Recruiting beyond borders – a global mindset.

The world keeps on getting smaller, irrespective of the challenges of Brexit and the travelling and working restrictions of the Covid pandemic, so keeping a global mindset and hiring beyond borders has proved to be a recipe for success for many UK based businesses.

Whether organisations are seeking to increase their global footprint or to address local talent shortages, we continue to see an increasing demand for global talent; both for the UK sites of European-owned organisations, and for overseas sites and sister companies of UK-owned organisations. In today’s world, it is right and prudent to look beyond borders when recruiting the calibre of candidates that organisations need in order to deliver and ensure the future proofing of their business strategies. Since our inception 5 years ago, we have found a significant change in hiring managers’ outlook as they come to us with specific “hard-to-fill” assignments: from recruiting Polish, Taiwanese and Maltese candidates for UK based technology manufacturers, to Egyptian, Turkish and Dutch senior sales professionals for UK and French equipment manufacturers. We have recently completed several assignments for a multi-billion euro manufacturer of construction equipment: those key placements, for both their UK and European bases, will underpin the success of their long-term export strategy throughout Europe and the Middle East.

The war for talent has increased since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in early 2020.  Regardless of sector, we have found that senior UK candidates have been especially reluctant to move roles amidst the uncertainty most businesses have been facing.  Sensing the overarching value of organisational cultural fit and skills over location and origins, UK businesses especially have benefited from expanding their worldview and looking beyond national frontiers to plug the gaps in their middle and senior management structures. It is essential for them to work closely with their search partner to ensure a thorough understanding of their culture, whilst search firms need to demonstrate thorough international search experience and an agile mindset.

Ironically, there is no better time to broaden your horizons…

Alex Cooper – Cooper Edwards Group alexcooper@cooperedwards.com +44 (0)191 653 1049

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