Looking to hire abroad? Consider these countries

Now more than ever, employers are looking to hire internationally. They may be realizing that, just like Carmen Sandiego, their next star employee could be anywhere in the world.

Dave McGonegal, VP of talent solutions consulting at ManpowerGroup, told HR Brew that employers are no longer thinking of global hiring as just a way to fill jobs at a lower cost, but rather to reach high-quality applicants.

HR pros looking to take advantage of emerging foreign talent markets may want to consider Ireland, Mexico, Australia, or the Philippines—four of the fastest-rising countries in ManpowerGroup’s latest Total Workforce Index report. An analysis of the world’s top talent markets, it is based on over 200 factors related to cost, regulations, workforce availability, and workforce productivity.

Your best bets. The US, Singapore, and Canada were, for the second time in a row, the top three countries on ManpowerGroup’s rankings. Ireland claimed fourth place, moving up four spots since last year.

“Ireland has been in the top 10 for talent availability four times in the last six years. The two they weren’t  were ’20 and ’21—that was clearly pandemic related,” McGonegal explained. “To look [just] at the regulatory environment, Ireland has been in the top 10 [for] five out of the last six years in our index.”

Australia, Israel, and Malaysia made notable moves this year, going from 21st to fifth, 18th to seventh, and 31st to 10th, respectively, according to data McGonegal shared with HR Brew. But the Philippines and Mexico made the most substantial gains this year: the former moved from 54th to eighth, while the latter went from 53rd to ninth.

“Mexico had a significant regulatory change in 2021, where the traditional contingent and contract worker models were basically outlawed,” McGonegal said. The regulatory environment, he added, is important because it can affect a country’s “relative global maturity,” or how much it’s “plugged into global economic and corporate structures.”

The UK was also in the top 10, in the sixth spot.

New needs. As the economy has evolved, so have the “over 200 factors” that ManpowerGroup considers when compiling this ranking, McGonegal explained. “A lot of that has been driven by the pandemic and the regulatory responses to the pandemic, as well as some of the changing nature of work driven initially by the pandemic…Some of those trends appear to have a longer lasting impact,” he said.

Remote readiness, for example, was taken into account for this ranking and was scored based on factors like electricity and internet access, households with personal computers, and server density data.

“We’re able to look at some of the foundational or structural underpinnings that would enable remote workforce utilization on a market by market basis,” McGonegal said.

He expects remote readiness to be of growing importance to employers going forward.

“I think we’re at the mindset that remote work is here to stay in a more meaningful manner than it was in the pre-pandemic environment,” McGonegal said. “Remote readiness at the market level, and having the infrastructure to support that, we think is going to continue to be a major part of the discussion in the coming years.”—AK

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