The modern labour market, like many other areas of our life, is seeing extremely dynamic changes, trends and the necessity to respond quickly to needs. And although the idea of relocation is not breakthrough, it has also become an important element of the labour market landscape. More and more foreigners are coming to Poland for work, and Polish employers are also increasingly more willing to offer relocation packages.
The employee market is governed by its own rules – just a few years ago, employers who were ahead of trends started offering the Multisport card or private medical healthcare. Nowadays, such benefits are already a standard in many sectors, and expectations of employers are rising – “fruit Wednesdays” do not impress anyone. The benefits packages are also becoming more and more personalised.
By choosing the right combination, employers try to outperform the competition, respond to the real needs of their staff and in this way tie them to the company for longer. Even if you only take a brief look at job advertisements, you will come across such benefits as separate budgets for hobbies and interests, a business apartment, Netflix and Spotify subscription, private consultations with a lawyer and a financial advisor, a personal life coach or even a kindergarten for the employees’ children located right next to the office.
There are two sides to every story – expectations towards the employee
In order to respond to the needs of their customers and the changing business reality, employers are modifying their expectations towards employees, mainly in the areas of time management and self-development.
Rapid social and cultural changes, new technologies and tools, breakthroughs in communication, fast growing business demand for modern services, increasing work migration – all this means that employees more often combine private and professional life and are required to continuously develop their competences or even change their profession and relocate.
The latter is a particularly interesting example. For the employer, it can be a must for keeping a client. For the employee – although it is a huge challenge – an additional benefit. A well-executed relocation will be beneficial for everyone – the customer, the employer and the employee.
Services for expats, whose numbers are increasing in Poland
Relocation is a phenomenon that is becoming more and more frequent, also on the Polish labour market. The country’s attractiveness in the eyes of foreigners has grown significantly in recent years, which was reflected in the recently published HSBC Expat Annual League Table.
The ranking juxtaposes different countries in terms of the conditions offered to expats. Compared to the previous edition, Poland has moved up by 10 places, taking 13th place and overtaking, among others, France, Sweden and the United States. Rapid development of the modern business services sector has contributed significantly to this situation.
According to the ABSL report on the modern business services sector in Poland 2019, there are already at least 35,000 foreigners working in the entire sector, which constitutes 14% of all employees. Of course, these are not all the economic migrants in Poland – it is estimated that, depending on the season, there may be as many as a million of them.
The growing scale of relocation is also reflected in the large number of services offered in this area. Support for people moving with animals, portals for expats, including those aimed at finding life partners or integrating people from the same country – these are only some examples of activities targeted for people enjoying the life outside their own country. There are even apps that facilitate comprehensive management of legal, tax and organisational issues when living abroad.
Employers are noticing this trend and are coming up with relocation packages, offering not only logistical support with the move, housing for the time of the relocation or language lessons, but even help with finding a school for the employee’s children. At the same time, employers are more and more often sending their employees outside Poland.
Rapid growth of interest in relocation
The decision to relocate is probably never easy – it requires a lot of commitment and may generate understandable fears. At the same time, studies conducted by Antal indicate that as many as 80% of men and 70% of women declare readiness to relocate, whereas back in the 80s, only 3% of women would have decided to make such a change.
The reasons for this rapid growth can be found, among others, in the changing perception of the cultural role of women and the world becoming “smaller”, which is a consequence of the spread of modern technologies and the possibility to enjoy relatively inexpensive and easy travel.
Additional incentives which are often connected with relocation include: change of position, promotion, professional development and better financial terms. There is also a quite pleasant side effect: getting to know other cultures, learning foreign languages, meeting new people and being able to travel and explore previously unseen places.
Why am I writing about this? Because I want to tell you a little bit about relocation in Billennium.
What does it look like in Billennium?
The ‘relocation issue’ is particularly relevant at Billennium, because it is connected to the wide range of locations where our customers operate. For many years of our company’s operation, relocations took place exclusively within Poland, between particular cities.
They were based on specific customer needs. With the beginning of our international development and establishment of a branch in Pune (India), the first person from our team – Mariusz Kura – relocated abroad. It was a completely new and crazy experience – both for us and for Mariusz.
When we opened our next branch in Asia, this time in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), we decided to send more of our specialists there, not only from Poland but also from India.
One of the relocated team members shared their insights with us, which you can read below:
I decided to relocate because I love to set the bar really high. A new position? New challenges? This is something for me! When Billennium sent out a general email with a job offer in Kuala Lumpur, I replied almost immediately. After a while, a little doubt arose: I had only been working at Billennium for 6 months – had I managed to show the whole range of my capabilities? I wasn’t sure if anyone would take a novice seriously. But the company proved that it puts people first and takes into account one’s potential and competence, not seniority. Four conversations later I was on a plane to Malaysia.
Of course, I wasn’t going there blindly. Billennium provided me with support, Mariusz Kura helped me a lot, to whom I am grateful for all the guidance. The style of work in Kuala Lumpur is a bit different than in Warsaw or Lublin – your work is really important here and strict working hours from 9 to 5 are not always typical. But when you leave your office there is life, and what a life it is! Forget about a diet! If you are a foodie like me, Kuala Lumpur is a culinary paradise waiting for you. Asian cuisine in thousands of varieties is at your fingertips. Just one comment: everything here is 10 times more spicy than in Europe. Even spaghetti bolognese is served with chilli peppers 🙂
The weather? This place is right for you if you love the sun and you don’t mind the 90% humidity. And most importantly: travelling around Asia. Kuala Lumpur is the perfect starting point. Spending a long weekend in Vietnam, Cambodia or Borneo is like going to Zakopane. It would be hard not to take advantage of that! Any downsides? Missing your friends or family. Although I meet a lot of new friends here, you miss your loved ones the most. Sunday dinner at mum’s or going out with the girls for a coffee and gossip – you miss it after a while. But I think that the Billennium team in Kuala Lumpur, which is growing the whole time, makes it possible to create a new Malaysian family.
As you can see, relocation to a completely different culture can be a really exciting experience and does not have to involve the fear of not understanding how to function in a different society.
I very much hope that I’ve managed to familiarise you with topic of relocation a little bit. I will continue to share with you the news and experiences of others to show you a wide range of possibilities, incentives, but also responsibilities. Relocation is not a holiday, even though it may sometimes seem like that. 
If you are interested in relocation, please contact us.
