The 3. part of our integration series revolves around the preparation of your new employees while they are still in their home country. A certain level of German is a basic requirement to bring employees to Germany. Use the time of the language course to hire your new staff for your facility. Design workshops to teach basic skills in advance, to explain documents or to illustrate processes. Common idioms or internal terms must also be explained well in advance. Think about what an outsider who comes to you needs to know in order to find their way around your house. But above all, cultural differences and peculiarities of German culture with regard to the country of origin should be shown in order to prepare your employees accordingly. Another possibility is to involve your existing employees in joint workshops in order to force initial connections here and counteract later fears of contact. Should you have any help with the workshop conception or other questions on this topic, we are happy to help.
#2 Integration of healthcare professionals
It sounds so simple. Acquire new staff from abroad and thus solve the problem of the shortages. However, institutions encounter some hurdles here, from work permits and visa issues to professional recognition and help with everyday issues. But the biggest problem is the integration and thus the long-term loyalty of employees to the company. This brings us to the question of whether it is possible to improve the chances of success for the integration of foreign employees. In the next few weeks we will address the individual problems in several articles and show practical solutions. You are also welcome to contact us directly to find out more about the service and work of Candelabra Consulting.
#1 Integration of healthcare professionals
There are a few things to consider when looking for new staff abroad and during interviews. The potential employees have to be informed accordingly and expectations honestly addressed. Questions regarding future tasks in nursing, language barriers, patient management, cultural differences and the location of the facility should be communicated openly. You can illustrate this with pictures / videos of your facility, experience reports from foreign employees or with an information folder in the relevant language. Once the basis has been clarified and a basic understanding has been created, the next steps can be taken. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions about interviews or need help with recruiting.
Moving from Colombia to Portugal
Candelabra consulting wants you to have a great experience moving to Germany. That´s why we are making little videos and posts to the topic “moving internationally” because we want to share our experiences, so that you can learn from it. In the blog we decided to give you a little bit more details on our personal story and we will start this series writing about Sergio and his move to Portugal. Enjoy the read:
I grew up in Colombia and graduated as a general practitioner in 2005 and for several years I worked in different institutions, in different parts of the country, always looking for the best working conditions and the possibility of progressing in my career.
With time and tired of the difficult working conditions and the difficulty in entering a medical residence, despite loving my country I considered then the possibility of moving.
The option of Portugal arose as an alternative, initially I considered Spain but at that time there were many doctors leaving Colombia for Spain and the offers were limited, thinking of other alternatives I found Portugal and the conditions seemed favourable.
Organizing things was not easy, it was necessary to organize the documents both to obtain the visa and to obtain the recognition of my medical diploma, after submitting the documents and dealing with the procedures it was necessary to prepare the necessary exams for validation.
Leaving my country and arriving in Portugal caused a mixture of feelings, on one hand excited to be in a new place full of opportunities, sad to leave friends and family, afraid to start over, full of uncertainty when thinking about the future.
Thinking about it today I would definitely do it again, expanding your horizons and getting to know a new country and a new culture are opportunities that should not be lost, it was not easy, many times I despaired, or felt sad, but everything I have gained, I would never have had it by staying in Colombia
You are never fully prepared for an international move, no matter how much you try to learn about a country’s culture or organization, only when you face reality is it possible to realize how difficult a process of adaptation is, all the things that are part of your routine, from one moment to the next they are gone and you have to restart and learn how everything works, this process puts your adaptation and success at risk, so if I could change something I would be better prepared and seek help, instead of trying to do everything and learn from my mistakes that at the time caused me not only lose time and money but also suffering stress.
With this I wish you all the best in your personal adventure and hope you are not making the same mistakes as me.
Talk to you soon,
Sergio
Welcome to Candelabra Consulting
We are excited to share our experience with you and to help you to remove boundaries.
Our goal is to make your international move as smooth as possible. We support you with any service or question you might need to answer during the transition and up to one year after employment!
Why are we doing this?
Because we have made this experience ourselves multiple times. Sergio as a physician moving from Colombia to Portugal and finally to Germany. Me, Sonja, a former PT moving, living and working in multiple countries such as China, Malaysia and Australia.
We know how difficult it is to start somewhere new and want to help others NOT to make the same experiences as us.
How did we start Candelabra?
Sergio and me know each other from our study in Frankfurt, where we both finished a MBA in international healthcare management at www.Frankfurt-school.de
(Which is by the way, an awesome program if you want to advance your career into leading any type of team in healthcare.)
Anyways, this is how we met and became friends although, I was living at the time in China and Sergio in Portugal, we managed to stay in touch.
Once I moved back to Germany, Sergio contacted me and asked if I would mind helping him a little, as he decided to finally move there as well and needed help with his paperwork.
Sure thing, we started working on it. He sent me precomposed E-mails and I translated them into a proper German, as well as answering understanding questions when the replies came in. We started to look into apartments and other things he would need for his move.
One of these days we started talking about how difficult new starts are and how different this feels for him this time, knowing to have someone supporting him in the daily life questions.
And that´s when it dawned on us, that MAYBE this is what we are meant to be doing?! We are both from the healthcare sector, so we like to help people, we have a lot of experience and contacts when it comes to international healthcare and we are both kind of adventures…
The rest is history and now I am sitting here writing this blog post for you. I hope this makes you understand us a little bit more and you will keep on looking into our channels for updates and information on us and our services.
Take care and hopefully hear from you soon.
Yours,
Sonja