Project reference · IT and engineering recruitment
Eastern European developers for employers in the Netherlands.
A large staffing group in the Netherlands placed engineers and software developers with high-tech employers, and could not find enough of them at home. For more than two years we were its sourcing channel in Ukraine and the wider region. It started with a single field-service search and grew into a paid campaign that put fifteen Python developers in front of Dutch employers in six weeks.
Over two years, three business lines
Continuity
35 candidates submitted
Recruitment
15 Python developers in six weeks
Speed
Contracted under Dutch law
Compliance
The campaign
From four channels to one shortlist
Python developers are scarce in Ukraine too, so the client paid for the advertising that found them. Each month was planned to turn about 290 applications into five people ready to present.
The brief
What the client actually needed
At first, one person: a Russian-speaking field-service manager for an industrial equipment maker, travelling most of the month. Then a steady stream of software and equipment-engineering vacancies from the group’s high-tech clients, more than they could fill in their home market.
In 2015 the group’s general staffing arm asked for something larger: a repeatable supply of software developers, starting with Python, for employers that its partner agencies were recruiting for. It needed a partner who could find candidates who would really relocate, check them against Dutch migration rules, and deliver them in the group’s own CV format.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
Contracting across three legal systems
Placing Ukrainians abroad from Ukraine takes a labour-export licence, a model labour contract for every client agreement and central-bank rules on incoming payments. We contracted through our EU company instead, under Dutch law, with Dutch payment terms.
Migration thresholds decide the shortlist
A non-EU developer must earn above the Dutch knowledge-migrant minimum, which is higher from age thirty. The tax advantage depends on the degree held. Every candidate was checked against both before their CV left us.
No cure, no pay, and several suppliers
The employers used more than one agency, and vacancies closed, were filled elsewhere or were cancelled mid-search. Speed and a better-screened shortlist were the only advantages available.
A candidate passes through four hands
From us to the staffing group, to a partner agency, to the employer, with payroll and housing handled by yet another firm. Each link needed an agreement, a non-disclosure clause and a CV without our logo.
Rare skills cost money to find
Python developers are scarce in Ukraine as well. Finding them took paid banner and search ads, an IT job board and CV-database access, with a monthly budget and a monthly performance review.
Relocation is the real interview
Housing in Dutch cities was scarce and dear, and newcomers pay their own rent and health insurance. We reset expectations on money and housing before anyone was put forward, not after an offer.
What we did
Search, framework, engineers, campaign
- 2014 · First search. A field-service manager for Russia and the CIS, with a target list of competitors, reference checks on the shortlist and a final interview with the employer.
- 2014 · Framework. A search-and-selection agreement under Dutch law. The fee is paid per hour the placed person works, capped at one year of hours, and invoiced from the client’s timesheets.
- 2014–15 · Engineers. Software, cloud, front-end and release-integration profiles for high-tech employers. Seventeen candidates were submitted in the group’s format.
- 2015–16 · Campaign. A paid four-channel advertising campaign for Python developers in Ukraine, fifteen developers submitted in six weeks, and agreements set up with the group’s partner agencies.
The pilot ended in 2016, when the largest employer behind it froze hiring. The pricing model and the sourcing pipeline are ready to use again.
In the client’s words
“In our pilot I have experienced your services as positive.”
The staffing group’s international recruitment manager, 2016.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its partners, the employers and the people involved are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Hiring developers or engineers from Eastern Europe?
Whether you need one specialist or a steady pipeline, thirty minutes is usually enough to tell you what it will take and what it will cost.
