When Every Day is International Employee Day

There are people who will tell you that you should focus your hiring efforts on Americans, especially during bad economic times. But your purpose as a leader is to create the best workforce possible for your company, not to run a jobs program. If the best talent comes from overseas you should take advantage of it. Having a successful company has more of a positive economic impact than does providing jobs or less talented people, who may keep your firm from achieving its potential.

Some governments have contributed to industries, including creative fields, by shaping their immigration policies to bring in people with different backgrounds. For example, for years Singapore’s Ministry of Labor has had an office whose function is to help recruit foreign talent. They’ve recognized that employing skilled people is good for business, regardless of where they call home. One possible explanation for Singapore’s top innovation ranking in a survey earlier this year may be the contributions of their foreign Creatives, rather than the dominance of their homegrown talent.

Now, you can’t create government policy (not directly, anyway), but you can design your own. Expand your employment base by looking outside the U.S. You might consider recruiting overseas, and if you do you’ll need to talk with an immigration lawyer about requirements you face when employing foreign workers. Our current immigration laws make this a much bigger hassle than it needs to be, but it's worth it to find the best Creatives...after all, when you need unique talents, you can't guarantee that the personwho has them will be from your country, so don't limit yourself to domestic employees.

Another option is telework; Malaysia, for example, has become a great source of software development talent, but often the workers still live there, which allows them and you to avoid immigration hassles. One oft-touted advantage of such a program is that it's cheaper for you, as Creatives in other countries can often be hired at lower salaries, but I'd suggest you not focus on that. You should pay your employees what they're worth, and if that means they're making more than their local peers, well then, good for them!!

In days of old the knowledge economy, unlike service industries and manufacturing, may have seemed limited to domestic employees,but that's simply not the case anymore. As other countries have seen, opening your doors to foreign Creatives can lead to some very positive economic outcomes. If that's true on a national level, then you can bet there's some truth to it on a company level too. Look for the best talent, not just the best American talent, if you want to be successful.