With tech hiring set to rebound in 2025, experts in cloud, cybersecurity, data engineering and full stack development will be in high-demand across financial services, private equity, retail, manufacturing and energy.
So, now would be the right time for many organisations to hire new talent in line with their desired hiring outcomes and cultural objectives.
Industry experts predict that the tech industry is shifting from volume hiring to quality hiring, as organisations will begin to prioritise the impact of each new employee.
However, organisations still face several pain points when considering going global with their hiring programs. These business challenges include:
- Fraud: “Insider” fraud threats are rising. The Ponemon Institute reports that insider threats have increased 67% since 2022, with remote work companies being most at risk. Worse, their 2023 Cost of Insider Risks: Global study found that 71% of organisations now experience anywhere from 21-40 incidents each year.
- Consistency: Global tech businesses face significant logistical and communications challenges when attempting to streamline their candidate experience for candidates in different regions.
- Compliance: Regulations can vary drastically when companies hire across different regions. Tech employers seeking to build out their global program must therefore stay updated on regional laws and guidelines.
- Scaling: Finding organisational partners to help scale globally is vital, especially in times of fluctuating expansion and tech talent pools.
With these challenges in mind, let’s examine the most critical factors impacting global tech hiring. We’ll also outline effective ways your global tech business can scale up while helping to keep your hiring program fast, consistent, and supportive of compliance.
1. The Driving Forces Behind Global Expansion
Tech organisations looking to hire globally are helped by many headwinds in the form of hiring trends, including:
- Talent Shortages in Established Markets: As organisations in North America and Europe face talent shortages, they’re increasingly looking to regions like Asia-Pacific for skilled AI and tech professionals.
- Skyrocketing Demand for New Tech Skills: The need for remote generative AI talent has increased by 1,300%, reflecting the rapid adoption of AI technologies across industries.
- Access to Diverse Skill Sets: Expanding into new markets gives your technology business access to specialised talent pools that may not be available locally. To hire effectively in these more distant regions, your program can utilise global capabilities for background screening and digital identity verification.
2. Cross-border Hiring and the Rise of Remote Work
Remote work is more popular than ever among employees, and as a result, the modern workforce has gone global. Tech organisations hiring today’s candidates can benefit from several growing trends:
- Today’s Teams Are Global: The rise in remote work allows tech companies to hire internationally without requiring physical relocation, broadening your reach to include talent from all over the world.
- Preference for Flexibility: Many tech professionals prefer remote roles, giving companies the flexibility to attract talent regardless of location. Naturally, this requires companies to adapt their HR practices to support diverse work cultures and broader legal requirements.
- Regional and Global Compliance: Compliance is critical to driving successful programs and making sure that employers feel confident that they’re obeying local laws and regulations when background screening. A good background screening program is going to evolve over time, and an ongoing partnership with a trusted screening vendor may be the ideal way to navigate regulatory challenges.
These trends are great opportunities for businesses seeking to hire the best of the world’s talent, but is it really so simple in practice to scale up your hiring program from national to global?
3. Challenges of Cross-border Background Checks
Like any hiring strategy, global talent acquisition has its own unique challenges. Let’s cover three of the most significant issues HR leaders face when opening their hiring to the global workforce.
- Legal and Cultural Differences in Screening: Different countries have varied regulations concerning background screening, from privacy laws to employment laws, making it challenging to rely on a standardised approach. It’s essential to stay compliant with the latest hiring regulations. A value-added partner contributes regional expertise to help ensure compliance in every area you hire.
- Screening and customer support in local languages: Organisations hiring international talent should make sure to communicate with candidates in a variety of languages. For example, First Advantage’s platform and technology are globally available, so global employers can use our application and select your candidate’s language of choice.
- Supporting a Cohesive Global Workforce: With each advancement in communications, our world continues to become smaller. Effective background screening also plays a role in fostering trust and cohesion within an international, multicultural workforce, by helping to mitigate the risk of a bad hire and creating safer environments for staff and customers.
4. Importance of Comprehensive Screening to Maintain Trust and Security
Every technology employer must decide exactly how best to approach and mitigate the concept of fraud when hiring new employees, especially in today’s global remote-first workforce.
Global tech employers should keep these three trends top-of-mind when hiring:
- Safeguarding Company Reputation: Comprehensive screening may help mitigate the risks to a company’s reputation by ensuring that international hires meet ethical and professional standards. Your technology business can also combine your regional hiring programs together into a more centralised approach so you can leverage economies of scale, including pricing and consistency of the candidate experience.
- Mitigating Risks in High-stakes Roles: In fields like AI development and data science, where sensitive information is handled, thorough screening can prevent costly mistakes, data breaches, and reputational harm.
- Fraud Risk in Remote Roles: Remote roles can carry unique risks, especially when access to sensitive data is involved. This risk makes background checks and digital identity verification essential for supporting the client’s hiring program. Services like global identity verification may be valuable for our tech clients verifying their candidates’ identities upfront in the hiring process.
How can your tech business help prevent fraud? Take an identity first approach to hiring. Make sure you know who you’re interviewing, who you’re hiring, and who engages with your organisation’s credentials, equipment, and reputation.
First Advantage makes it easy for your candidates – no matter where they live – to confirm who they are through our identity-first experience.
The Benefits of a Global Partnership
While adapting your hiring process to global candidates can take time and consideration, your tech organisation will feel the benefit every time you welcome a great fit to join your team. Make it easy for your candidates by ensuring your program is communicative, convenient, and supports compliance.
Partner with a global screening provider who is well-versed in helping organisations scale their hiring programs globally, provides a dedicated tech industry integration support team, creates consistent candidate experiences, meets global compliance standards, offers many ATS/HCM systems, and streamlines the process into a single platform.
Whether you’re hiring in several countries around the world, or in a single region with diverse compliance requirements, First Advantage can support your program and run background checks in over 240+ different countries and territories.
Click here to learn more about our global capabilities of the technology industry.
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