How should Multinational Companies recruit in Iran Market

Recruiting in a country with limited presence of international companies has been always tough for Multinational companies who come to Iran. Iran is a big country with large number of young educated and talented people (As of 2013, 4.5 million students are enrolled in universities, out of a total population of 75 million. Iranian universities churn out almost 750,000 skilled graduates annually) however, being educated is only one of the factors for management positions in Iran. Multinational companies look for many factors based on their assessment structures.

As such to recruit from Iran Job Market, multinational companies have three options as below;

1. Bringing Iranians who already work and live abroad. 

There are many of Iranians who are studying or working in other countries. Finding students in master and phd level with international exposure but without work experience, is more easy for companies who look for talents to recruit for non-management levels, this population which is not small have not yet entered the job market and they have not build a high expectations, so they would be thinking to go back and work in their own country.

But if you go to Iranian professionals who are working in other countries then it would be tough and expensive to make them come back to their country, they have high expectations and you should be prepared for it, unless they personally would like to come back to their own country.

2. Recruiting from Multinational talent pool in Iran

This is another option you can consider, but this is only disturbing the balance of salary and compensation rules of the market all the times, raising it more often than international norms. Consider there are few good Head of HR in the market. The number is less than the real need of the companies. Then they change their job more often because they are offered more competitive package all the times. It also causes the companies to review their package on regular basis to retain their good staff. 

 3. Rely on local pool with good talent

Here you have large number of employees waiting for you to find them. They lack international background but they have the education and have local experience. They may lack English Language proficiency as you like but they are ready to improve fast. They may have more local experience than the others but very lower expectations. It is simple to recruit them for entry management, train them based on your needs and develop them for higher positions. So if you want to see which one suits you, review your strategic plans and company budget. Then ask this from your recruiter source.

Good Luck