Frank Nyst is from Holland but he
lives in Denmark because of his wife. She is a researcher at the
University of Southern Denmark. As a foreign spouse it has proven hard
for him to find a job to match his qualifications, but now he has
finally succeeded. He found the job through on of the three state-run
Workindenmark centres, set up to help Danish businesses recruit and
retain foreign labour.
“I found my present job via
Workindenmark, which among other things offers a mail service for
foreign job seekers. Then I came across a recruitment firm that was
looking for workers matching my profile. I rushed to put an application
in and got the job,” says Frank Nyst.
Today he has a permanent job with the company Colourbox in Odense as
regional manager with responsibility for developing the company’s
markets in Holland and Flanders. Frank Nyst reckons it’s a perfect
match for both parties. He masters both of the two markets’ languages,
he has a master in business administration and the company is based in
Odense where Frank Nyst and his wife have found a place to live.
Frank Nyst is impressed with the active support for international
recruitment offered by the Danish state via the Workindenmark
centres.
“The people at Workindenmark are very proactive and really use their
network to find jobs for foreign job seekers,” he says.
Large network in Europe
Workindenmark emerged from a 2008 political agreement between the
government, the Danish People’s Party, the Danish Social Liberal Party
and New Alliance (now Liberal Alliance). It resulted in three
Workindenmark centres run by the Danish Labour Market Authority, as
well as a state-run homepage with detailed information and advise on
employment-related issues. Foreign job seekers can look for jobs in
Denmark by leaving their CV in a jobs’ base while looking for relevant
information on what working in Denmark will entail. The jobs’ base now
holds nearly 100 jobs in Danish companies and just under 4,000 CVs from
foreign job seekers.
The three centres are spread out geographically to cover the whole
of Denmark. They employ some 30 people who can offer different types of
personal help and also advise to Danish companies which want to find,
hire or retain foreign workers.
The centres offer advertising space for companies at employment
fairs abroad to help them promote jobs. Workindenmark enjoys a large
European network though the European Employment Service (EURES), where
job centres from 31 European countries share information. There are
nearly 800 so-called EURES advisors who specialise in international
recruitment and who cooperate internationally.
Focus on higher education
The centres also offer personal advise to job seekers who want to
get in touch with Danish companies. The centres run various courses and
offer other types of help especially targeted at the partners of
foreign workers. Experience shows that if you want to retain a foreign
employee it is very important that their partner has a job and a
network.
Maria Nørby from the Danish Labour Market Authority says Danish
authorities have gained several advantages through Workindenmark:
“It has focused the activity and resulted in a more proactive
strategy for international recruitment. It has also created more
openness which helps both job seekers abroad and Danish companies find
each other,” says Maria Nørby.
It is hard to say exactly how many jobs for foreign workers
Workindenmark has facilitated. In many cases companies get help during
part of the recruitment process, but then take charge themselves.
During the first three months this year the centres introduced 900
candidates to Danish companies.
The centres and the homepage are used to recruit foreign labour with
all kinds of skills – from engineers and medical doctors to seasonal
agriculture workers. Workindenmark is particularly focused on
attracting international students to Danish companies and to get health
care workers to hospitals. The next step will be to attract even more
people with higher education, says Maria Nørby.
She considers one of Workindenmark’s greatest strengths to be its
ability to find labour for companies which have a particular need for
competence. This helps secure European cooperation for Workindenmark.
There are no plans to open Workindenmark centres abroad.
Less red tape
Workindenmark centres also offer new foreign workers and their
families help with how to deal with Danish authorities on their
arrival to the country. Some companies also chose to get help from
Workindenmark when it comes to navigating the red tape associated with
employing foreign labour. It can be hard and time-consuming for both
employers and employees to get all the formalities out of the way, so
the government has just announced its plans for so-called
‘one-stop-shops’ in the country’s four university cities; Copenhagen,
Århus, Odense and Aalborg. This way foreign workers will only have to
visit one office to find the advise and service they need.
This is one of many cross-ministerial initiatives which aim to make
it easier to attract foreign labour to Denmark. The government has
launched a task force comprising of ministers from all ministries
concerned with international recruitment. This cross-ministerial task
force has announced more than 30 initiatives which should help attract
qualified labour in order to secure continued growth and welfare in
Denmark.
Danish industries are happy with both the government’s general drive
to attract foreign labour and with Workindenmark. Still, there is room
for improvement, says Christoffer Thomas Skov from the Confederation of
Danish Industry (DI). He feels more can be done to find jobs for
partners. It is also important for DI that state-run initiatives like
Workindenmark don’t end up competing with private
initiatives.
