In-house recruiters from a wide range of private and public sector organisations gathered in London at Recruiter’s Smart Resourcing 2013 conference, sponsored by Eploy, to listen and learn from leading thinker John Vlastelica in a keynote talk sponsored by Jobsite, and practitioners in the field of resourcing and recruiting, to network with fellow professionals and go 2 Steps Beyond

When expanding a recruitment operation into pastures new, “don’t be scared to be surprised”, said Andy Hill, the vice president of talent and resourcing at advanced technologies firm Invensys, delivering a session entitled ‘Growing a global recruitment team’. And spearheading recruitment at a firm employing over 20,000 people in 128 countries, he should know.

“You have to have people on the ground,” he said. “You think you come from a position of experience and then when you really start to touch the geography, it’s scary.” In China, for example, he said it can be “quite scary” that you can’t read the social and digital recruiting platforms that Invensys uses, and they are completely different to what is seen in the West.

Another surprise came from Asia. “Everyone thinks about direct sourcing as something that happens in the US and Europe,” but uptake has been strong in that market, because there was “no legacy to deal with” in terms of a history of agency use.

Hill said it is important to understand different cultural psyches — from informal Australians (see p17, Recruiter, March 2013 for more) to “super formal” South-East Asians who “won’t ask me any questions”, and colleagues in India who “tell me they’re going to do it all right away”.

Hill recommends that when visiting sites, “don’t book yourself into a posh hotel… [and] spend as much time as you can out there”.

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