Today, as diversity has become a competitive advantage for companies worldwide, recruiters are increasingly looking to hire remote global talent.

But, hiring abroad comes with the challenge of cross-culture interaction. If recruiters misinterpret a culture aspect, it might lead to losing top talent.

This article guides you on 3 tips of using cultural intelligence in hiring remote global talent. 

3 winning tips for cross-cultural hiring

1. Post your recruitment process on website

The first step in successful remote recruitment is to let your candidates know of all details of your recruitment process. It eases the cross-culture confusions and helps them focus more on the job skills. 

Posting Q&A, interview guide and a clear job description prepares your job candidates on the right approach– letting them know of the job criteria and other profession-specific expectations.

This approach also enables the hiring teams to evaluate candidates around core job skills and helps them find the right fit for the job.

2. Keep an open attitude towards your candidates’ gestures

Once you bring a pool of remote job seekers at your door, the next tip is to adapt your hiring expectations across varying cultures.

What happens during interviews is that HR witnesses cross-cultural gestures. While some gestures are not very noticeable, others might appear rude to you. That’s because multiple cultures have different meanings to the same gestures. So, if you’re an interviewer from China or Finland, where a humble attitude is practiced, you might find an American candidate as boastful who mentions their accomplishments as they introduce themselves. 

Hence in such a scenario, it’s important for the HR to realize that people from different cultures have their own way of presenting. Thus the interviewer should interpret candidates’ gestures from a cross-cultural perspective via understanding that remote candidates think in terms of their own culture.

3. Run a cross-culture awareness program

Successful remote hiring becomes possible when the hiring team is aware of global cultures. It helps them effectively conversate and evaluate candidates during hiring.

More precisely, a cultural awareness program helps HR in two ways.

• First, it makes it easy for the HR to adapt their hiring procedures as per the culture at candidates’ country. For example, research by Harvard Business Review shows that if a German candidate says ‘I totally disagree’, they actually mean to debate on the terms and not disagree completely. On the other hand, if a Brazilian says ‘I disagree a little’, that may mean a total disagreement. Hence, the HR can wisely take on the hiring process when they are culturally intelligent.

• Additionally, cultural awareness also helps the HR shortlist interested candidates. For example, in Indonesia candidates don’t prefer saying no straight away. Instead they say ‘I’ll try my best’ which could be a cue on saying no. Thus HR can estimate which candidates have high chances of joining and vice versa.