Mind the tech talent gap: Poland
Challenges, trends and useful tips of hiring foreign IT talents in Poland
This column is part of a series called “Mind the tech talent gap” created by Spice IT Recruitment Agency in cooperation with leading local tech companies.
Ten years on by now we’ve been Spice IT Recruitment, we’ve been helping dream tech companies to find dream tech talents.
Attracting and hiring talented candidates is difficult. Especially when it comes to IT sector. We’ve known for a while now that there’s a tech talent shortage. But that shortage may be even bigger than you’d expected — in fact, according to a recent survey by KPMG, it may be at its highest level since ever before.
In fact, 75% of recruiters report that the time it takes to fill IT-related positions has increased over the past three years, with the №1 reason being an “inability to find qualified candidates.” 65% of recruiters said that hiring challenges are hurting the IT industry. That number marks a six-point increase over last year’s survey, where 59% expressed that sentiment.
Tapping the Poland IT talent market
Being a world-class technology and business services hub Popland suffers a lot from tech talent gap. Finding top quality IT talent is the key recruitment goal for IT Polish companies. According to Forbes and Rzeczpospolita, Poland currently lacks — at minimum — 50,000 programmers/developers. This scarcity is imposing limitations on economic growth.
Let’s have a close look on challenges, trends and useful tips of recruiting IT talent in Poland.
Poland has become a world-class technology and business services hub. In fact, according to the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index, Poland is the 21st most innovative economy in the world — just two spots behind China, four spots behind the UK, and ahead of economies such as Spain and Hong Kong.
“Tech talent is very short everywhere in the world — AI specialist, software programmers, data scientists and so on and so far. The IT professionals demand rate in Poland is the second highest, among all the job categories.” — report Carone Zajakowski — PR & Marketing manager at CD Projekt RED — Poland’s game development studio that has won worldwide recognition for it “Witcher” series.
“Things are pretty bad,” — tell us Pawel Prokop, Vice President and Director of the Public Administration Business Unit of Comarch — one of the oldest IT company in Poland. “You may have brilliant idea but if you can’t get the IT talent to develop it, that’s a problem. In fact, tech job seekers are uniquely in demand both within the tech industry and without.”
“Now, the demand is so significant, it seems any number of engineers can be hired by employers. Last time I checked there were over 700 IT job postings for IT engineers in Kraków at pracuj.pl (Polish job listing site), including for developers, testers, consultants etc.” — add Carone Zajakowski (CD Projekt RED).
There’s no denying that Poland labor market transformed from employer driven to candidate driven over the last few years. We are now entering the new phase in which the market belongs to the employee who can choose from many job offers. So your company should outstand among other companies otherwise you will be fight over the best candidates. You may increase your chances to win by offering candidates better salary or other attractive benefits. It’s not a problem when you are big corporation with big exciting projects, but for small- and middle-sized businesses it may be troublesome.
How to solve tech’s talent crisis in Poland
The future of tech talent gap solutions is brighter than you thought. Surprisingly, there is a simple solution, and we couldn’t be happier about it. If you lack the tech talent you need now in our city or even country, just expand your search area — that is a simple yet efficient solution. Get the talent your company needs by looking abroad!
“To fill this immediate gap, we should consider recruiting international talent,” said Carone Zajakowski (CD Projekt RED). Yeah, foreign IT talents might be the answer to the IT talent gap in Poland. When employed in the third countries, foreign talents add tremendous value to the workplace through their contributions.
When asked, companies with a significant number of foreign talents stated that the value add is immense. “It’s not just providing a competitive advantage; it’s also developing innovations that are a source of value creation for Poland.” claimed Carone.
Highly skilled foreign IT talents fuel innovations. Some of the Polish companies we’ve asked have already embraced the idea of hiring international talent as a fix to the widening IT talent gap. For many businesses, it’s not just about hiring across borders to fill a void. It’s about finding the best skill sets, regardless of nationality. Of course, certain difficulties may arise on this path. Let’s name some of them.
Barrier to hiring foreign IT talents
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Fantastic beasts and where to find them (and how much to pay them)
When we ask Poland tech companies why don’t they hire foreign talents, the response in 90 percent of cases was as follows: we do not know how to do it. It might be really hard for Poland IT recruiters to hunt for foreign IT talents. It is the question of information. As we know from the absolute greatest quote from Kanye West: “Information is not only power; it’s simply everything.”
Often, polish recruiters do not have much knowledge about the foreign labor markets — for example, they do not know where to find сandidetes and how much wages to offer them. After all, recruitment is far more that posting vacancy on the jobsite. You should seek out qualified candidates via LinkedIn and other social medias. This will ensure that some applications from potential candidates who are not actively searching for new jobs but who may be perfect for the role are received.
If there are barriers there must be drivers, righ? Let’s mention few.
Drivers to hiring foreign IT talents
“Implementing a talent acquisition strategy that includes foreign national recruitment helped my company in many ways” — said Patrick Milles — CEO of the Bivrost — leading Polish VR company. “There is a certain link between my company financial performance and ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity.”
According to the latest Mckinsey report it is absolutely true. Team ethnic and cultural diversity is correlated with profitability. Some other valuable benefits gained from hiring foreign IT talents are:
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Out of necessity, foreign talents have to rely on their own brains and motivation to move from their home country to Poland. In the workplace, this can translate into personal initiative, resourcefulness and independence.GLOBAL MINDSET
People from abroad are a bridge between cultures, so they can easily enable new, better-informed thinking about company’s products and processes by leveraging their own cultural background and experiences.RISK TAKING
Moving to a new country with an unfamiliar culture, and oftentimes language, is a risky move, no matter the potential reward. Foreign talents are used to encountering change and tend to be natural risk takers, which often leads to creative problem solving.
Each day at work, foreign IT talents will bring their skills, passion and unique perspective to IT companies in Poland. In return, organizations are experiencing innovation, higher productivity and a globally competitive edge. As the tech talent gap persists, foreign tech talents will be the only immediate answer. It’s time for organizations to start thinking strategically about what foreign candidates can do for their workforce right now — and in the future.
The best workers do the best and the most work. But many companies do an awful job of finding them. If you lack the tech talent you need now, contact Spice IT Recruitment today. We have the high-end, niche IT professionals from CIS and Russia you can’t find anywhere else.
