07 listopada 2014 | Ekonomia

source: Rzeczpospolita

The weaknesses of our managers are not decisive in their evaluation.

Management | International firms more and more readily employ specialists and managers from our region in foreign companies. They appreciate their qualifications as well as competitive remuneration.

Anita Błaszczak

There are some managers and specialists from Central and Eastern Europe in two out of three international firms who work in foreign companies outside the region. Even more often they are seconded to work on one of the markets of our part of the continent – these are the results of a “New generation of expats” survey which “Rzeczpospolita” got to know about.

Until recently expats were almost exclusively western managers. Nowadays candidates from our region – including Poles – get job or promotion offers to foreign companies – states a partner in PSI Polska, a recruitment company which initiated the survey that in October this year Millward Brown conducted in 79 international concerns from different lines of business.

Go to the world from Warsaw
Joanna Zaborska, HR manager in a cosmetics company Avon, confirms the results of the survey. In her opinion in recent years more and more often managers and specialists from our region and amongst them a big number of Poles take up positions in other countries.

According to PSI Polska Partner we are helped by the size of the Polish market which exemplifies all the main market trends and the fact that many companies locate their regional branches and head offices in Poland. And it is easier to get promoted abroad from the positions in these headquarters.

Professor Krzysztof Obłój from Management Department at Warsaw University emphasizes that the improvement of the political-economic image of our country has supported the foreign careers of Polish managers and specialists for the last few years – we ceased to be regarded as a post-communist country with soviet mentality and are more and more often given as the role model. This change of image also helps expats from the other countries in the region.
It can also be seen in the survey “New generation of expats” conducted in cooperation with Glasford International – the global recruitment network. According to the employers expats from our region have many advantages over the western colleagues.

Talent hunt
Admittedly the companies indicate lower employment costs in the first place, but they also appreciate good education, knowledge of foreign languages and openness to cultural differences among other to ways of running a business.

As PSI Polska Partner points out, although remuneration does not depend on nationality in corporations (so in internal promotion this factor is not valid), it may be significant in external recruitment. Western managers used to higher salaries and more extensive benefits may be more expensive. However they have higher leadership skills which are often considered to be the weak point of the candidates from our region.

Fortunately for them employers favour the ability to learn fast, previous work abroad and openess to new experience.
Corporations look for talents who have had a dynamic professional career and extensive experience gained on different markets and positions – claims Dariusz Lenart, HR vice-president for the global finance department in Mastercard. His opinion was based on his own experience as well as before taking up the post in the New York head office he had been a regional HR manager in PepsiCo office in Geneva.

Poles rule
Although the nationality of the candidate does not matter, our interlocutors say that Poles often win in competition with candidates from other countries. This is also confirmed by the research – amongst others by a big survey conducted by Target a few years ago in cooperation with Henley Business School from London which checked the competitiveness of managers from six countries from the region – Poles came out best as the most entrepreneurial , flexible and dynamic.

Dariusz Lenart believes we have a few advantages which give us a large representation on managerial posts in international firms – the main ones being working hard and engagement in the company affairs. Joanna Zaborska from Avon also thinks that Poles are usually praised for working hard and being engaged in work. They are appreciated for being active and creative as well – qualities valued in corporations.

In Lenart’s opinion the combination of distance to authorities and individualism makes Poles stand out in corporations – they are independent in thinking and at the same time stay in line with the company strategy and goals.

We also do well in terms of readiness to change and mobility which includes work on one of the more distant and less known markets. We have expat managers – mainly women – in countries like Thailand, South Africa or Turkey – adds Joanna Zaborska.

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