Hiring international employees: Tips for employing overseas

Hiring international employees is one of the most common challenges of companies that are looking to expand to new markets. Whether you’re a startup or you’re planning your expansion, you should know that finding high-level candidates could be difficult. However, it’s essential to carry out this process if you want to be successful.

Companies that want to receive all the benefits of hiring international employees may decide to partner with a service provider. In some cases, it’s best to leave this matter to experts so you don’t have to worry about anything.

In this article, you’re going to learn everything you need to know about hiring employees in foreign countries. Also, you can gain understanding about the most common mistakes you should avoid. It’s essential to have a solid plan that helps you meet your expectations regarding employees. Let’s observe:

• Hiring international employees: Tips for employing overseas
• What are the most common challenges related with international hiring?
• What should you know about Immigration procedures?
• How can you manage your international payroll?
• How can you ensure compliance with local laws?
• What should you consider regarding benefits and compensation?
• Why should you take language and cultural training into consideration?
• How can you develop outstanding workplace policies?
• What should you know about the employment relationship?
• How can you avoid making mistakes when you hire overseas?
• Should you partner with an International PEO?
• How can Connect Resources help you hire internationally?

1. Hiring international employees: Tips for employing overseas

When it comes to hiring and recruitment, you may know that it’s complicated to find qualified candidates. In addition, it’s important to find people that adapts to your company’s culture. As you can see, it’s a complex matter.

Therefore, hiring international employees involves the same challenges, but you have to add it the fact that there are many unknowns in this process. And if you’re planning on hiring employees in the UAE, you must know that the laws are very specific and you should comply with local regulations.

When it comes to find outstanding employees overseas you may not know what to do. But your expansion can’t stop and you must find employees to start your operations in your target country. For this reason, a good decision could be partnering with a service provider like Connect Resources to help you sort out all of these difficulties.

1.1 Why is the recruitment process in the UAE challenging?

Although the UAE is a top place for foreign workers, it doesn’t mean that hiring international employees it’s going to be easy. If you’ve never carried out a hiring process abroad, you may face several challenges and you should be prepared for them.

When you plan to Hire Internationally, you should know the following issues you may face in the UAE:

• Risk of non-compliance with employment laws
• Compensation packages should be in accordance with regulations. In addition, you must fulfill your employees’ expectation to make the position attractive.
• HR management can feel overwhelmed with taxes and payroll processing
• Finding skilled workers may take too much time since you may receive tons of applications

Learn more about how to create a talent pool for your business using PEO services.

1.2 How to find the best international employee?

Carrying out an international recruitment process is a tough task. If you want to attract top talent for your business, you should take into consideration the following:

• Define your ideal worker
• Learn and understand the local laws
• Write a specific job description
• Get assistance from experts to write international employment contracts
• Conduct outstanding interviews to select the right person for the job

With Connect Resources you won’t have to worry because we will focus on providing employees that meet your demands. You can focus on your core business activities while we handle all of your HR tasks.

Learn more about the challenges you may face with your international HR management.

2. What are the most common challenges related with international hiring?

Hiring international employees in the UAE it’s a great decision because you’re entering a competitive market and your business can increase its reputation and income. However, it’s not as easy as you may think to set up an office in this place.

You may be wondering why hiring employees in the UAE is so challenging. These are the following reasons:

• Foreign investors find it difficult to understand the UAE Labor Law
• Hiring in a foreign country involves having a great understanding of local regulations
• Managing an international payroll has several challenges and you should offer all the benefits established in the law
• Immigration processes may take long time and it’s necessary to submit several documents
• Developing workplace policies gets complicated
• Since the UAE is a top place for expats, it may be necessary to provide cultural training

In addition, when you’re going to hire employees in another country, you should forget about your home country’s rules. It’s essential to have a legal team prepared to write contracts and to define the employment relationship based on the regulations of your target country.

Learn more about the Executive Search service offered by Connect Resources.

3. What should you know about Immigration procedures?

Hiring international employees means that you must go through immigration procedures. This might be challenging for companies, particularly if you don’t know anything about the steps for getting the UAE Working Visa.

It’s important to know how to obtain the visa and permits for your employees because otherwise they won’t be able to work legally in the UAE. If you’re planning on sending employees from your home country to the UAE, it’s mandatory to learn how to comply with immigration requirements.

3.1 What are the considerations regarding immigration in the UAE?

Hiring employees in foreign countries is a challenge in terms of immigration. Here’s what you should know about the UAE in relation to this matter:

• Employees need a permit to enter the UAE
• The entire immigration procedure should be processed by the employer
• Employees need a UAE sponsor
• Once the employee enters the UAE, they have a limited time to process the paperwork
• Your employees should be in optimal health condition
• Employees must have a health insurance

Some organizations don’t know how to handle all of this procedure, and they may make mistakes which can be costly for the business. Therefore, it’s essential to know how to carry out this process excellently if you want to get outstanding results.

3.2 How can you find a sponsor for your employees?

If you’re planning on entering the UAE market, but you don’t want to set up an entity in this country, there’s a great solution for you. A service provider like Connect Resources can be your local sponsor. We can help you obtain the visa and permits for your employees while we ensure total compliance.

When you plan to Hire Internationally, you must trust in Connect Resources. We offer our immigration services to relieve this burden from your HR team. We have dedicated specialists that know how to process the necessary legal paperwork for your employees.

Learn more about the Payroll service offered by Connect Resources.

4. How can you manage your international payroll?

Hiring international employees means that you must process their payments and compensation. As you may already know, payroll management can be a big headache for businesses. And if we add the fact that it’s an international one, it could be even more difficult.

Payroll processing and administration in the UAE involves several challenges. Here we have some of the most common ones:

• Offering a compensation package that adapts to local requirements
• Calculation and filing of taxes
• Calculate deductions for employees
• Calculate wages and benefits
• Making payroll reports
• Stay in compliance with local laws

Since payroll is a sensitive matter, it’s important to handle it with specialists by your side. Whether you decide to employ payroll experts or to partner with a payroll outsourcing provider, you have to focus on having an outstanding administration of your payments.

4.1 What are the options for managing your international payroll?

If you want to get all of the benefits of hiring international employees, you should have an excellent management of your payroll. Remember that payments are very important for your workers, so your goal is to keep them happy so they can continue giving their best performance.

There are two options you can use with your international payroll, which are as follows:

• Remote payroll: this is perhaps the most frequent option for businesses. However, this may not be the best idea. Adding the international payroll to your home payroll could make your HR management to get too much work. In addition, there are several factors that indicate it’s not advisable since your payroll specialists may not know how to handle the UAE payroll requirements.
• In-house payroll: Another option could be setting an in-house payroll team in your office in the UAE. However, this may not be the best. It could be costly to set up this department and keep in mind that you should provide enough resources to do this process efficiently. And, if you don’t have a local office, you may not consider this option.
• International payroll outsourcing: an Employer of Record could be a great choice. This service provider can handle all of the payments and deductions for your international employees.

When you plan on hiring employees in foreign countries, you can contact Connect Resources to receive a comprehensive service. The best decision you can make is trust in a service provider like us since we have our office in situ. You can be sure that we understand laws and regulations and ensure total compliance of your business.

Learn more about the Emiratisation service offered by Connect Resources.

5. How can you ensure compliance with local laws?

Ensuring compliance is one of the major issues related with Hiring international employees. Keep in mind that your business should comply with local laws so you don’t incur in any liabilities. In the UAE, there is the UAE Labor Law that has several provisions related to the employment relationship.

There are common entitlements that you should know so you can offer a great offer to your employees. In addition, if you fail in following the local laws, your employees may take legal actions against you. As you can see, it’s a sensitive topic that may detriment your business if you don’t know how to do it.

Ensuring compliance is a big deal for businesses that want to hire overseas. For this reason, you should be prepared to know how to address it.

5.1 Why is it important to ensure compliance?

When you carry out the hiring process in your home country you may know what to do about legal terms. But when it comes to another country, you may feel lost. Perhaps you may feel like it’s not necessary to emphasize compliance but it’s actually a big deal.

Here are the reasons why you should focus on comply with the local laws:

• Have continuous operation without any troubles or issues
• Offer a compensation package that adapts to local requirements
• Have an outstanding management
• Reduce the risk of employment issues

5.2 In which matter should you ensure compliance?

Once you know that compliance is a priority for your business, you may be wondering in which areas you should focus. These are the following aspects that you should consider regarding compliance:

• Write compliant employment contracts
• Ensure compliance with statutory entitlements
• Develop compliant probation and termination policies
• Ensure compliance with taxes and payroll
• Compensation and bonuses
• Benefits withholding

As you can see, there are several aspects that your HR management should consider regarding compliance. In addition, it’s hard to follow the local rules because they’re always changing so you should keep-up-to-date with the latest changes.

Learn more about the best tips to select the right PEO for your business.

5.3 What can you do to ensure compliance?

Since hiring international employees involves dealing with compliance, you should implement procedures that help you ensure it. There are some strategies you could use, which are as follows:

• In-house legal experts: you could hire legal specialists to help you with contracts, payroll, management and more. However, you should consider that this option involves investing resources. It might not be the best option if you don’t want to allocate your budget to this matter.
• Outsourcing: outsourcing your HR management could be excellent if you want to save costs and time. In addition, you don’t have to worry about this matter since the provider will ensure total compliance while you focus on your core activities.

6. What should you consider regarding benefits and compensation?

Benefits and compensation are crucial when it comes to Hiring international employees. Keep in mind that your job offer must meet the local regulations and it also has to be attractive so you can convince the best candidates to work with you.

When candidates apply for the position, they may have some expectations regarding the compensation package. Therefore, you should learn and try to understand your host country rules regarding this matter. This is important because local laws are the ones that take precedence.

6.1 Considerations regarding mandatory benefits

When you Hire Internationally, you should look for the legal source of employment. The UAE Labor Law establishes everything related with mandatory benefits. It’s advisable for you to be specific about this in the employment contract.

What are the aspects you should take into account regarding benefits? Let´s observe the following:

• Health insurance
• Annual leave
• Sick leave
• Vacations
• Holidays
• Housing
• Relocation and accommodation benefits

In addition, you could offer additional benefits that may appeal to your desired workforce. For example, you could offer a retirement plan and this may be attractive for your senior executives. By having a solid and attractive compensation package, you can get all the benefits of hiring international employees.

Learn more about how to have an outstanding employee retention.

6.2 Why should you care about benefits and compensation?

Perhaps in your home country, benefits and compensation are not important. However, in some countries like the UAE, they’re crucial for having a happy workforce. Here are some of the reasons why you should focus on this matter:

• Attract competitive talent
• Have a job offer that puts you ahead of your competition
• Improve your employer brand
• Ensure compliance with UAE Labor Law
• Attract passive candidates

7. Why should you take language and cultural training into consideration?

The UAE is a place where people from several countries decide to look for a better quality of life. Therefore, you may encounter workers from different backgrounds. When it comes to Hiring international employees, you should know that you’ll have a diverse workforce. For this reason, you should provide a cultural training and onboarding to ensure smooth operations.

The benefit of hiring employees in foreign countries is that you get a rich workforce full of experience and knowledge. The drawback is that you must know how to glue all of these different employees together so they can work for the company’s goal.

Here we have the reasons why cultural training is important:

• Helps you overcome internal differences
• Allows you to have a healthy workplace environment
• Gives your employees an understanding of your company’s values
• Improves your company’s image
• Allows you to prevent issues and challenges with your employees
• Establishes rules that must be followed in the workplace

7.1 How can you address cultural differences within your workforce?

When you Hire Internationally you must consider all the backgrounds that your employees come from. In this regard, you may have several kinds of employees. You could have employees from your home country that are trying to adapt to the host country, employees that come from Arab countries, and so on.

Language barriers, customs, business etiquette, these are just some of the differences you may encounter. In this regard, it’s essential to train your workforce so they can know how to overcome this and work together.

Here are some of the best ideas to prevent future cultural issues:

• During the selection and interview process, be sure to choose those candidates that identify with your company’s values
• Be clear about your business’ mission and vision during the interview
• Explain your workplace policies during the recruitment process
• Focus on evaluating soft skills so you can know better the candidates
• Explain your onboarding process
• Be specific about the job position’s tasks and responsibilities so candidates know what to expect
• Provide cultural training for your new hires
• Encourage your workers to learn the host country’s language

Make sure candidates understand what you’re explaining and let them ask questions regarding your company and the job position. This will help you clarify everything from the beginning and you can be sure that you’re not going to face any troubles with your employees in the future.

Learn more about the Recruitment Agency in Dubai by Connect Resources.

8. How can you develop outstanding workplace policies?

When it comes to Hiring international employees, you should also take workplace policies into consideration. In your home country there may be different rules from the host country in relation to policies. However, this is a crucial legal aspect since it’s important to follow the regulations established in the UAE Labor Law.

In addition, it’s important for you to explain your policies to your candidates so they know what to expect. This will help you avoid issues and challenges with your workforce.

Follow the best recommendations we have here to improve your policies:

• Check if probationary or trial work periods are allowed in the host country or if they’re mandatory
• Learn about the laws that govern the employment relationship and periods
• Put an emphasis in those laws that protect the employer and employee so you know what to expect and how to develop compliant policies
• Learn about the legal implications of the termination policies
• Be aware of the safety policies so you can ensure a safe workplace
• Have a legal team that is constantly checking the updates of the laws and regulations
• Be clear about your policies and make sure all of your employees are aware of them

If you want to get all the benefits of hiring international employees, you have to contact Connect Resources. We can help you improve your workforce by providing top talent that boost your productivity.

Learn more about how to recruit manpower while saving your resources.

9. What should you know about the employment relationship?

Writing employment contracts is a major part of hiring international employees. As an employer, you should give your candidates an overview of the job as well as the compensation package. In the UAE, it’s crucial to follow the law and there’s a lot you should know regarding the employment relationship.

Some of the aspects you should define to have a solid employment relationship are as follows:

• Working hours: whether you’re going to hire remote workers or employees in-office, you should be clear about the working hours. Keep in mind that you should consider overtime as well.
• Holidays: The UAE has its holidays and you should be aware of them. In addition, there are some considerations regarding the days working week since some employees won’t work on Fridays due to religious reasons.
• Remedies: be sure to include also the protection for your business if the employee leaves the company
• Part-time work: in the UAE, it’s valid for an employee to work part-time and to have two jobs. Be sure to learn about this so you can have a great understanding of this matter.
• Type of employment: you could employ temp-to-hire, temporary, permanent and contract employees. Be sure to be clear about it so your employee can set their expectations straight.

To have a solid employment relationship when hiring international employees, you must partner with a service provider like Connect Resources. We can assist you on each step of your recruitment process so you can meet your requirements.

Learn more about manpower planning for your international expansion.

10. How can you avoid making mistakes when you hire overseas?

Hiring international employees means that you will have to learn a lot about your host country. It’s necessary to have a great understanding of the laws and your duties as an employer. This way, you can avoid making mistakes.

Some of the most common mistakes companies make when hiring overseas are the following:

• Don’t learn enough about the local labor law
• Don’t provide mandatory benefits
• Implement their home country rules to their international employees
• Fail to have an outstanding management of the international payroll
• The company doesn’t have experts and specialists in the HR management
• The recruitment process is not streamlined
• Don’t focus on writing compliant contracts
• Hiring managers don’t ask the right questions during the interview

If you want to be successful when you Hire Internationally, you have to contact Connect Resources. You can be sure that we will help you stay in compliance and avoid any mistakes when you hire overseas.

Learn more about why your business should have a digital presence.

11. Should you partner with an International PEO?

Having an international workforce involves facing several challenges. It’s up to you if you want to assume this or if you prefer to delegate it to a third-party. If you decide to partner with an International PEO you will receive all the benefits of hiring international employees.

Some of the best reasons to contact an International PEO are the following:

• Have a hassle-free recruitment process
• Find candidates quickly and efficiently
• Have assistance with each step of the recruitment process
• Get help with payroll processing
• Ensure compliance with local laws

Here in Connect Resources we can help you when it comes to hiring employees in foreign countries. We have recruitment specialists that can identify your needs and provide the perfect match for the job.

Learn more about why staffing firms are different from EORs.

12. How can Connect Resources help you hire internationally?

Once you know that hiring international employees could be challenging, you may want to get assistance with this matter. Here in Connect Resources we want to assist you with each step of your expansion. For this reason, we offer a comprehensive service that will cover all of your HR needs.

We have been providing our services to several companies in a variety of industries for the past 20 years, so you can be sure that we will meet all of your requirements. Our team of specialists is readily available to help you solve all of your inquiries.

Here in Connect Resources we can offer you assistance in each of the following areas:

• International payroll processing and administration
• Hiring and recruitment
• Onboarding
• Compliant employment contracts
• Immigration processes and paperwork
• Create a talent pool
• Have an outstanding HR management

Would you like to contact Connect Resources for International PEO services? You can call at +971 433 166 88 or send an email to contact@connectresources.ae, and you’ll talk to one of their representatives that will gladly answer all of your questions.