Social networks promote retention of foreign workers

Denmark has acquired its first official national network for highly skilled foreign workers. Its purpose is to support highly qualified immigrants and encourage them to stay in the country.

When a Polish engineer plus family moves to Denmark, a number of factors will determine if their stay is going to be successful. Can the spouse find work, and will their children make new friends? Are the tax regulations comprehensible? Is any help at hand?

Denmark lacks skilled manpower. Its gaze is therefore directed abroad whenever the shortage of specialized Danish labour needs to be remedied. Studies have shown that practical problems in particular, plus a lack of social contact, cause much of the highly skilled foreign labour force that is attracted to Denmark to leave again after a short time. The problem for Danish companies thus lies not only in recruiting skilled foreign workers, but in retaining them.

MindLab helped Branding Danmark to flesh out some ideas for making it more attractive for skilled foreign workers to stay in Denmark. One of the outcomes was the setting-up of a social network with an associated website that functioned as a bulletin board for a range of different activities. The network has been highly successful in organizing activities around the country, including the very well-attended Expat Thursdays focusing on such topical issues as organizations, Danish culture, the labour market and the taxation system.

MindLab involved:

• A total of 30 representatives of employers, organizations, academia and labour

Principal results

• Denmark’s first official social network for highly skilled foreign workers.
• The network is operated jointly by the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs and a consortium involving Dansk Erhverv (‘Danish Industry’), The Copenhagen Post and the Danish Bankers Association. It is also sponsored by several of Denmark’s largest companies.

What MindLab did

Mind Lab’s role in the project was to act as a sounding-board regarding the design of a feasibility study, plus the planning and organizing of a major workshop attended by officials, companies, representatives of foreign workers and their accompanying spouses. The purpose of the workshop was both to discuss the results of the feasibility study and to develop ideas and concepts for the content of a network for foreign workers.