Recruiters must bear in mind cultural differences when drawing up a global recruitment strategy, according to delegates at the Global Recruiting Forum’s first annual conference.

Sherri Sheehy, recruitment manager for Shell Europe, Middle East, Africa & Russia, told delegates that the company is still finding challenges in how to co-ordinate its global strategy.

Sheehy said that UK graduates, for example, wanted a company that showed a social and environmental responsibility, a job she admitted was hard for a “big, bad” oil company.

In France, Germany and Russia, Shell has had to combat candidates’ fear of working for a faceless multi-national company.

Asian candidates also have their own interview hang-ups. “We found that in China, candidates do not respond well to group interviewing,” said Sheehy. “We had to focus away from people promoting themselves in a group situation.”

Sheehy also admitted Shell's recruitment freeze back in 1999, due to high oil prices, had severely affected the stream of talent coming to the company, and that the firm’s new online recruiting method was a way of adressing this imbalance. The firm offers up to 200 UK internships each year.

Alan Whitford, founding principal of new US online consultancy E-Strategy Practice, believes that the cultural differences are a key part of the recruitment process.

“In the UK, we don’t have a culture of referral for candidates. In Asia, there is a huge importance on friends and family, and who you know,” he said.

The event was hosted by online recruitment network and education group Electronic Recruiting Exchange.