How companies are finding employees abroad

With the adoption of digitization reaching unprecedented levels, remote working has become a common practice for many companies. The talent pool of potential employees has expanded as employers who are unable to find specialists in Lithuania have moved the recruitment process to other countries. According to Andej Rynkevi, the head of a business outsourcing company Baltic Virtual Assistants, the latter issue has led the company to look for employees abroad.

We were able to expand our search for employees abroad because of the lack of specialists in Lithuania, which slowed our growth rates. There was a shortage of specialists in the finance and IT departments. We wanted to bring more cultural diversity to the team. A. Rynkevi said in a press release that the evaluation process is based solely on objective criteria, so the first thing we look at is whether the specialist meets the requirements of a specific position and the company's values.

A. Rynkevi said the company first started employing specialists from neighboring countries. Most of the new foreign specialists we employed came from Poland at the beginning of the year. We chose this country because of its similar work culture and mentality, the specialists good English skills, and the fact that there is almost no time difference between Lithuania and Poland. He said the company is actively recruiting specialists from war-torn Ukraine to help the people settle in Lithuania.

In the last few weeks, we have started recruiting people affected by the war in Ukraine, and we still have more than twenty open positions. A. Rynkevi said that the company will reimburse the new employees from Ukraine for up to six months because they will continue this process and look for other ways to help them.

The challenge of hiring foreign specialists may not be as challenging as it may seem.

A. Rynkevi said there are not many, but sometimes bureaucratic processes that can cause some complications when asked about the challenges of recruiting foreign specialists.

The migration-related paperwork is the main challenge. He says that the process can take a while before a person is granted a work permit, because it's quite complex and time-consuming.

There are no major difficulties with the work ethics of foreign employees, according to A. Rynkevi. A clear integration policy and a detailed selection process can help avoid such problems, according to him.

Foreign specialists are fairly quickly integrated into the team because we follow established work policies and standards within the company. When hiring a specialist from abroad, it is important to have a good selection process, during which you can identify potential risks and select the most suitable candidate, advises the head of Baltic Virtual Assistants. We need to understand that joining a new group of people, especially abroad, is not an easy experience, and one may not always know what to expect. Efforts should be made to get to know the new employee better and integrate the person into the company's life as soon as possible.