International recruiting in focusHow you can pull your company out of the crisis
Recruiting abroad during restructuring
When a company gets into financial difficulties, extensive reorganization and restructuring measures are implemented. These measures can lead to discomfort for the company’s employees. In addition to uncertainty about the future of the company and reduced or frozen salaries and bonuses, there is also high pressure to perform and time pressure without a clear perspective. Factors such as these lead to an increased reorientation of employees on the labor market.
If retention management does not work or only works to a limited extent during such a restructuring phase, important key employees will leave the company. Such an exodus of top performers or specialists who are in demand elsewhere then leads to a worsening of the crisis situation. This is because experienced and loyal employees are particularly valuable during a restructuring in order to master the essential turnaround.
Open and honest communication with the workforce is necessary as a strategy in times of crisis. Our experienced F&P interim managers can help you to implement this. New methods of employee recruitment are also particularly important. International recruiting offers several advantages here.
These are the advantages of international recruiting for corporate restructuring
Rapid replacement of critical positions
In order to avert acute crises, it is essential that certain key positions in the company are filled. If the local labor market does not provide important key personnel, or not quickly enough, a targeted search abroad is helpful to find the required specialists and managers.
Especially when insolvency proceedings are publicly announced, candidates on the domestic labor market tend to have reservations about “troubled companies”. When looking for long-term employment, they prefer economically stable companies. For foreign workers, the opportunity of a new career start in Germany is paramount. In order to recruit these workers, specialized providers such as SCOUTMENT provide support in the targeted search for and approach of international specialists – even during critical restructuring phases.
New impetus for the turnaround
The loss of qualified employees often goes hand in hand with a decline in new ideas and innovations. International employees often bring different perspectives and experience with them, which can provide new impetus in a critical company situation. Companies in a crisis situation sometimes remain stuck in familiar structures, which are sometimes the cause of the problems themselves. International specialists often bring fresh perspectives and methods that break up and sustainably change established patterns. A turnaround can usually be better managed in a diverse team.
Positive signal for the market and investors
If a company in crisis is able to recruit highly qualified staff internationally, this can be a sign of its ability to act and its future orientation. Investors, banks or business partners could see this as a positive sign, as the company is actively looking for solutions to compensate for the staff shortage and bring urgently needed expertise into the company.
According to F&P CEO Bernd Fischer, the integration of foreign specialists in particular is an underestimated success factor in averting corporate crises.
All in all, the combination of international recruiting with restructuring projects can be useful in several areas in the event of corporate crises: on the one hand, urgently needed specialist and management knowledge that is hardly available locally can be brought in-house. On the other hand, international experts can support the globalization of restructuring strategies. F&P AG, a consulting company with extensive restructuring experience, has also observed that international recruiting can certainly contribute to stability in critical phases of a company’s life.
Foreign recruiting has these risks during restructuring
In addition to numerous advantages, international recruiting also has disadvantages that should not be ignored when making deployment decisions.
Cost and time factor
Recruiting specialists and experts from abroad is usually a complex process. Hurdles such as various visa formalities, the relocation of international workers and language barriers are factors that must be taken into account in a restructuring plan. Providers such as SCOUTMENT offer comprehensive services specifically for international recruiting and approaching international candidates, which are specially tailored to companies in crisis.
Difficult integration
In crisis situations that are accompanied by an increased workload for existing teams, the integration of new, foreign specialists remains a challenge. Language and cultural differences can become problems if there is insufficient support or training for international employees. Here too, honest and open communication is crucial to the success of the restructuring.
Acceptance of new team members
Existing teams must accept and integrate the new employees. In situations where old team members have been made redundant or have left themselves, there may be reservations towards new employees. A change management concept, open communication and even more intensive onboarding processes are therefore particularly important.
Recruiting abroad can be a short-term solution in restructuring situations in which retention management no longer works sufficiently. In particular, to fill critical positions and give the company fresh impetus.
At the same time, this measure should be planned strategically. The legal and organizational aspects – including costs, integration and the cultural and emotional situation in the workforce – must be taken into account.
With a good strategy, recruiting foreign experts can even become a strategic advantage in the restructuring process, closing know-how gaps and providing fresh impetus for the turnaround. In addition, international recruiting should then also be integrated with international recruiting and HR development structures as an integral part of the company.
An example of a holistic approach to international recruiting is offered by SCOUTMENT, a provider that supports companies from candidate approach to relocation – even in phases of transformation.
For more information on supporting restructuring processes and HR strategies during the crisis, simply contact our experts.
Your contact for international recruiting
SCOUTMENT
If you have any questions about international recruiting, you can also contact our partner SCOUTMENT