As businesses around the world are forced to reassess their priorities due to the COVID-19 landscape, one of the silver linings for employers is the opportunity to reset and reinvest in building the type of culture that will attract new global talent.
Portas Global Managing Director Carlos Ruiz believes employers will be judged on how well they deal with the impact of COVID-19 on their workforce:
“We speak to employers and employees around the world every day, and I’m hearing a lot about how people going back into the workforce are going to have a different mindset. They care about how a company treated its staff during 2020, how it communicated when they were isolated and how it provided support for people’s mental health and wellbeing.”
“When something like this pandemic occurs, of course it creates all sorts of challenges but you can also seize the opportunity to strike while the iron's hot and let your inherent culture as a business rise to the top; let that be your key selling proposition,” Carlos says.
Let a better culture lead to better talent
Employees are weighing up what is important to them both in life and at work. Our feedback from the market is that it’s much less likely to be about table tennis tables, beer fridges or upmarket city offices and more about being part of a team with a genuine commitment to work culture and work-life balance, regardless of where the actual work takes place.
For HR leaders, there is an unprecedented opportunity to tap into a global talent pool of resources and promote the company culture to skilled personnel not previously available.
“Access to the global talent pool has now opened up simply because of the need to make so many qualified individuals redundant (because of COVID-19). These people have skill sets that will be highly valuable and attractive to employers, but they are not looking for opportunities in the same way they were five or ten years ago. It's now about suiting the way we need to work over the next few years living with a pandemic that could bring us in and out of lockdowns,” Carlos says.
Portas Global’s Director of Operations, Chris Lincoln, adds:
“We’re the enabler for attracting global talent, but we also help educate our clients and help our clients educate their Board members or their CEO on the benefits of outsourced employment. They might not know this solution exists, or they could be actively looking to solve an existing problem.”
Start with the right questions
Whether it is solving an existing problem or striking while the iron’s hot to snap up the best talent, it is a great time for HR teams to tap into the global talent opportunity. That should start with understanding how to ‘sell’ the type of culture employees want to buy into.
Consider what a business needs to do to appeal to global remote talent:
- What can be done to prioritise mental health and wellbeing?
- How can onboarding be an empowering experience that sets people up for success?
- What makes it more attractive for people to embrace working remotely, and how does that differ in different parts of the world?
- Can being part of a more culturally diverse workforce benefit our team in other ways?
- What other benefits should replace redundant allowances (like car and travel allowances)?
- What sets our culture apart and makes our people proud to work with us?
We live in a world of people with talent and skills that were not readily available 12 months ago and attracting the best people is about so much more than salary and benefits. Take advantage of the global talent pool, let culture be your differentiator and be judged on putting what matters to people first.
To explore the world of global talent attraction, contact the Global Solutions team for a discussion about how they can help.
Ph: +44 (0) 115 888 2268
Or solutions@portasglobal.com
