Nowadays, there are talent shortages all over the world. You might want to consider where your country or your part of the world stands before deciding whether you want to attract talent from other countries.

There are times when you just can’t find someone who fits the bill and is located within commuting distance. So you start looking in other cities and eventually, other countries too.

But do you have to wait until you experience a talent shortage in order to start looking in other parts of the world? Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep an eye out for the warning signs and start looking for global talent right away? This way you’ll be prepared for the talent shortage before it even happens.

But the process involves observing what’s going on within your organization as well as your part of the world. You have to constantly be aware and ask yourself the following questions:

Are You Looking for a Different Type of Expertise?

There are times when people are trying to introduce a new product or service to their country. In that case, it stands to reason that no one within their country is going to be equipped to make that product or provide that service. So you have to get talent from abroad.

For example, let’s say that you’re trying to set up a call center in a South Asian country. At this point, there are many such call centers but a few years ago they were a rarity. And the people who were being employed to take calls in those South Asian countries weren’t equipped to answer the questions being put to them over the phone.

So in the beginning, it was necessary to get someone from a Western country to train them—to give them answers to commonly asked questions and use the type of language that Westerners are more likely to understand.

Although many people in South Asian countries speak English, their idiom is different from that of westerners. They might say “Having here?” when American’s ask “For here or to go?”

These kinds of little things are important when you’re running a business. And the way to resolve them is by attracting global talent, at least in the beginning.

How’s the Educational System in Your Country?

One of the reasons why you might want to get talent from a different country is when you can’t find someone with the necessary educational qualifications in your own country. In order to know whether you’re likely to find the type of talent you need, you’ll need to keep an eye on the educational system and how it works.

There are many little differences in education systems. For example, consider the following differences between the educational systems in India and the US:

• In India, a bachelor’s degree takes 15 years to earn whereas in the US, it takes 16 years to earn.
• Many people in India consider a Bachelor’s degree as the bare minimum when it comes to education whereas in the US, a high school education is considered the bare minimum.
• In India, education tends to emphasize learning facts while in the US, an education emphasizes learning to analyze things in detail.

So it’s important to consider all these things when you are deciding where your talent should come from.

In certain cases, the country that you live in might be superior to other countries but in other cases, you might decide that you want to go abroad in order to find someone to fill your position.

Overall, keep in mind that there are a number of factors which determine whether you should hire within the country where you’re located or globally. Being aware of what’s going on in your part of the world and others is a good way to know what type of action you should take.

This article was originally published on our website at www.the-network.com/spotlight.