State helps attract foreign labour

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.