Comments to the article Ukrainians want to work for the weekly Do rzeczy
Agnieszka Haponik, Business Development and Marketing Director at LeasingTeam Group, points out that although most refugees do not speak Polish, there should be no shortage of job offers. The refugees are largely educated, middle-class people who had good, stable jobs in Ukraine. Being in Poland, they would like to live on a similar footing, so they strive to become independent and find employment as soon as possible. These are not people who want to wait out the war while on welfare. This is not what they are used to.
The demand on the Polish labour market is enormous. The medical industry is facing large shortages. Currently, Ukrainian women can work mainly in assistant positions, but the government is working on simplifying procedures so that they can soon take the positions of doctors or nurses. Caregivers in nurseries and kindergartens, teachers and caregivers for the elderly are sought on a large scale. There are more and more offers for customer service in Ukrainian. Due to the fact that many Ukrainian citizens have come to Polish, companies are starting to offer services in their language. Ukrainians can also count on working in shared service centers, which need, for example, employees to enter numerical data. When doing such a job, a basic knowledge of Polish or English is enough. Companies also meet the needs of employees from Ukraine, building Polish-Ukrainian teams, or connecting employees who have just arrived with those who have been in Poland for a long time and communicate well in Polish.
Employees of the IT or design industry should not have a problem with employment. They are sought after, m.in, by advertising and creative agencies or software houses. There is a high demand for employees in these industries and most often knowledge of English is enough. Besides, some companies have been cooperating with employees living in Ukraine for a long time – this is not a novelty on the market. In addition to these industries, there are also job offers in production, logistics, catering, hospitality, positions in completing shipments in e-commerce companies or other physical jobs.
Agnieszka Haponik is of the opinion that at the moment the Polish labour market has enough vacancies to accommodate refugees from Ukraine. Although according to the Central Statistical Office, at the end of 2021 there were less than 150 thousand vacancies available, in her opinion this is an underestimated data and this number should be 500-600 thousand, and in a moment it may be even higher, as seasonal offers will appear. Although more refugees have already arrived in Poland, we should remember that some of them will move further to the West, and some will not be able to take up employment for family or health reasons (age). Only a strong economic slowdown caused by a prolonged war can stop the development of the labor market.
– For about a week and a half, the interest in work among the Ukrainian women who came has definitely increased, but in our opinion, this situation will not last long. Why? Women from Ukraine, when they find places in schools and kindergartens for their children, will not be willing to change their place of work and residence, even if we offer them a slightly higher hourly rate. They value security and stability. If companies are looking for employees, now is the best time to recruit. We can see that large companies have already become involved in looking for employees. To this end, they help Ukrainian women find a kindergarten or school for their children, and even create childcare points in companies. There are also companies that decide to organize Polish lessons for newly hired employees from Ukraine,” says Agnieszka Haponik from LeasingTeam.
– At the moment we are dealing mainly with women’s emigration. The challenge will therefore be to fill typically male positions, which have so far largely been occupied by men from Ukraine. Both companies and employment agencies use other nations, such as Georgia, Armenia or Moldova. Employees from other continents – Asia, Africa and even South America – are also increasingly being used. However, companies are looking for additional solutions. For example, they decide to modify their automation plans, putting more emphasis on the automation of work that requires physical fitness or remodel their operations in such a way that they can increase the percentage of women while maintaining the current level of employment,” explains Agnieszka Haponik.
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