Foreign national talent is within reach — here’s how to find it

Developing a foreign national talent pool can seem intimidating. But there are lots of highly skilled, highly motivated workers from all over the world who are perfect candidates for your tough-to-fill positions. You just need to know where to look, and how to recognize the best fit for your organization.

Emmanuella is from Cameroon and is a buyer for an energy firm.

Here are four tips for recruiting foreign national talent:

Know where to look
Sometimes you’ll get lucky and a qualified international worker’s resume will appear in your inbox in response to an online job posting. But most of the time, you’ll need a go-to list of resources to find workers when your candidate well runs dry. First, consider partnering with a local immigrant organization.

Allie Levinsky, a central region program manager for the nonprofit Upwardly Global, trains immigrants and refugees — with a bachelor’s degree or higher — about the U.S. job search process and connects them with companies through informational phone calls, job fair events and more.

Alexandru is from Moldova and is a software engineer.

“We host a lot of volunteer events in our local offices,” says Levinsky. “Sometimes they’re mock interviews, sometimes they’re speed networking events. It gives the opportunity for recruiters and hiring managers to connect with people, rather than just to see their resume on paper.”

Additionally, post open positions on immigrant job boards like Upwardly Global and My Visa Jobs. You can also find skilled foreign nationals through state-funded resources, such as Oregon’s Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, university and college Optional Practical Training programs, as well as immigrant-focused networking events.

Review resumes with an open mind
Your standardized resume review process may accidentally filter out capable foreign national candidates because their qualifications are unfamiliar — and you could be missing out on valuable experience and education.

“For example, you don’t want someone who has a big career gap, right?” she says. “Typically, that makes you question: ‘Why was someone out of their field for so long’ or ‘why can’t they get hired?’ If someone’s an immigrant coming to this country, a career gap totally makes sense. They’ve just uprooted their whole life and came to a new country and in that instance, it could show something positive about that individual.”

Michael, a former physician from Ethiopia, is a clinical research coordinator and is working towards relicensing as a general practitioner.

Conduct education evaluations
“Train people in recruitment and hiring managers on how to assess talent,” Levinsky says. “An immigrant is not going to have a degree from Harvard probably, and if they have a degree from the Harvard of the Middle East, we probably won’t know it.”

Before you dismiss an unfamiliar degree program or educational institutional, have the credentials evaluated by a qualified organization. Levinsky recommended World Education Services, a nonprofit that not only provides expert credential evaluation services, but also offers research on international education trends. But, make sure you account for the extra time it takes to receive the education evaluation (World Education Services’ reports, for instance, take seven days to complete).

Ruchi is from India and is working in finance as a relationship banker.

Cultivate a welcoming environment
Levinsky believes that sourcing skilled foreign nationals gets easier with time — if you foster an inviting workplace environment.

“Diversity begets diversity,” she says. “As you start to hire more people who have a global background and bring them into your company successfully, word of mouth can [become] a huge engine for growing that talent pool within your organization.”

Originally published at www.visanow.com on March 30, 2016.