| Internationals in Danish Business Life |  Print |
Text by Mario Scian, AIESEC Copenhagen Business School (edited by BCCD), photos by Hugh Mayo
“If the Danish national team were to play in the Premier League they would fail miserably.” Denmark would fail, not because the Danes are not talented enough. They would fail because they are just a tiny fraction of the world’s talent – and it is not reasonable to expect them to beat teams filled with international superstars.
This picture is not limited to football – it can also be applied to the business world. It is hard to compete against the whole world. Are Danish companies (and Denmark itself) well positioned to take the lead if they are closed to international talent?
This was the main discussion during the seminar ‘Internationals in Danish Business Life’, organized by AIESEC, the world’s largest student organization, and the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark. The event, attended by executives from more than thirty Danish and International companies, helped raise awareness and open up dialogue on this topic.
Nobody questions that the Danish workforce is highly qualified. But, is that enough to compete in a world where globalization is the norm? While some Danish companies still keep their doors closed to foreign workers, businesses in the United States, Britain and other developed countries are opening to a flood of highly qualified, ambitious and reliable international talent.
Understanding and comparing foreign qualifications may be a challenge, but it is too much of a restriction to simplify by assuming that only Danish qualifications are valid. Ambitious companies need to recruit internationally and tap into the global talent pool. Diversity is also an asset in itself: people from different backgrounds bring different perspectives and new ways of solving problems.
Everyone has mental models that we use to filter the information that we see. These models help us to function efficiently, but they can also be misleading. Anders Harbo, Director of Leadership Development, DI showed this slide and asked ‘what is this?’.
Look again – it is not an elephant! But most people answer ‘elephant’ because we have a mental model of what an elephant looks like, and this is close enough. Anders explained that some of our mental models come from our culture, and this can create difficulties when we try to interact with people from other cultures. But this is also a key benefit of mixing cultures – when people are using different mental models and discussing what they see, there is a higher chance that they will see things accurately. Good communication and an awareness that people can see things differently are skills to develop!
Claus Bondam, Mayor of Copenhagen, detailed some of the initiatives that have been started to make Copenhagen more accessible to foreigners, and mentioned the ‘Bland dig I byen’ campaign, that has been running to promote diversity in the city. He admitted there was much more that could be done, but was pleased that the One Stop Shop now provides a much improved service for new foreign residents, and that an increasing number of key documents are being made available in English.
Henning Therkelsen, Omada A/S, described how the founders of the company recognised from the start that they needed international talent. “The top Danish students wouldn’t be interested in working for a small start up company. They’d prefer to work for an established organisation with a graduate scheme. But international students didn’t know the difference between us and any other Danish company – so they took us at face value, and took the risk.” Omada worked with AIESEC to recruit students from around the world to join their team. When questioned how successful this was, Henning answered that there was only one time that it didn’t work out. “We don’t make much effort to ‘integrate’ new colleagues. We don’t expect that they will learn Danish – we work in English. We have so many nationalities working together in the office, and everyone just gets on with it. On Fridays we all have a beer together.”
The Student organization AIESEC, situated in over 110 countries, makes it almost effortless for companies to access a share of the younger dynamic and highly skilled international labour via internships. AIESEC has made the process of finding and hiring an intern as simple as possible, sending more than 10,000 students on international internships in 2009 alone.
Companies interested in working with AIESEC simply fill out a profile of the intern they have in mind and, if desired, arrange phone interviews with the best candidates that AIESEC presents. Everything else is handled by the volunteers at AIESEC. They take care of all the hassles of hiring an international worker – the paperwork, the housing, visa, etc. This positions AIESEC as the most practical way to access young international workers.
The organization also provides the intern with a platform to integrate in the local society – a factor which Craig Till, Manager of the government funded ‘Expat in Denmark’ network, declared as one of the three biggest difficulties internationals face in Denmark.
“International workers do enjoy living in Denmark,” said Craig. “But”, he continued, “the cold networking and the struggle to fully integrate into society makes them leave as soon as another opportunity appears in their path.”
Elsebeth Blaabjerg, HR Manager at Hempel A/S, who has worked with AIESEC interns in the past, agrees that this is an opportunity companies should not miss out on. “AIESEC’s involvement in the recruitment of a trainee is outstanding,” Elsebeth said. “They take care of all the practicalities from screening of applications, to work permits and house hunting. All in all, it was a very positive experience.”
Yet, an effort must be made by the Danes and the international workers to make the most of this opportunity. As Klaus Bondam, city mayor of Copenhagen for Work and Integration put it as he closed his speech at ‘Internationals in Danish Business Life’: “I think we are moving slowly in the right direction” - slowly, but on the right path.
Diversity is a resource – it is a way to capitalise on new opportunities. Both businesses and government agencies are now working to attract and retain foreign talent.
Event Feedback
At the event, all guests were asked for comments on their experiences, problems and suggested solutions in regards to three subjects:
- Language: Formal and informal work situations eg. Meetings, breaks, office gossip, information availability
- Work social dynamic: Expectations about type and style of social networks at work eg. Lunch breaks, weekends, after work.
- Unwritten rules of working culture: Do they exist and are they fully understood by all? eg. Meetings, interaction with colleagues and managers, absences, decision processes
The feedback we received has been collected as is now available to you to view as a pdf. |