Global recruitment is on the rise and will continue to be as the world becomes more interconnected through technology, trade, economies, etc. This modern trend in the workforce is opening up new possibilities for both employers and the professionals they seek to hire. Let’s discuss this further by examining the 3 top factors that make professionals more willing to relocate for work.

• • Single/Family
  • Age
  • Location

Single/Family
This is one of the main factors that determines how willing a professional is to relocate globally for a work opportunity: is the professional single or married? Do they have children or not? Obviously, relocating halfway around the world for work isn’t as feasible when a professional is married or has children.

Single professionals without children have more flexibility and ability to relocate overseas than otherwise. Many times the spouse also has a career, which means moving would disrupt their career and take away the family’s second income. Also, the children might be in school already, so relocating would disrupt their education and stability.

Age
The professional’s age will play a large role in determining their willingness to relocate for work. Younger generations, inherently, are more willing to relocate overseas or across a country, yet they’re also less likely to have a family. According to Sourcingfocus.com, in an article called: “37 percent of people willing to relocate globally for better careers, says Manpower Inc”:

“Respondents under 30 years old were more receptive to moving for work than their older colleagues…The majority of people (82 percent) would relocate to increase their pay and 74 percent would move for career advancement.”

To validate this, we gain some further insights from an article on HR Today called: “Moving Millennials”, by Audrey Roth, which states:

“According PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace, 70 percent of Millennials want or expect an overseas assignment at some point in their careers.”

Indeed, the trend of younger professionals willing and wanting to relocate globally for work is growing. Businesses that desire to attract global talent should focus their recruitment strategies toward the younger generations for these reasons. The experience for these younger professionals is just as important as the increase in pay, which means marketing the lifestyle experience of the new location is very important.

Location
What location the talent is sourced from and where the work is located, are both important factors in determining the willingness of professionals to relocate for work. According to the Sourcingfocus.com article we quoted from before:

“The most popular destinations that people would want to relocate across borders for work are the US, the UK, and Spain…employers are currently sourcing the largest number of foreign professionals from China, the US, India, the UK and Germany.”

The location of businesses seeking to hire globally can be the main factor in attracting top talent, whether it’s because of the language, culture, and/or the environment. It can also be an added incentive for attracting top talent, in addition to: generous pay, career advancement opportunity, flexibility, and work benefits.
Businesses, many times, are strategically trying to recruit from certain regions, in order to add specific foreign expertise to their workforce. This is easier to do from the countries listed above, yet many times this relocation is only temporary, as the Sourcingfocus.com article states:

“The survey found that 78 percent of individuals would be willing to relocate within their national borders or abroad for work and 41 percent of those would be willing to relocate permanently.”

Summary
While there are many other factors involved in determining a professional’s willingness to relocate for work, these are, typically, the top 3; others may include: pay increase, career advancement opportunities, benefits, and/or subjective likes and circumstances (wanting to learn new language, recent divorce, desire to travel, etc.). Businesses that want to attract top talent globally should focus on recruitment strategies that target these factors.

Global recruitment of top talent is more possible than ever in today’s modern world. Technology is playing a large part in the centralization and integration of economies and businesses around the world. Businesses that struggle to find top talent within their own countries, or desire to gain regional and cultural expertise within their workforce, now have the ability to successfully recruit globally through technological platforms like The Network.

When businesses partner with The Network, they’ll have access to more than 50 leading recruitment websites across the world in 130 different countries. The Network facilitates worldwide recruitment efforts by streamlining the process with: one currency, one contract, and industry/regional expertise. The Network centralizes talent recruitment for businesses around the world, in their efforts to find and acquire top talent through an attractive and streamlined recruitment process.