How to Recruit Software Developers from Abroad

The battle among employers for the best candidates is intensifying

This is particularly true of the IT industry, where we observe a never-ending shortage of specialists. Given that demographics offer little reason for optimism, it is worth looking east, for example, in search of qualified staff. But what is the best way to recruit foreign talent?

Foreigners, less and less foreign

It is July 10th. A special day, because in two hours the final of the European Football Championship kicks off. In one of Łódź's bars I meet Vasiliy – a friendly Ukrainian in his thirties who has been living in my city for nine months now. We met in the same pub a few weeks earlier, at the Belgium–Italy match. Since there is still some time before the grand final, we take our seats and talk about work and life in Poland. Vasiliy, after six months in Bratislava, asked his manager for a transfer to Poland. He works at one of the largest BPO corporations in the world, so he could have pushed for a slightly more exotic destination, yet he chose our country – and he assures me he made that decision after a single weekend trip to Kraków. He was not disappointed. What's more – at his urging, two of his friends moved to Łódź: Alina in accounting and Igor in IT. They are not into football, though, so they joined us after the match.

It is a story like many others – and there are more and more of them. Today, no one in Poland is surprised by the sight of non-tourist foreigners doing their daily shopping at the local store or commuting to work by tram in Rzeszów, Poznań, or Toruń. It is estimated that up to 1.3 million foreigners work in Poland, and nothing suggests their numbers will decrease in the coming years. The vast majority are Ukrainians, followed by Chinese, Vietnamese, Belarusians, and newcomers from Western Europe. For several years, the number of work permits issued to foreigners has been growing dynamically. In 2013 it was just over 39 thousand, while in 2015 it exceeded 74 thousand. The same applies to declarations of intent to employ a foreigner. Over the same period, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy recorded an increase from 235 thousand to more than 782 thousand. It is worth remembering that these figures do not include, for example, workers from EU countries.

The greatest needs are in IT

It is increasingly noticeable that migrant workers are taking on not only hard physical jobs at the lowest rates, but are also bringing high-level competencies to local companies. Ministry data clearly shows that foreigners choosing Poland as their destination for economic migration are more and more often qualified programmers, engineers, and economists. It is the first of these who are most sought after. Given that there can never be enough database, Java, or .NET specialists, and that every popular programming language is a kind of lingua franca of the industry regardless of the coders' nationality, there is nothing to stop you from looking for specialists across the eastern border. But what is actually the most effective way to recruit developers from outside Poland?

Competition for talent

Competition for talent is getting fiercer, and on top of that the costs are quite high, so it is worth focusing on the most effective use of the funds allocated to recruitment. Getting to know the local market, searching for new tools and channels to reach potential candidates – unless we have an office in the given country and people with the right know-how, the whole process becomes problematic. On the other hand, recruitment agencies offering specialized services in this area can come to the rescue – though you also have to pay dearly for them.

Developers refer people to jobs

You can also recruit through referrals. Like Vasiliy. For bringing in two friends, the friendly native of Vinnytsia received a reward that will let him treat himself to a new gadget or pay for an additional Polish language course. The same amount would not have persuaded the staff of specialized agencies to get up from their chairs. It turns out that foreign employees are among the most engaged participants in employee referral processes. As soon as a "Columbus" is found – the first one brave enough to work at a given company, who gets to know the organizational culture and customs and breaks the ice – they themselves become eager to persuade their unconvinced compatriots and take an active part in co-creating the team.

The benefits of this recruitment method are well known at Ciklum, for instance – a company with Scandinavian-Ukrainian roots that has offices in Gdańsk and Wrocław, among other places. They form a close-knit IT team and are happy to refer their colleagues from Ukraine – though not only them. It is also worth mentioning that IT companies are often supported by body leasing providers, or by their own efforts to establish cooperation with programmers on specific projects and for a defined period. After such a project, when both sides are satisfied, it is even easier to work together on the next one – with the same contractor, or with another one they recommend.

Worth the risk

In the case of employees from abroad, some of the advantages of referral-based hiring become particularly pronounced. Referrers most often encourage their friends to apply – people they know – and, by performing a de facto pre-selection, try to fit them into the landscape of a given organization. Foreigners, for obvious reasons, have special needs in this respect. Employers who use this form of sourcing employees from outside Poland consistently point to the benefits of a significantly simplified adaptation process and a shortened onboarding ritual. This value translates directly into financial savings, and it also considerably facilitates and consolidates diversity management activities. Companies whose multicultural environment is co-created by people who already know and trust each other from the start achieve much better results in the area of diversity. In addition, referred employees show greater loyalty to the company and are therefore willing to stay with their employer for longer.

Riding the trend

In the second half of 2015 alone, more than 450 IT specialists from Ukraine and Belarus took up employment. Creating a simple, intuitive, and attractive recruitment referral tool can successfully accelerate the acquisition of specialists from the east and make it easier for employers to reach the best candidates beyond the country's borders. A dedicated referral application, like RolePoint in the USA or ShareHire in Poland, will help create or consolidate a referral culture in the company. As a result, recruitment costs will gradually fall over time, while effectiveness and satisfaction rates among employees and people from the organization's external environment will rise. It will therefore do what simple referral programs based on emails, Excel, or paper forms will not.

There is no need to delve too deeply into geopolitics to state with confidence that the situation in the east will not improve any time soon. It is worth welcoming people displaced by the turmoil of war and employing them in line with their specialization. They will certainly be happy to refer their friends, and we will thereby gain more specialists and a well-integrated team.

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