HR Professionals - Recruiting, Onboarding and Retaining Expats

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stefan Ljutzkanov on November 1, 2008 at 9:59pm

From 2 months I am looking for a job in Denmark - especially in Aalborg and around and never mind that I am professionalist with a lot of experience in IT field (CMS, CRM, ERP) and a really big projects at my back I am still unemployed - 1-st because I am Bulgarian and second because I don't speak danish.
I can even say that especially because of my nationality I felt rejected immediately.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Bowman on November 2, 2008 at 5:06pm

Thanks for your contributions. However, I think this discussion is moving away from the original intention of discussing issues from the point of view of HR professionals. It's not that there aren't good reasons to suggest that Danish HR professionals need to improve their skills and methods, there is a need to begin a discussion from a more constructive point of departure.

Danish organizations are by and large no different from all their European counterparts, including Sweden. I am cautious to extrapolate from one experience to suggest that the Danish system is worse than Sweden. Hospital staff in general need to be able to speak Danish as they are providing health services to Danish citizens. These citizens are often old and young and unable to speak English or any other language fluently especially when its personal, private and critical. No surprise that there is an expectation of Danish language skills.

As to the case of Indian doctors in Jutland - they were all given extensive language training prior to and after arriving in Denmark.

Remember that no system, culture, government, organization is perfect. This website is dedicated to empowering expats to have a successful stay in Denmark. Empowering means providing encouragment, support, advice and perhaps reminding people, that, as guests, they need to adjust, to do new things, to learn and respect how things are done in Denmark. Not because Denmark is better than anywhere else. But because confronting the challenge is not made easier by making the Danish system out to something worse than it is. In fact, it often makes the challenges more difficult to overcome from the point of view of the individual expat taking responsibility for their situation.

Our Life Intro program puts a great deal of emphasis on taking personal responsibility by avoiding cultural generalizations and victimising, that is, saying its everyone else's fault. What we encourage is the exploration of possibilities and alternatives, the generation of choices and lots of action, adaption, and persistance.

Remember that happiness is not a question of situation, but of attitude.

Skip Bowman

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by sharon stahlberg on November 2, 2008 at 10:26pm

Sorry ,but I agree with Ripley, and this may not be the most appropriate place to discuss this but never the less it does need to be discussed to inject a little realism for people wishing to find jobs and try to understand the systems here in Denmark. My husband and I are still having a very difficult time after 14 months here. My husband is Danish, born and bred and has a degree and MBA with 16 years job experience from England and after 70 job applications and countless interviews he is a temp postman here. The feedback he receives is incredible and nothing to do with equal oppurtunities. The response is always the same: He cannot be accommodated into the Danish system and ways of doing things. He has even been told that he is too visionary and that he is too far ahead with his thinking and approaches for the Danish workpractices. This is a case in point where Danish HR practices are left behind in times more akin to the 1970s and 80s. The fact that many health professionals and entrepeneurs are drawn to Sweden where they end up staying, is surely proof enough that there is something wrong at the core of Danish HR practices and that systemic exclusion is taking place. Denmark is clearly missing out in the long run and may end up making itself uncompetitive with its Nordic competitors and employ those that are less likely to follow with the changing times. The point in case of the Indian doctors is as reported in, Berlingske avis today a complete HR shambles and were not given extensive language training, as I myself am undertaking 3 days a week at language school and will minimally take a year and a half to complete before i can begin practising as an Occupational Therapist here in Denmark, and I already have a good command of the language. I am all for encouragement but as Ripley said he knows of many cases and we are personally living it and my husband is Danish so it is not a case of integration or adaption. Sometimes the only way to change is to confront and challenge , otherwise we maintain the status quo.

Sharon Stahlberg

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Bowman on November 2, 2008 at 11:08pm

Hi Sharon,

Thanks for your comments. I empathise with your situation. It is very difficult sometimes for Danes returning to Denmark after an extended period abroad to reestablish themselves.

As to your own struggles, they are also challenging and require lots of support. I went through similar issues in 1993 when I first came to Denmark from Australia. I spent 10 months learning Danish and then retrained for 4 years at university. Yes, I had to start from scratch you might say. My qualifications weren't enough compared to the high Danish standards. But looking back on it, I found going to university here in Denmark extremely rewarding.

Having worked in HR in Denmark and internationally for over 10 years, I have a reasonably good idea of where HR professionals in Denmark are in terms of qualifications and attitudes. You are right to suggest that Denmark has some challenges and that other countries can seem more flexible. My only concern with spending a great deal of time on this issue and say that of the high tax rate is, that they are both barriers that are extremely difficult to change from an individual perspective.

I can recommend your husband have a look at the website http://www.hjemstationering.dk/. There he will find a number of other Danes with similar experiences. Perhaps, he could benefit from working together with a job coach to iron out any problems in his CV and application not to mention how to be successful in job interviews. A number of employee associations run programs of this sort.

Finally, remember to put any concerns and prejudices behind you when you go to an interview. You need to cooperate with HR people so that you get a second interview with the recruiting manager. Likewise with the recruiting manager, you need to work together to get the best out of an interview. If you have lots of concerns and in general are negative about going to interviews, it will impact consciously and subconsciously on the quality and outcome of the job interview.

Regards Skip Bowman

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Daisy on November 11, 2008 at 3:41pm

Being an ex-recruitment consultant from the UK, it is very interesting to read your experiences. I meet a lot of people both from my homeland Latvia and other countries asking me for an advice of getting a job over here. Firstly, I think, it is important that you get your CV right(as each and every country has certain, almost unwritten standards for CVs), adapt your CV for every potential employer you send it out to, secendly, get in touch with several recruitment agencies(as they often work closely together with major companies in Denmark) and try to show your nose there, to get noticed - as impression counts, if you will leave a positive impression you will be most likely on account managers active books. Once at the the interview - be yourself, however keep to the point without unnecessary chit-chat - Danes like that.
I returned to Denmark 2 years ago and decided not work in recruitment anymore but as an ex-recruitment "rat" I find it interesting observing the working culture in my company. I must say I have never experienced people working so little and whingeing how stressed out they are(send them to UK to see the what really stress is!), any attempts to work more or give a hand to another project are viewed as - do you really have to? I am sure that not all the work places are like this and this is only my personal opinion. I am writing this message during my working hours as I have lots of free time while I am pretending to be busy. May be it time to get just efficient?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alessia Giordano on November 22, 2008 at 1:32pm

Hi Daisy,

I totally agree with you on the peculiar Danish working attitude (very relaxed at work but strangely very stressed). I can assure you that not all Danes are that way. I feel the same kind of frustration being the head HR at my company. I worked in Italy for over 14 years before moving here. I believe most of the Danes I know would have died under the amount of stress I received back then! But then again, the trick is to find the right standard and combine productivity with satisfaction. I don't approve of the Italian way (my experience at least) but I do believe that things should be a lot less relaxed here.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Bowman on November 22, 2008 at 2:57pm

Interestingly, Danish people are some of the most productive in the world. The stress you refer to in Italy is due in part to some cultural characteristics. In Denmark, employees are subject to much less control and supervision in general than in Italy (or USA og Germany) and therefore have lower stress and higher productivity. Many other countries are busier and work longer hours, but spend far too much time being busy doing things that don't add value. For example, the US has much longer working hours and only 2 weeks holiday, if you take them. However, US productivity is not as high as Denmark and they lag behind in lots of other aspects like the use of technology and efficient work practices.

I held a coaching session recently with expats from Eastern Europe who commented that they felt less stressed and more productive than ever. They had never had so much freedom to do things how they wanted or to contribute with ideas. For them it was extremely motivating to be in Denmark. Skip Bowman

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alessia Giordano on November 5, 2008 at 6:26pm

Hi Skip,

that sounds interesting. I'm a HR manager and I'd like to join the network. Keep me updated.

Alessia

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Bowman on November 17, 2008 at 3:36pm

Our Life Groups is being released this week. If you are working in HR and interested in being part of a virtual network with lots of discussions and information about expats and foreign workers in Denmark, contact me.

We are holding an HR workshop tomorrow in Copenhagen and can recommend Vidensbizaar (Knowledge Meet) in Vejle on Thursday this week where lots of providers will be holding an expo. You can also hear me and other experts speaking on important issues. Regards, Skip Bowman

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Bowman on November 17, 2008 at 10:48pm

I have just finished the slides for my presentation tomorrow to DI's HR Professionals group. We are going to look in detail into the challenges facing expatriates and foreign workers moving to and settling in Denmark, Life in Denmark's best practice models for recruitment, onboarding and retention of expats, and finally our plans for the National network for Expats in Denmark. It promises to be a huge week for Life in Denmark, and we've got lots of exciting things in the pipeline that will really rock the expat community in Denmark. It surely is exciting times, despite the gloom and doom of the recession and financial crisis.

Despite the turmoil in the markets and downturn in demand and production, The Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri) and Life in Denmark have brought together a large group of HR professionals to discuss recruitment and retention of expats. Some of the organisations are Arla Foods, Leo Pharma, Frode Laursen A/S, IBM Denmark, Dong Energy Power, Nestle Norden, Mondo, Jydsk Aluminium, Motorola, Lundbeck, RelocationScandinavia, Dansk Kompetence, Welltec, Novum, and Oticon.

If you've missed out, contact us or DI to find out when our next workshop is scheduled. You can also catch up at the Expo in Vejle on Thursday 20 November. It's all about expats, so come along. We are making the keynote speech at 9.30 am, if you'd like to hear what we are planning. Skip Bowman

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Christina Fuglsbjerg on November 18, 2008 at 8:29am

I will be there! Look forward to your keynote speech :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Bowman on November 18, 2008 at 4:02pm

Had a great day with the DI HR network today. Hope that many of you will now join us here. As I said, we will be initiating the invitation only group in the next couple of days. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, don't hesitate to write comments and questions here. Skip Bowman

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page