International Recruitment During Covid-19 🇫🇮

In March 2020 we hit the 1-year mark when me and my colleagues moved to home office setups. I remember how absurd that day felt. Saying goodbye to everyone, not knowing when you’d see them again, packing up your bags.

Recruitment hasn’t been the same ever since. On a high level, remote recruitment is nothing new to IT Recruiters who are used to hunting talent from abroad, but a lot that has changed. One simple change is that this time remote recruitment applies to local candidates too. Sometimes you might get lucky to get to go for a walk with a local candidate. Other than that, video and phone calls are your best friends. So, what has changed for real? I’ll go through 9 changes.

(With international recruitment I’m referring to hiring candidates who live abroad and intend to start working in Finland. With remote recruitment I’m referring to a fully or almost fully done recruitment process where you don’t necessarily meet the candidate face-to-face. You hire the person to work mainly at the local office, or at least once working at the office is possible again.)

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

1. Due to the pandemic, companies and employees have had to constantly adapt to the existing situation and change their practises in the company, but also in the whole world. You’re in a rollercoaster where every curve is exciting, but you have no visibility if you’ll be upside down or slightly leaning. If the needs in the world change, it will reflect to your product or service, and the people working with them. Many companies put their recruitments on hold during the first covid-19 wave (Mar-Aug 2020). For a short time, there were reported to be winner and loser companies whereas some companies had to close their doors for good. Using such terms is cruel, and I couldn’t be happier to to see how many Recruiter job openings there has been during the past few months. Looks like companies are now really stepping up the game, and they’re doing it fast.
2. During the first covid-19 wave people were not exactly eager to change workplace, unless of unemployment. Even if a person had been considering changing workplace for a long time, they wouldn’t hop on to a new company despite the company’s good reputation, offering and financial situation. People were not afraid of jumping to new challenges. They were afraid of the trial period. There’s a lot of insecurity and instability in the world! As a candidate you go through different scenarios in your head. What if I’m not able to work according to their expectations? What if I don’t like the workplace after all? What will the world situation be then if I leave during the trial period. How likely will I get a new, similar job quickly?
3. Candidates want more information than earlier to hush their uncertainty. Adapt! Especially during the first wave candidates were asking more questions about the future of the company, the team and the product, not to mention financial situation. Remember that recruitment is a lot about expectation management! If the candidate doesn’t have all the facts on the table, they won’t accept the offer. This applies to local recruitment too. I remember a few cases from my time as a consultant, where I advised employers not to make an offer after the first interview. These two employers were so hyped about finding the right person for their opening, and didn’t want to lose them during the recruitment process. As an employer, if you are convinced already after the first conversation, that’s rare. However, it’s unlikely that the candidate is convinced that soon too. One thing that I absolutely love in recruiting is transparency. Ask me anything, challenge me! I will give you all the information you desire, and all I ask in return is you to trust me! International recruitment is ten times more difficult if these two factors are not in place. If I have doubts that you will not enjoy the opportunity I have in mind for you, let’s call it a day. Companies who are able to be transparent during the recruitment process, will do just fine!
4. Another interesting phenomenon is that during the second (Sep 2020-Jan 2021) and third waves (Feb 2021-) people who dislike how their employers have managed to adapt to the whole covid situation are looking to hop on to a new workplace. I’ll share you a few examples of a poorly managed covid situation. a) Your employer is tracking your screen time and wants to hear how you progress on a daily basis. b) The company’s financial situation is looking worse, but nothing is informed to the employees about the situation or the action plan. The employees can sense that something’s going on. Great, more insecurity to the world! c) Everyone are welcome to work at the office. There are no guidelines, no safety distances, no mask or lunch policies. This type of situation makes people uncomfortable when they don’t know what is acceptable and safe. In most cases, these companies don’t trust their employees or they simply ignore the world situation in terms of safety. What’s even more interesting is that this applies to countries too. People who are not satisfied with how their country has managed the pandemic are looking to move to another country. It’s like having an exit conversation and you ask ”What was the situation when we lost you?”, and the person tells the country that it’s when the actions to make situation X better were too small and didn’t work, or something similar. Hello there — welcome to Finland! In my opinion, we have handled the situation quite well compared to some other countries.
5. Showing off your culture remotely is difficult. As a candidate you don’t see which seat the interviewers take in the meeting room. Is it you against the others on the other side of the table. You don’t see how colleagues greet each other or hear the kitchen conversations. Culture is how you treat other people, it’s your behaviours and beliefs. Local candidates can live with the fact that they will not be able to see the office and the team before making a decision. Now imagine making an offer to a person who hasn’t been to Finland. It takes a lot of effort and time. Adapt! I’m sure you can figure out how to step up your game, even if remotely. Think, how can you simulate a real life environment and situation remotely!
6. The recruitment strategy is a living organism. From where to find the candidates and how among other things keep on changing. What’s here to stay is taking advantage of the technology and tools available. Whether you’re in an internal call or in an interview, you should have the basic skills for having video calls. Remember to have a plan B up in your sleeve in case of technical difficulties. As an employer, use the video call to share your screen and showcase your latest release or projects. Start using an online whiteboard whenever needed. By now your technical assignments/tests should be remote friendly. In my opinion, the best take home assignments simulate the upcoming tasks of the desired job. They also review relevant things and build momentum. Will answering yes/no questions bring you any insights of the candidate’s thinking process? Will they simulate your work environment and the tasks? Nope. Try testing pair programming remotely if you haven’t yet. Each recruitment step should give value to both the company and the candidate. Also, career events have moved to online environments such as Brella and PINE.
7. Covid has brought inequality to international recruitments. My goal has always been to hire the best person. The location of the candidate has been a secondary thing. During the pandemic Recruiters need to check each country’s covid situation, border restrictions and the embassies’ opening hours and policies. What’s strange is that currently it’s very difficult to come to Finland and work as an EU citizen, but easy as a non-EU citizen. I’ll elaborate… As an EU citizen you need to complete an EU registration in Finland which is fairly simple. As a non-EU citizen you need to apply for a residence permit. Our current border restrictions allow valid residence permits. An EU registration is not the same thing and therefore EU citizens cannot enter Finland. The Finnish Border Guard might be able to give an initial estimate if the person will be allowed to enter Finland, but they cannot make promises. During the pandemic some countries have had lockdowns, border restrictions or the embassies have been closed. If you apply for a residence permit abroad you will need to visit the closest Finnish embassy or consulate. Some countries such as Belarus don’t have an embassy. As a Belarusian you need to travel to Lithuania which has been in lockdown multiple times. Always have a plan B with international candidates, and be transparent about worst case scenarios and action plans.
8. There’s currently a big supply of people who want to work remotely either locally or globally. If your organisation has legal entity in the country where the employee wants to work remotely, the work arrangements are doable. That is if the team is ready for a full-time remote employment. If the company doesn’t have legal entity in that country, it’s extremely difficult to hire the person as an employee. Rather we are talking about freelancing which is not the same. The person doesn’t get to enjoy all the employee benefits and might have a limited access to certain IT tools, events etc. Finland and EU have different kinds of agreements with different countries, not to mention that each country has their own policy. Every time a freelancing agreement is made, you look into that country’s policies to make sure the arrangements work smoothly. The arrangement is more admin work for the company and more expensive. I haven’t come across many companies in Finland who have individual freelancers in many different countries (please prove me wrong, I’d love to hear if there is a forerunner out there). I truly hope that in the future work arrangements are made easier to support gig economy and to minimise a possible PE (permanent establishment) risk, because that way the demand can reach the supply.
9. Finally, the offer stage. I have done my job fairly well if I have answered every single question or doubt that an international candidate has. If a company decides to make an offer to the candidate, it’s the candidate who is the final decision maker. I have followed a simple guideline during covid: if either or both parties are not comfortable in making decisions, then we’ll put the conversations on hold. Don’t have a fixed recruitment process! If it looks like it would make sense to arrange one more call/interview with the candidate, then it’s probably for the best if it brings value to both parties. If you decide to take a time-out, that candidate might join you some other day. You have not forced them to make a decision which will change their life. You have built a relationship on mutual trust and appreciation. Now that we’re talking about trust, I mentioned earlier that Finland has handled the pandemic relatively well. There’s an interesting point in CNN’s article This country has just been named the happiest in the world:

Researchers say it’s no surprise that Finland has retained the top position once again, as the Nordic country has always ranked highly when it comes to mutual trust.

Trust is recognized as one of the major factors that helped to protect people during the pandemic, as well as confidence in governments.

Trust has become one of Finland’s most attractive selling points to international candidates.