3 things you need to know about working in the Greater Copenhagen Region
Many businesses in the region are hiring international talents like you. But how can you thrive professionally in Greater Copenhagen Region?
Denmark experiences a similar lack of employees. According to Statistics Denmark, the trade and transport sectors, as well as the business service sector, lack fitting employees.
Additionally, Work in Denmark lists the sectors Engineering, ICT & Robotics, Life science, and Finance and Business as industries with ample job opportunities. In the third quarter of 2023, almost 4.500 job vacancies in Region Zealand weren’t filled. This is despite Denmark experiencing an all-time high in employment rates, with more than 3 million people actively participating in the labour market.
Photo: this is engineering
Statistics like that clarify that we have exhausted the opportunities within the national labour market and need to look abroad.
Many companies in the Greater Copenhagen Region have already understood this. They are allocating means to make their vacanies accessible for internationals and invest in, for example, professional cultural training or a holistic hiring approach. What does this mean, you wonder? We have asked Federica, owner of the Malmö based Intercultural Lab, to share her view on why working in the region is absolutely worth it – from a human perspective and what you can do to improve your job chances in the region.
Photo: Frederica Viero
A holistic hiring approach
“When a company hires a person from abroad, in many cases, it won’t be the only person who will relocate to another country.
Often, highly educated people or people with many years of experience in their field bring spouses and children.
It’s obvious. A person is not just their job and career stages. I have observed that companies are becoming better and better at seeing employees as people who are all-around with their whole lives.
People didn’t only grow in their careers. Over the years, they also developed in their private life, maybe found a partner and started a family. It is important to acknowledge that because if the family isn’t working, the employees are at risk of returning to their home countries or moving elsewhere.
It's really great to see that companies in the region put more and more effort into, for example, spouse support. If you as an international have an interview with a company here, feel free to ask what they do in terms of spouse support."
Photo: iStock
It's a classic example of the region’s typical inclusive leadership style. Here, your leader usually doesn’t just decide for you what’s possible and what’s not. Those decisions are usually taken as a collective. Considering this, I suggested that the leader simply call a meeting and let everybody share their opinion on the matter – even if it’s clear there is no money to buy those tables right from the beginning. By just letting everybody share their idea or opinions, people will feel seen and understood, and it will be much more likely they will accept what every decision was taken in the end.
It seems counterintuitive to spend time on meetings when the end result seems to be clear from the start. However, this approach will create a lot of trust between the leader of a company and their employees."
Photo credit: Standsome
1. Checking in
We take great pride in treating everyone in the Greater Copenhagen Region equally.
Our flat hierarchies at the workplace result from the belief that nobody is better than the other. We even have a name for it: the Jante Law.
However, we don’t always do our international colleagues a favour by simply “living by the law”. Instead, we have to acknowledge that our international colleagues are different: they don’t necessarily speak the language, have a different outlook on hierarchies, or are simply divergent.
Checking in regularly in a safe space, e.g., via a regular 1-on-1 meeting, shows great potential to create the feeling of belonging to the company.
Photo by Thomas Svanholm Fink
2. Again, Check-in, but this time with your company
Check-ins with international employees only are not enough. You and the company have to be ready and open, too.
Look at your onboarding process and ask yourself: Do you include onboarding topics relevant to non-Danish or non-Swedish employees? What is the general company culture like? Could you improve certain aspects?
3. Watch your language
True inclusion emerges when employees can chat and communicate outside official work tasks. Specifically, companies with predominantly national employees tend to switch to their native language when the conversation turns into a chit-chat rather than an official meeting. This might quickly lead to the exclusion of international employees.
Switching the company language from one to the other is undoubtedly a process that will take time. The first step could be to ensure that all working materials and official communication, such as all-hands meetings and emails, are available in English.
Photo by Thomas Svanholm Fink
4. Workshops
A great way to include internationals and their differing way of thinking and tackling projects, as well as reach a common ground for everybody in the company, is to provide workshops. Such workshops could be centered around the company's main values, culture, or work habits.
Photo by Thomas Svanholm Fink
Greater Copenhagen Region is a place of endless opportunities for businesses and people alike. A place to live grow and evolve.
- Top-quality of life
- Great for doing business
- Highly educated population
- Excellent infrastructure
- Direct proximity to two markets
- Lovely pastries
About Greater Copenhagen Region
Greater Copenhagen Region stretches over the borders of Denmark and Sweden. With 4.4 million inhabitants and 17 universities, it’s the largest metropolitan area in the Nordics and a global hub for growth, sustainable solutions and innovation. The region offers world-class research facilities and a creative business environment. Outstanding infrastructure makes Greater Copenhagen Region highly connected via rail, road, air and sea. The two main cities of the region, Sweden’s Malmö and Denmark’s Copenhagen are just a half hour train-ride apart. Its strategic location makes Greater Copenhagen Region the link between 25 million consumers in Scandinavia and 125 million in Northern Europe.