Companies that find themselves in the enviable position of experiencing rapid growth may subsequently find themselves in the unenviable position of having to recruit internationally. While expanding to new, emerging markets can be exciting and bode well for your business, flubbed international recruiting will disrupt your progression and hinder your success. With the number of foreign-born persons in the United States workforce at 16.3%, international recruiting is not a skill you want to ignore.

A significant hurdle is that the recruiting tactics that work well in the United States may not translate overseas. In fact, a KPMG study showed that while 3 out of 4 executives believe their workforce is becoming more global, just 1 in 4 believe that their human resources teams thrive at sourcing and retaining global talent. Additionally, just 24% of executives believe their HR team can support their globalization strategy. Those aren’t very promising numbers. As an oft-tortured Jets fan, I’m more optimistic about Geno Smith’s stats than I am about those figures, and that’s saying something.

Nevertheless, international recruiting skills will come in handy in the event your organization expands to new territories. With that in mind, below you will find some tips to successfully recruiting all around the globe. For clarification, this blog will focus both on recruiting individuals to work for you in new offices abroad and recruiting foreign jobseekers to work for you in the United States.

Scout Out the Emerging Markets

When you think of the terms “emerging markets” or “emerging economies,” you generally think of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). While they are very much emerging, they’ve pretty much arrived at this point. You didn’t necessarily miss the boat on establishing recruiting networks in those nations, but if you’re starting now, you sure got a late start. Many of the larger corporations will already have traction and brand recognition there.

What you need to focus on is the Next Eleven, which consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, South Korea and Vietnam. These eleven countries have been identified as having the potential to become some of the biggest economies during the next century.

The criteria used to pick these countries included macroeconomic stability, political maturity, openness of trade and investment policies, and the quality of education, with that last point being particularly important. By viewing these growing countries as hotbeds of potential, you have the opportunity to establish footholds as a major player in the war for talent.

Understand the Culture of Your Target Market

Everyone has heard horror stories of botched business deals due to cultural misunderstandings or misguided advertising campaigns that did not take into account the target market. If you want an extreme example, look no further than KFC, whose “Finger Lickin’ Good” slogan translated to “We’ll Eat Your Fingers Off” when used in China.

Seriously. That actually happened.

Just because KFC and good old Colonel Sanders failed at doing their homework, that doesn’t mean you should make the same mistake. Take Germany, for example, where business professionals use a service called Xing rather than LinkedIn. Even though LinkedIn is dominant globally, Xing has five million users in the DACH region compared to LinkedIn’s two million.

Now, is that a life or death example? Not really, but knowledge like that could be the nudge that finally pushes you from stagnancy to success.

Know Your Immigration Laws

You found a qualified candidate. The interview went swimmingly. You move to hire him and – uh oh, what’s this? You can’t. But why?

Before you hire an international employee, you need to thoroughly understand the work permit laws in your country. By familiarizing yourself with your nation’s laws, you can inform your prospective hire about the process of coming aboard and what the timeframe will look like. You are also required by federal law to verify every employee’s eligibility to work in the United States. You don’t want to spend a large amount of time interviewing and vetting a candidate only to find out that he cannot work in your country. That’s just a waste of everyone’s time. You can read more regarding employee eligibility for international employees here.

The globalized world we live in requires businesses and recruiters alike to have the ability to recruit and source internationally. While the interconnectivity of all devices makes this task easier, nothing will be given to you. It’s up to you to go out there and put in the work so that you can win the (now global) war for talent.