Written by Neža Sevčnikar, EURES Adviser for Employers

EUROSTAT reports that in 2020 among the EU citizens of working age (20 -64), 3.3 % resided in a Member State other than that of their citizenship. According to Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS) more than 15,000 EU-citizens from another EU country worked in Slovenia. Among them, the largest workforce comes from Croatia, Bulgaria and Italy. Nevertheless, in this number we can find representatives of all nationalities in the EU.

The European Union's principle of free movement of workers makes recruitment from and to other Member states, as well as from and to Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland as easy as employing domestically. Open European labour market entitles European citizens to look for a job in another country, work, reside and remain there even after employment has finished and enjoy equal treatment as nationals regarding access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax benefits.

For different reasons international recruitment has been a reality in several sectors for many years. In many professions, the national borders have fallen long time ago. Companies are facing competition for the best-qualified workers not just in Europe, but worldwide.

What are the actual benefits of international and multicultural teams? The answer to that question is not that simple. It ranges from solving short-term skills shortages to increased efficiency by introducing new level of skills and fresh experience to a team. Research has also shown that team member diversity encourages and sustains creativity and innovation. For successful international recruitment it is important to adapt the recruitment process appropriately. As a recruiter you may need some guidelines. Why not put yourself in the shoes of a foreign jobseeker? Here are some aspects worth considering when recruiting abroad.

For example prepare a short description of your company, add links to your website, social media accounts, shoot a video presentation of the work environment or let your co-worker describe their working day.

Focus more on job vacancy description; be specific when it comes to requirements regarding qualifications, competences or language skills.

Consider offering a relocation package. Is the company offering an onboarding program or a mentoring system? Is there a possibility to offer assistance with finding accommodation and administrative support? Can you help with social integration?

While thinking of these things a company can come across the question - who can help us?

The European Job Mobility Portal, the so called EURES Portal, is a reliable source of information when it comes to international job mobility. Companies, jobseekers and other stakeholders use it to find job vacancies, country specific information on living and working conditions in European countries and to search for suitable candidates for their vacancies. 

National public employment services can also help. They are part of EURES network, which was established by the EU Commission in 1994. EURES is a European cooperation network designed to facilitate the free movement of workers within EU/EEA/Switzerland. EURES services are available to all European employers - before, during and after the recruiting process, but also to jobseekers who are interested in finding a job outside of their country of origin.  

Katarina Kavčič and her colleagues, from Employment Service of Slovenia, work as EURES Advisers and are daily offering services to companies, who are interested in international job mobility. Katarina says:" We offer companies information regarding recruitment process, give advice on benefits and risks when recruiting from the European labour market and offer individually tailored assistance. For instance, if an employer is interested to promote their job vacancy abroad, we can contact our EURES Network and the company can gain some extra promotion among foreign jobseekers. Many companies seek  advice when they are facing administrative obstacles. We are particularly proud of our several years of experience with organizing online job fairs, so called European Job Days. The platform offers companies the opportunity to promote vacancies all around Europe and meet jobseekers Europe wide."

In recent years, more than 50 Slovenian companies have already participated in such an event. For the year 2022, EURES Slovenia plans to invite Slovenian companies from the gastronomy and tourism sector to participate and present seasonal job vacancies to EU-jobseekers. Employers, jobseekers and other stakeholders are welcome to connect with EURES Slovenia at any stage of recruitment or job seeking process. For more information visit: EURES Slovenia website.