South of the Border Part II: Effects of COVID-19 on Talent Brand in Latin America
“Estamos buscando a alguien que se ponga la camiseta.” We are looking for someone who wears the company jersey.”
In Mexico, this common phrase is said on candidate screening calls and in job interviews. And it’s one of the worst things a candidate can hear. Wearing the company jersey essentially means that they want you to put the company ahead of everything else. It means that you’ll work unpaid overtime, probably have to put up with an overbearing boss, and that the company culture leaves a lot to be desired.
And here’s the thing about this expression —candidates know it’s a red flag. They know what it means. However, most candidates and employees expect to put the company before themselves. That’s the way it’s always been. Aside from the biggest worldwide brands, most employers will still ask you to do this.
Just because it’s been that way doesn’t mean it should stay that way.
Killing the Commute
Let me put things into context. The Mexico City Metropolitan Area has more than 21.5 million inhabitants. That’s more people than the NYC Metropolitan Area. It’s densely packed, and traffic is notoriously bad — especially on Fridays. Between people leaving work and people out for a night on the town, your commute could be three times as long. So prior to the pandemic, being able to leave work early on Fridays was considered a perk.
For quite some time, when applicants applied for a job in Mexico City, they would include their home address on their resume. And employers have been taking this into account in their hiring decisions. Employers wanted to know if you could make it to the office in time. And hiring managers would often not hire people who lived in “bad neighborhoods.” Thankfully, this potentially discriminatory practice is slowly falling by the wayside.
And then, COVID-19 added a nail in the coffin of this practice. Until March of this year, remote roles were not common in Mexico or other parts of Latin America. Only the largest tech companies on the planet would allow you to work from home. Now it’s the norm. This means that companies have stopped considering “leaving early to avoid traffic” a perk and are finally focusing on flexibility and other aspects of their culture to build their brands.
…companies have stopped considering “leaving early to avoid traffic” a perk and are finally focusing on flexibility and other aspects of their culture to build their brands.
This has created a lot more competition in the market. With remote roles that don’t require you to live in Mexico City (or worse — a specific area of Mexico City), suddenly companies are open to applicants from all over the country. This is creating a flood of candidates, and it’s forcing companies to come up with new methods of candidate screening. This involves writing better job descriptions and using automation in some areas.
The challenge recruiters now face comes down to figuring out how to effectively screen candidates when they have up to 10 times more applicants. We don’t have a solution yet, but it will be interesting to see how they adapt.
Opening Borders
If there’s anything that companies have learned from the COVID crisis, it’s that remote work works. This has led a lot of smaller international companies to consider hiring in Latin America. They know there’s strong talent who can get the job done in the region. They also know expanding their hiring here provides teammates with different perspectives and creates a more diverse team — both are valuable.
But the problem is, these companies have absolutely no idea how to hire here. Many talent acquisition managers have never visited even for a vacation, so the market and the culture completely eludes them. These companies often use headhunters or talent agencies to find their talent, and that only serves to further the disconnect. If your company is considering expanding into Latin America, here’s something to keep in mind.
Breaking Bad Habits
A lot of companies that expand into Latin America do it simply for cost reasons. They know that candidates expect fewer benefits, less flexibility, and less in general compared with candidates in any other part of the world. But that’s absolutely the wrong approach.
The biggest effect I’ve seen of COVID-19 on professional jobs in Latin America is that it has been the catalyst for alignment with the rest of the world in a few key areas.
Remote work is finally becoming a reality for a lot of people. We’ve stopped caring about fancy offices in fancy locations. Now we expect something that a lot of countries have had for a long time — work/life balance and substantive benefits.
People here want a stronger sense of stability and a benefits package that goes above and beyond what’s required by the law. (In these crazy times, what’s offered to us by law is far from enough to make a decent living.)
If your company is considering expanding into the region, it’s your duty to advocate for breaking bad hiring habits. Ask your talent acquisition partners to enforce more inclusive recruitment tactics and to create a culture based around flexibility that’s on par with leading ones in other countries. Even better – build something new that puts people first.
Though many of us are apart at our homes, in a weird way, the pandemic has brought the world together. It has brought Latin America closer to the rest of the planet in terms of business.
It’s the perfect moment to change the way companies in the region function to create a more human-centric culture and finally put an end to ancient hiring and working practices.
About Our TBA Member Manuel Angel
Manuel Angel is a talent brand and marketing professional based out of Guadalajara Mexico, with nine years of experience in the business. He’s helped companies such as Hewlett Packard and Oracle create, grow, and evolve their employer brands. He is passionate about building great teams, elevating people so they reach levels beyond what they ever imagined and innovating in the field of candidate experience. He also thinks he’s funny and does stand-up comedy from time to time.