Sourcing inspiration or talent from overseas can often inject new life into your business. Whether it’s new ways of working, fresh ideas or the vibrancy mixing different cultures can create, there’s value to looking beyond your own shores. Anyone who travels for pleasure knows this. Travel broadens the mind, the senses, the palate and all manner of other qualities. That’s why we work hard to bring you the best travel tips. From where to eat and drink to top places to stay in cities such as New York [1], you’ll get plenty of inspiration within the confines of our digital world.
Of course, travelling for pleasure and doing it as part of a new business strategy is different. You can’t pick up your office and drop it in a new country. You could go off travelling and bring new ideas home with you. Or, a potentially more effective way of injecting new life into your business is to hire people from overseas. Just as you can pick up new ideas, learn different customs and experience exotic tastes by travelling to different countries, you can bring these things to your business by hiring people from abroad. This concept is particularly useful in industries such as food and drink.
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Let’s say, for example, you own a restaurant. You primarily focus on British cuisine, but you want to expand your repertoire. You could take a trip to France, Italy or Spain and pick up a few ideas. However, ideas are fleeting if you don’t practise them over and over again. What you could do, instead, is look for a chef, assistant or someone else within the restaurant business to work with you. This person would bring with them a wealth of experience and, importantly, experience of working in a different country.
Look Overseas to Give Your Business a World of Opportunities
This experience would not only influence the dishes you serve, but how you serve them, the way the kitchen runs, the décor, and everything else in between. Essentially, by hiring someone from overseas, you’re bringing over a whole culture. A different way of working. Of course, there will be some ideas that don’t cross borders, but there will be some new ideas that stick. Getting the right employee takes time and effort. Moreover, you need to follow a specific process.
In the UK, you need to obtain a sponsor licence if you want to hire foreign workers. Only once you’ve obtained a sponsor licence can you issue Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) to eligible non-UK nationals so they can apply for a work visa. There are various stipulations and restrictions when it comes to applying for a licence and, in turn, work visas. However, the point here is that there is a clear route to employing people from overseas.
Most businesses will need to employ a law firm to manage the licence application process. This frees you up to focus on making the job role as appealing as possible. Doing this requires some research because working practices abroad aren’t the same as at home [2]. Therefore, you need to ensure prospective employees are suitably catered to but in such a way that it also suits your business. Get this right and you’ll unlock a whole world of opportunities to give your business an exotic edge that could prove lucrative.
Further Reading:
1. A whistle-stop tour of New York
2. Workplace cultures around the world
