The consequences of the pandemic, the geopolitical situation, the number of companies in relation to the number of professionals – all this affects the Latvian labor market, and there is currently an invisible battle between entrepreneurs for every potential employee. This applies not only to the in-demand IT specialists, but to almost all industry specialists.
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The company I represent is considered large by Latvian standards. “Dyninno” group competence center “Dynatech” employs more than 300 people in Latvia and plans to attract several dozen more employees by the end of the year.
Although we are constantly filling the most important vacancies, appealing with a competitive salary, a sustainable and professional environment, I am aware that broad growth goals are ambitious in the current situation. All recruitment specialists in Latvia are currently facing big challenges, and this is the reason why companies are constantly looking for new ways to attract good specialists, including from abroad.
The fight for every employee
Highly qualified specialists, a favorable location and fierce competition that stimulates growth and development – these are just some of the reasons why the number of international companies has increased in Latvia in the last five to ten years, which in turn has created wider job opportunities for local professionals, and especially applies to IT professionals. There are a lot of IT companies here, there are international, large companies that open a shared service here shared centers, an integral part of which is, of course, a strong IT team. The environment in Latvia is also extremely favorable for IT start-ups.
Considering the relatively wide choice, the recent trend is that more and more often the choice is made not by the employer, but by the employee. Even after accepting an offer, potential employees can still reconsider their choice. Five years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Therefore, the situation in the labor market is full of stress, and there is a fight for every candidate.
There are some companies that offer training to improve qualifications during recruitment, but mostly employers do everything to find the right candidates who already have all the necessary skills and qualities for the job in question. At Dynatech, too, we maintain high requirements, while being aware that this way recruitment may take longer. It is very important for us to have a team where people would like to work, where the supervisor is a leader, a professional, where other best specialists in their field sit next to them, from whom there are opportunities to learn. We try to attract more with a professional environment, not with cookies or something like that.
One of the important investments is building long-term relationships not only with existing, but also with potential employees. For example, last year we were looking for a team leader. When I approached one strong candidate at the time, she was not ready to start a new working relationship, but when I called several months later, she agreed to an interview and has been leading one of the teams in the company for some time now. This is a good example of the need to invest in building long-term relationships.
Employees abroad – both an opportunity and a challenge
Taking into account the fact that the labor force is not inexhaustible, a large number of companies in Latvia already started global recruitment before the pandemic. People from Lithuania, Moldova, Canada, Honduras, Turkey, the Philippines and other countries work in our companies in Latvia. Of course, there were difficulties with moving during the pandemic, but now the process is accessible and easy again.
More and more companies also choose to hire employees, or out-staffing. This means that people who are not employees of the company can work on specific projects. In order to create such working relationships, a contract can be concluded with the company that employs these people. A large number of companies are not ready for such working relationships due to various challenges. They are related to communication, legal aspects, information security risks. “Dynatech” has attracted several employees from Ukraine in this way, but currently the model is still being tested to understand that the engaged employees are able to integrate into the team and whether the required results are achieved.
The pandemic taught us to communicate better
Of course, the labor market situation has also been affected by the pandemic, which has had lasting effects on employee attitudes, loyalty and engagement. Everyone in the recruitment industry feels it. The connection with the company has diminished and people seem to care less about where they work. By working remotely, people have also realized that it is possible to work for companies anywhere in the world. It has also significantly increased the tension in the labor market.
At the same time, in the last two years, companies have noticeably matured in terms of communication. Both managers and employees have learned to communicate and hear each other better. Previously, people were used to discussing work matters in the office, but disconnecting from work when going home. Training was needed on how to organize work time and communication in order to maintain a work-life balance. In this sense, everyone has learned.
Although some companies have now switched to remote work, in practice it can be seen that everyday work suffers. Even if you consider yourself to be a great communicator, without direct face-to-face contact, some information “gets lost in translation” or is not given at all. This can significantly delay the completion of the task or sometimes even lead it in the wrong direction. This is the reason why “Dynatech” is currently implementing a hybrid model, that is, part of the work is done remotely, and part of it is in person.
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