I often get asked about recruiting in Poland. Where can you advertise? What platforms to use for sourcing? How to talk to candidates? Well, I decided to share some of the tips in a more accessible form. Let me know if you have any further questions in the comments so I can add any information that’s missing.
Poland is a fairly traditional market which means a lot of candidates still look for jobs using job boards. In some industries and locations, advertising is by far the most effective way to identify candidates for your role. The job board market in Poland is very different to anything you may know – and that is good news. If you’re looking to fill general roles, you’ll find that there’s one job board that everyone relies on called Pracuj.pl. While it doesn’t hold a complete monopoly on job advertising, it is the number one resource for candidates looking for general roles, especially in bigger cities.
There’s a number of other job boards obviously and they may be a better option depending on the location and job type. If you’re looking to advertise a role in a smaller location, I’d advise to start with some research. Candidates may prefer one of the bigger competitors of Pracuj.pl, such as Praca.pl, InfoPraca.pl or GazetaPraca.pl. While I’m not sure what Monster could get you elsewhere, in Poland they are quite active promoting the jobs advertised with them as well as the job board itself. All of these are options you should consider.
Job boards that cater specifically to seasonal and temporary workers include Gumtree and OLX. I wouldn’t advise to use them if you’re looking for experienced professionals as they won’t necessarily see them as very trustworthy. However, if you offer internships, temporary positions or want to advertise a role in catering etc, this would be the right place to do so.
There are also some interesting options when it comes to the IT industry. I would say the job boards you definitely want to look at include No Fluff Jobs (they built a reputation in the industry thanks to a very specific format of the ads) and bulldogjob.pl (they seem to get a lot of traffic thanks to their content marketing efforts).
Whatever job board you decide to use, please remember you won’t impress your candidates simply by claiming to be an innovative and international company. We may not be the centre of Europe, but there’s a lot of international companies here already – some of them with Polish origins too. Please respect your audience when drafting the job ad, otherwise your chances of attracting the so called “top talent” are rather slim 🙂
While advertising is still alive and well in Poland, some roles will require you to be a little more proactive. Sourcing shouldn’t be too difficult, but there are some things you should know.
LinkedIn is popular among experienced professionals working for international companies, but it isn’t the only professional network available in Poland. We’re quite fond of local products and that includes GoldenLine, which has a comparable number of active users. You may find some recruiters in Poland dismiss it completely, but I’d argue that’s not a very smart move.
The platform is now also available in English and allows to search through profiles as well as to advertise roles, you can also set up a company profile for free. Unlike LinkedIn, GoldenLine won’t allow you to post updates from a free company page, then again the platform is more recruitment focused. The social networking aspect isn’t the main focus – which (perhaps surprisingly) is a good thing. Those who set up a user profile on GoldenLine expect to be contacted by recruiters, which isn’t always the case for LinkedIn users.
You may look into a paid sourcing licence but before you commit to anything, you may want to give the CSE below a try. All you need to enter is the keywords and the only search results you’ll see will be user profiles. Go ahead, give it a go! 🙂
(you can also access it here)
Now that you’ve had a look, there’s one more thing I should add. Regardless of whether you’re sourcing on LinkedIn or GoldenLine, try to include keywords in Polish as well. If you don’t speak Polish, try using Google Translate – believe me, it can be very accurate.
Don’t forget Facebook can also be quite useful for sourcing. While a lot of recruiters are reluctant to use it, it’s important to remember some of your potential candidates aren’t available on any professional network and they’ll welcome a chance to skip a lenghty and frustrating process of sifting through job ads etc.
Whether you communicate with candidates in their own language or in Polish, it’s important to keep cultural differences in mind. People in Poland tend to be more direct than in the UK, for example. Knowing English is one thing but that doesn’t mean your candidates will understand some of the English phrases the way you do. I remember when I first moved to London and people would sometimes find me rude because I would be more direct than what they’re used to. Use your empathy as much as possible and double and triple check if you and the candidates understood each other to avoid any communication issues.
18 Comments
A great herlp
Thanks David.
Great article, thanks for publishing
I’m glad you found it helpful Helen! 🙂
Great article Kasia,
I used to hire quite a bit in Poland and GoldenLine was definitely something I used. We also used in-country people to help (my Polish is non-existent). So if you have employees in Poland it’s useful to have them review your job-ad and even help you with email opening lines (saying hello, etc) or reviewing resumes.
Kevin
Great point Kevin, that’s definitely useful 🙂
Thank you, Kasia! That’s exactly what I was looking for! Great material.
Glad to hear it 🙂
Hey Kasia, nice article!:)
BUT, as a Tech recruiter, I need to comment on ‘GoldenLine as Polish Linkedin’.
Honestly, I don’t know a single experienced Developer who would use this service anymore. For sure still Linkedin or FB’ groups are much more recommended.
Rafał
Thanks 🙂 As far as I know, GoldenLine is used by people who:
1. don’t work in English
2. don’t live in the major cities like Kraków and Warsaw
I appreciate developers tend to hide somwehere else, but in many industries GoldenLine is still a great resource. But you’re right for IT I’d probably look at Fb groups or Meetup 🙂
Fajny artykul.
Å»eby byÅ‚ jeszcze fajniejszy proponujÄ™ poprawić literówkÄ™ w drugim akapicie farily – na fairly. 🙂
I pytanie czy specjalnie wspominając portal pracuj, nie podała Pani linka pracuj.pl, a podala linki do jego wszystkich konkurentów?
Pozdrawiam
Anna Gregorczyk
Dziękuję, już lecę poprawiać! I podlinkować pracuj.pl, bo to w żadnym wypadku nie był celowy zabieg 🙂 Pozdrawiam!
Just Loved it. Awesome Knowledge article
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it 🙂
Hi Kasia,
excellent article. I am based in Ireland and I am looking to recruit a farm worker from Poland. Could you help me with that on a consultancy basis?
Regards
Oliver
Thanks Oliver. I’m afraid that would be very different to what I usually do… I think you would do best to find a small local agency that covers the region you’re interested in! 🙂
Hello Kasia,
Thank you very much for your input, it is very helpful. I am a sociologist born in Venezuela and am in the process to have my Polish citizenship approved. I would like to find a good opportunity in Poland for my wife and I to move there. Do you have any suggestions? Who to contact to get assistance in this process keeping in mind we have a very low/null budget for this.
Kind regards,
Jan
Hi Jan,
If you’re looking for help with relocation, getting your paperwork in order etc I’m not sure I can help. However, one thing you should know is there are certain employers who will help with this as part of the recruitment and onboarding process. As for looking for work, I’d have a look at th major job boards and take it from there. Good luck! 🙂