Many businesses in the region need to hire internationally. That also means becoming more diverse which can challenge old work routines and habits. Here are 4 expert tips on how to create a more inclusive work environment.
A survey published by Statistics Sweden in December 2023 showed that roughly 8 out of 10 employers lack highly educated employees in automation, transport, and Information and Communication Technology.
Comparably, 8 out of 10 employers expect increasing hiring needs in the engineering sector in the next three years. Highly educated employees in electrical engineering, energy production, electronics, data science, and automation are especially needed.
Denmark experiences a similar lack of employees. According to Statistics Denmark, the trade and transport sectors, as well as the business service sector, lack fitting employees.
Additionally, Work in Denmark lists the sectors Engineering, ICT & Robotics, Life science, and Finance and Business as industries with ample job opportunities. In the third quarter of 2023, almost 4.500 job vacancies in Region Zealand weren’t filled. This is despite Denmark experiencing an all-time high in employment rates, with more than 3 million people actively participating in the labour market.
The benefits of diverse teams
Statistics like that clarify that we have exhausted the opportunities within the national labour market and need to look abroad.
Hiring highly skilled employees from abroad comes with many benefits. In our article Innovation over Bias, we have already explored that teams of all genders and diverse ethnical backgrounds can include more multifaceted aspects into their decision-making process and hence deliver end products that will serve a more diverse range of people equally well.
Federica, owner of the Malmö based Intercultural Lab, explains: “Professional inclusion is a win-win for everyone involved. But inclusion must be more than a pure need. Companies must want to be inclusive employers. This is an important preliminary that many of the companies in the region have already fulfilled. The question here is: how do we put this very great intention into fruition?”
Four starting points to become a more inclusive employer
If your company wants to tap into an international team's potential, simply hiring people from diverse backgrounds isn’t enough. You have to allocate means.
Here 4 simple starting points that Federica suggests for companies to transform good intentions into tangible actions.
Overcome unconsious biases
“We hear a lot about unconscious biases, which I noticed to be the real issue. Often, those unconscious biases hinder us from putting our good intentions into practice because we, as humans, are habit-based beings influenced by society and society’s perspective of how the world works. It has a much bigger impact on us than what we think. Therefore, it is important to take a self-assessment. It will help us see which biases we have even without knowing. That bias can even be completely against what we think our core values are. The best way for such self-assessment is, of course, with the help of a professional coach. If you have a strong HR team, they might also be helpful with this self-assessment.”
Consider the family factor
"When a company hires a person from abroad, in many cases, it won’t be the only person who will relocate to another country. Often, highly educated people or people with many years of experience in their field bring spouses and children. It’s obvious. A person is not just their job and career stages. Companies must see them as people who are all-around with their whole lives. People didn’t only grow in their careers. Over the years, they also developed in their private life, maybe found a partner and started a family. It is important to acknowledge that because if the family isn’t working, the employees are at risk of returning to their home countries or moving elsewhere. Companies must include that factor in the hiring and onboarding processes. The good thing is that, in the recent time, I have also noticed that companies are becoming better and better at that.”
Bridge the knowledge gap
"Many times when I coach companies, the main question is: How can we get better?. This is a very general question and shows that in some companies, the inclusion topic is almost, you can say, “outsourced” to the HR department. There is not equally much knowledge about what inclusion in practice means across the departments. So, the real question is: How can all departments increase their awareness and abilities regarding inclusion? Unsurprisingly, the go-to answer is creating opportunities for intercultural and diversity training. Of course, the HR department is a strong partner here. They can arrange intercultural workshops or hire external help from an inclusion coach. But for that to be successful, the HR department must be more than an “accessory”, which, unfortunately, I can observe in some companies. Instead, HR must be taken seriously and have the right to innovate and make decisions.”
Prevention is better than aftercare
“The ideal situation is to set the ground straight and give the topic of inclusion enough space from the get-go. It should be a part of the company's strategy, so to speak. Nevertheless, it sometimes happens that I am contacted when there is already a problem, which is a bit too late in the process. For example, when teams cannot communicate well with each other anymore and friction between them starts to arise. Then, I'm contacted with the wish to train them on communication, culture, and different work habits or leadership styles. But when there is already a clash, it’s very difficult to straighten things out again. So I think the best way really is to prevent such clashes from happening rather than trying to fix relationships between teams or team members afterward.”
Frederica Viero
Originally from Milan, Italy, Frederica has moved to many countries before settling in Malmö/ Sweden almost 10 years ago. She worked for close to 20 years in corporate roles before becoming self-employed and founding the 'Intercultural Lab'. Frederica focuses on intercultural training for executives and coaching for leaders, employees, and spouses. Additionally, she teaches intercultural negotiation at grad level at Lund University. Her client base extends across Skåne and the Copenhagen area.
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