Any American company looking to expand its business sets its eyes on the most promising markets and Australia is usually very high on that list. The two countries have compatible cultures and they share the same language, so entering the Australian market seems like the most natural thing.

How do you go about staffing your brand new Australian branch? Fortunately, that’s never been easier and we have technology to thank for that. The same goes for those situations when you’re just looking for new talents to work remotely.

In this article, we’ll examine how you can employ trustworthy Australian employees no matter where you’re based.

How do you find Australian staff for American companies?

Let’s say you want to open an office in Sydney or Melbourne, but you’re based in Chicago or Los Angeles. Do you have to go down there and waste a lot of time looking for a team? No, you can easily do that online.

First of all, you should start by advertising on Australian job boards. Plenty of Australian professionals looking for a new position will be interested in working for an American company, so you’ll probably get lots of applications.

Going through the CVs can give you a pretty good idea if those are the guys you’re looking for, but you’ll also have to do some screening. Here is where technology truly comes in.

How do you screen Australian job applicants?

If there’s one thing the pandemic taught us is that you can do a lot of things on Zoom, Skype or Google Meet.

Why not set up virtual job interviews with the most promising candidates? It’s not as good as a face to face meeting, but it’s close enough.

The next step is to check on the candidates’ references and educational background. You can do that online as well.

For instance, you can access the databases of any Australian university to check if a candidate got a degree there. Also, you can check on their employment history by getting in touch with their previous employer. An email or a phone call will do.

How can you get a background check on an Australian citizen?

Many Australian businesses ask for routine background checks when hiring new personnel from services like the ANCC which can be found online here so it won’t seem odd if you ask your potential employees to submit to one. For most people, who don’t have a criminal record, it’s just another formality, and your concern it’s totally understandable. After all, you’re thousands of miles away and you cannot afford any mistake. And trusting someone on their word simply won’t do in this type of situation.

Fortunately, in Australia you can easily get a national police check online using one of the agencies accredited with the Australian government, the highest authority in such matters. The best thing is that such agencies work incredibly fast. You only spend like fifteen minutes filling in the online form and you have the criminal history of that person delivered to your email in a few days time.

Keep in mind that in Australia it is illegal to order a background check on someone without their consent. If you don’t want to get involved with that, just tell your job applicants to order a background check on themselves using the services of such an agency. They’ll get their police clearance in a couple of days and forward that email to you.

This way you can be sure that the people you hire for your new Australian office are all trustworthy and you can get things going even before you set foot on Australian soil.