International Recruitment

We have been presented with an opportunity to expand our services internationally by one of our customers - a global corporation. They have numerous offices covering most countries and globally, they recruit a lot of perms and contractors. They would like us to extend our services to fullfill their needs internationally so all in all, a great opportunity! The trouble is, can we service it?

We have long supplied abroad, principally in Europe and in all honesty, we probably could have won more non-uk business if we had asked for it. With global job board access, mature databases and sophisticated relationships and network, we can pretty much find a candidate to work anywhere and so its not necessarily the sourcing that has held us back, its the; how do we process the business? question.

So a project of mine over the past couple of weeks has been to look into how could we supply into a couple of key territories? how does recruitment work in Latin America, APAC, USa etc? What are the rates? What are the legalities or setting up a business in X country? Do they have a contract market etc? etc etc.

Given the size of the recruitment industry, I am amazed that there is not a guide somewhere to how do you recruit in x country? or at least an overview! My first point of call was REC whose only focus is the UK, so were unable to help. I have run numerous google searches and drowned in irrelevent information and search results. I have spoken to consulates - although helpful and polite, most did not have recruitment specific information. I have viewed websites like Monster etc but they really don't appear to have much presence in some of the territories that I am looking for. I have posted questions on forums, but not had much response. AARGH! Where to go now??

This is an appeal for information!

Can anyone recommend information sources or share experiences of recruiting in the following regions -
South / Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Argentina)
Asia - Pacific (Malaysia, Hing Kong, Singapore)
USA
and while we're at it, we may as well bundle the other European countries in as well?

Ideally job boards, how it works, where to go, can we do it etc? Anyone done it? What's good bad, do's and dont's etc etc.

I am happy to post the information and build a repository for use by others, unless there is one already that I don't know of! (Please tell me!)

I am grateful for any advice, information or any experiences that you can share and please forward this post onwards to maximise the exposure. The more contributors, the better the information!

It's a great opportunity for us and even if we decide that we can't service the business, i would hope that its for a good and genuine reason, rather than declining because we're simply unsure.

Hope all is well and I welcome your comments!

Jonny Hiles
The Hub
www.recruitment-hub.com