Notice to recruiters: are you looking for that special someone?
Les 10 raisons pour embaucher un conjoint expatrié ou un ancien expatrié
Despite the crisis, many segments of the job market remain tight. At the same time, because of the crisis, risk aversion is even stronger than usual. So a lot of research gets bogged down.
What if the backgrounds of expatriates, and in particular expatriate spouses, could offer you exactly the profiles you are looking for?
Dear recruiters,
Despite the rise in unemployment, and despite the countless digital tools at our disposal, it remains difficult to recruit. After 10 years spent working with companies that manage international talent, and as many years accompanying expatriates in their careers, I have an idea for you.
The talent you come across has not been trained in the skills you are looking forchez
Our technical environment is changing very quickly. Covid has accelerated the digitization of our processes. We therefore need digital skills for which few employees have received initial training. Not even continuing education. In the 2000s, we were told that by 2020, one out of two jobs would be new. Well, here we are!
While some positions may be suitable for beginners, many require proven soft skills
Indeed, to navigate the uncertain environment we face, we need strong employees. Many contexts require maturity. It is often necessary to reconcile two apparently contradictory trends: experience and agility.
01
Expatriates at the forefront of soft-skills
I will let you remove from my words any possible effect of enthusiasm that might come from being too close to those I am about to tell you about.
Judge by yourself…
- Imagine ultra-qualified profiles (70% of expatriates have a five-year degree, 14% have a doctorate).
- Their intense international experience comes from the fact that they have lived in an average of 3 countries and speak more than 3 languages.
- So, from move to move, resilience has become second nature to them. A valuable quality in turbulent times.
- Early adopters by necessity, they are as digitally agile as most digital natives. Because of their geographical distance, they have invested social networks as a natural playground.
- Moreover, being used to uncertainty, they are accustomed to making decisions and managing in an uncertain environment. They navigate like fish in a VUCA environment.
- Accustomed to recreating friendship networks wherever they go, they integrate easily with all age groups and all social categories.
- Finally, they speak your language and live all over the world. They can easily become your local correspondents.
02
Expatriate spouses to the rescue
But perhaps you are already sighing “Yes, but my company can’t afford to hire an expatriate. They are the stars of the market. Our company is not yet big enough for these profiles.
So, I have to tell you about a niche within the niche of the expatriate market. A recruiter’s secret that is still not well known but very valuable: expatriate spouses.
All of Expat Communication’s studies prove that expatriate spouses have the same level of education as expatriate employees. The only significant difference is that employees are more likely to have an engineering background, while spouses are more likely to have a business school degree. Moreover, having had to reinvent their careers several times, they possess a particularly wide range of skills, including in addition to their initial marketing or other skills, experience in management, project management, event management, logistics, art history and of course intercultural.
I add 3 more reasons to be interested in these remarkable profiles:
- Because of their professional breaks, they have often gone back to school. Some combine 20 years of experience with extensive training in the latest technology.
- They are courageous; they have made choices and assumed them with the sacrifices that distance and reinventing one’s career impose.
- Finally, often deprived of professional recognition for a few years, they want to succeed and shine by their motivation!
03
Recruiters are not wrong
The attractiveness of expatriates and their spouses continues to grow. If for a long time, recruiters tended to confuse five-legged sheep with black sheep, this effect tends to disappear.
Since we have been measuring it at Expat Communication, the duration of professional transitions for expatriates has continued to decrease.
One might have feared with the crisis that this trend would be reversed. The elasticity of spouses’ employment to the economic situation has always been significant. But this crisis seems to be breaking and the rate of expatriate placement in the market remains good.
The reason for this trend? What we were talking about earlier. Matching expatriates’ skills and soft skills to current needs.
04
Do not hesitate any longer!
If you are interested in this profile, contact us, we will certainly have talents to present to you. And if your offer does not match the expatriates we are currently accompanying, we will pass it on to our network of over 30,000 talents worldwide.
Expat Communication
Expert in interculturality and coaching
for international talent since 2001.
