, both locally and internationally,ease of candidate delivery.
Video interviewing
Cost savings on travel of management to interview/recruit
Retention of local control and involvementclients able to continue working with their local recruiting firm who is known and proven to them, yet still get needed staffing assistance half a world away.
In-country affiliatesusually, there is more than one affiliate in a given country or city, meaning the client gets the benefit of several firms identifying local, pre-screened talent, which is then able to be further screened and cultivated and controlled at the local level.
Tested techniques to increase international job orders:
Branding program: NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network
Mailers and emailers
Web site and company brochures
“Bulls-eye” marketing
Association memberships
Trade shows and exhibitions
Formal presentation on international capabilities on every client marketing call
Use of the local SHRM chapter to set up an international roundtable on a recurring basis for local chapter members involved with International HR issues. Remember this audience is comprised of “operating company” clientsNOT other recruiting firms.
Attendance at NPA’s international meetings.