Disclaimer: The opinions I mentioned are personal based on my limited interactions and may not be generalized :)
Thanks to the regional HR role, I had the opportunity of observing how people respond to interview process across different countries and how much culture of their country plays a role in their approach to the interview
So here goes , some experiences country wise
Indonesia:
Among the Indonesian candidates I have seen so far, no one confirms the offer during interview but would give a standard answer that they need to discuss with their wife before accepting the offer. Also during the salary negotiations all that matter is monthly net salary, medical and car benefits ( btw unlike in India, Indonesian employees are provided with car or car allowance from pretty early stage in their career). So year end allowance, quarterly pay out etc doesn't have their intended effect.
High cost of medical care and very bad public transport infrastructure explains the reason for Indonesian employee's high emphasis on these components.
Will save detailed discussion on compensation in Indonesia for some other post
Now moving to one other very interesting country,
Australia:
It took me exactly 5 revisions and a call lasting for more than 1 hour before the candidate finally signed the 27 page employment contract. During the process the candidate appointed a lawyer for verifying the employment contract, who true to the fees he has taken, sent me close to 3 pages of comments and a lawyer from my side to finalize the contract.
The clarifications varied from as trivial ( Atleast in India) clauses like indemnifying the company in case if the candidate uses company mail in contravention to any local laws to his insistence on mentioning that he would be granted a week leave after one month of joining to attend his father's birthday.
Australians seem to be very particular about very minute details. For ex, when one of the employee resigned , he sent a mail stating that he would not be available for company purpose from so and so date from so and so time onwards. Car is definitely a provision and expected on day 1
South Korea:
The candidate we interviewed here was very insistent on adding a compulsory employment clause for 3 years irrespective of performance or business of the company. It may not be so much to do with culture specific as we are still establishing our permanent presence in Korea and the candidate is worried about stability. Nevertheless the clause stumped me because generally in these cases , candidates tend to demand a premium on salary for taking a job with ambiguity. Any how like in India , Employment contract is more open ended in Korea and candidate is quite ok after we shared our plans in Korea
The last of the series is Vietnam
Vietnam:
The candidate started the process by asking some questions even before the first question was asked and the entire interview was more of conversation discussing about business of the organization rather an interview for the job. Final twist is when the question of compensation came up. The candidate said that he is not expecting to discuss about salary part in the first interaction, rather he will write to us his queries and if every thing goes fine, we can have a separate interaction to finalize the compensation
So that's about the experiences so far and honestly I have never read my employment contract so sincerely and with interviews for Singapore and Philippines lined up in the next few days , hoping for more enriching experiences
