Tips for recruiting foreign employees

Dung Nguyen Tran Ngoc, customer care manager of VietnamWorks, the largest online recruitment provider in Vietnam, has shared her thinking and advice on this matter with Dau Tu Online News.

Good morning Ms Dung, there are now many companies that have a demand for recruiting foreign employees to work as key decision makers, do you have any advice on how to attract these people effectively? 

In order to attract foreign employee successfully, there are 2 important points:

Firstly, we need to pay attention to choosing suitable recruitment channels: The most popular channel to recruit foreign employee is through headhunters as they have more experience, opportunities and "tactics" to invite this group to join the interview process. In the company, recruiting foreign candidates usually is the job of direct management of vacancies as they understand job requirements or they have relationships to "hunt" candidates from other companies (often a rival company). However, on should not ignore online job postings or resume reviewing search from the recruitment website to find the most appropriate candidates. 

Secondly, we need to have a simple, attractive job description. Foreign employees (FEs) do not like the gap between what they actually do and what is written in the job description or discussed before in the interview.  Thus, a good and clear job description includes company’s strategy and vision will get most attention from these FEs. 

When screening the applicants, the employer needs to take consideration of prior experience working with Vietnamese companies; some FEs cannot work with Vietnamese teams because of cultural differences and the differing working styles between the cultures;   despite being experts in their respective specific industries.  At VietnamWorks, all FEs have at least five years experience working at Vietnamese companies before joining to our team.

According to you, what is the most attractive point to recruit FEs to employers?

They are all generally straight talking and to the point. This is apparent in both working style and characteristics. So, if the Vietnamese staffs understand them, it is easy to work together and communicate them.   

In addition, they are likewise respected colleagues. Even if the person has a lower position, they have certain advantages which contribute to the greater good of the team. When these advantages are used to their fullest potential, they can truly bring the greatest success tot eh entire company.

So, what is the process to complete the recruitment with those successfully FEs?

The FEs need to have a work permit to work for any company in Vietnam. The application forms need to be directly submitted to the Department of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs; which is the government department that handles all the paperwork related to the issuance of work permits for FEs. The process is quite complex, including: 

- A request paper for a work permit.

- Registration form of foreigner employees.

- Profile form of foreigner employee issued by the original/nationality country.

- Health certificate issued by hospital in original/nationality country or 5 special hospitals in Vietnam.

- Other papers depend on each case 

Employers can refer for more details about the procedures and documents at the website of the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to quickly complete and expidite the process. : http://www.sldtbxh.hochiminhcity.gov.vn

Above is the general information required for employers to begin to understand the process for choosing the right foreigner talent for their company, the means to find them and the administrative procedures required to implement them into their company organizations. . If there are any question, feels free to contact the Customer Care of VietnamWorks. They are all available and ready to help and give advises related to recruitment.