Best Practices and Challenges with Integration of Refugees and Migrants in the Workplace!

On April 25th, 2024, AmCham HR Committee organized a meeting entitled Best Practices and Challenges with Integration of Refugees and Migrants in the Workplace! Our speaker was Paulina Jaworska, Country Director for Poland at the Tent Partnership for Refugees, an AmCham member company. Together, we talked about barriers and steps businesses should take to integrate refugees into their workforce better.

In Poland, 61% of Ukrainian refugees are engaged in paid work, but only 50% of women refugees are employed, and only 1/3 work according to their qualifications; less than 2/3 are employed full-time. So what can be done to make the situation better? Businesses that want to employ refugees effectively need to modify their recruitment processes. It starts with a more focused outreach strategy like finding potential candidates through cooperation with local NGOs and job agencies and posting job offers on refugee social networks. Additionally, we need to simplify the recruitment processes and make sure that we know how to manage culturally diverse environments to cultivate collaboration in the workplace. Companies’ CEOs are usually enthusiastic about hiring refugees, but it is crucial to keep this enthusiasm going. It seems to be a good idea to have a dedicated person (buddy) who will partner with a new employee during their first few months of employment and assist the new hire in getting through the first “nerve-wracking” period of being in a new position. It was underlined that hiring refugees is not only ethically correct but also beneficial for business. In Poland, Ukrainian refugees already contributed more money to the state (1% of PKD) than they received in support. Companies that are intentional about hiring Ukrainians benefit as well from general employee satisfaction and positive brand perception. As the Ukrainian refugees choosing where to live will affect the Polish labor market, which is facing demographic declines due to low birthrates, a wise refugee policy is essential - refugees from Ukraine who remain in Poland as workers, entrepreneurs, consumers, and taxpayers will have a positive impact on the country's economy, which will grow even more in the long run.