Watch out for developing "HR" countries!

I have had a chance to travel nearly 25% of the countries that exist today in the world.  What has been clear is the globalization continues to push under developed countries to push their capabilities and skills to new levels.  However this does not happen as you may think unless you spend some time on the ground in some of the places I have been to.  So as to not offend my HR colleagues in the "sensitive" spots of the world, I will not name countries publicly as some crazy ass colleagues may go postal - that is no joke by the way.

He is how it happens.  First the Western company sets up a respresentative office in the country they want to operate in.  Everyone is happy as the Westerners see this as a good step in their global expansion efforts.  A country manager is hired that is local.  People are trained on how they are preferred to do this to some level of consistency and best practice as offered by the Western company they now work for.  Not so fast.  They just figured out how you operate and how to use that against you to screw you.

So you need to hire some staff.  The new country HR manager or director may even have a team of recruiters...though working on a very low salary.  Just telling it like it is...or we would not have opened up shop there - right Western company?  Ok, so next the HR leader determines which positions the team will work to fill and which will not be up to the team.  Why, because these are going to go to the "broker".  This is a staffing firm that is working much like a contingency or executive search firm in the West.  However this is just a front.  What happens next is the HR leader may tell the broker to send them an invoice for a placement fee.  Keep in mind that the broker has done nothing.  That is because the HR leader already knows who they are going to hire.  The Western company pays the fee and guess what?  The HR leader, the broker, and sometimes the person hired get part of the placement fee cut!

So, you might think...how can I avoid this.  You could tell the HR team abroad that no placement fees will be allowed.  Good idea huh?  Yes and no - because the corruptive culture of some countries staff members will adapt.  This means they will find another way to extort money from the process.  Guess who they get it from?  The new staff hired!  During the interview process they make people pay to be given the jobs!  In this case, the recruiters help screen those that "get it" or "don't get it".  They often hire referrals from staff that tell their friends what is expected when they interview.

So what can you do when this is what you are up against?  Make sure jobs are posted online so everyone can apply to them...but not by sending and emailed resume to the HR or recruiting team.  Have them apply via a secure recruiting web based application like Taleo.  Have the screening done by another vendor...not the recruiting team that posted the jobs.  Have tools that filter the best candidates within the recruiting web app so you know who was best and should have been brought in for interview.  Lastly, hire honest people.  Make them do a lie detector test to determine if they are honest before you hire them into an HR/recruiting role.  Local agencies can do this for you...just make sure they do it in English, or - you guess it, you will get screwed.

Gotago!