The Swedish-owned recruitment company Clarus Eastern Europe helps foreign companies to recruit the right people in Ukraine.
- There is a shortage of specialists in Ukraine who are used to take initiatives and who prefers minimal guidance. Ukrainians are much more used to detail-steering than us Swedes. Furthermore, the knowledge in English is very bad, says Clara Bodin who is the founder and owner of Clarus Eastern Europe.
Clarus recruits and headhunts for international companies in Ukraine, and many customers are Swedish. Clara Bodin says that they focus on finding the key people to the medium-sized foreign companies that open offices in Ukraine in order to make the establishment as successful as possible.
- We assist with the recruitment of sales managers and engineers to for example technology companies, but also support functions in marketing, finance and legal professionals to service companies.
To establish in Ukraine requires time and money. Buying land or buildings in Ukraine can be a long and complex process which in the worst case can take up to two, three years. Corruption is also widespread so you must have the right contacts.
- When employing staff you should not assume that the information on their resume is correct. The education system is corrupt and it is not entirely unusual to have bribed in order to get a degree, says Clara Bodin.
Therefore, Clarus mostly uses personal contacts when they need to recruit staff.
Clara Bodin advices foreign companies that employ Ukrainian staff to also to invest in women.
- If you want to make it safe, you should always hire female staff. Ukrainian women are better educated, more loyal to the company and their English skills are better.
- There are still bright spots in Ukraine. At the moment, we help a new Swedish company with the recruitment in the agricultural sector, which is a sector that looks pretty positive for the future and even in the short term. Moreover, there are good business opportunities in the agricultural sector, outsourcing and subcontracting as prices for labor, facilities and land has fallen sharply and is likely to fall further in 2009.
- When the conjunction is stabilized, we have plans to start up a headhunting office in Belarus