Moving like two fires? Once again about the relocation of staff
Once we decided to expand the geography of our presence and open Parallels R & D center in Estonia. Why did you choose this Baltic country and what to do if you suddenly decide to follow in our footsteps, in the story of Tatiana Dyakonova, HR Director.
Europe window
It is no secret that every year talented people leave our country, unfortunately. Someone goes abroad in search of a better life, someone wants to change their life and try something new. One way or another, the problem of “brain flow” exists. Especially the topic is relevant for representatives of international professions: programmers, engineers, doctors. Here, for example, a list of those who are waiting in Canada .
We did not sit back and wait for the issue of “brain drain” to materialize in our company, so we decided to act proactively by inviting employees to relocate to one of the European countries.
On the one hand, the company at that time had more than ten offices around the world, and on the other hand, they were all at a considerable distance from the main R & D center in Moscow. So the idea arose to transfer part of the development team to Tallinn.
But why Estonia?
We considered various options for relocation. Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, they are all beautiful, but have a number of features. In favor of Estonia, almost half of the country speaks Russian, and you can reach Moscow by any night train. In addition, there is a very advanced e-government model, which greatly simplifies all organizational aspects. In addition, real work is being done in the country to attract investors, start-ups and other promising projects. Not by chance Microsoft, Skype, other companies also settled here.
By the way, what should be the e-government can actually be read on Habré, for example, here .
Resolved! We are going!
So, we decided to transport the team. But we had to do it in the mode of “scalded cat”. Find an office, housing for employees and their families, issue all the necessary documents for everything for two months. On the other side: retained staff, high satisfaction, additional motivation and integrity of all work processes.
It was easier for us, because initially we work in a technological market, and for IT companies in Estonia there is a favorable investment climate. There are national business support institutes, such as the Enterprise Development Assistance Foundation ( EAS ), which provides comprehensive support. See what our smart office in Tallinn looks like.
Not so bad as hell baby
In fact, everything related to the organizational aspects of the relocation turned out to be quite realizable, especially considering the involvement of local specialists. We analyzed the market and found a company specializing in personnel relocation to Estonia. The Movemytalent team has greatly simplified our lives. Therefore, if fate suddenly determines you to relocate employees to Estonia, feel free to look in their direction.
About the cost of living, salaries and compensation
In fact, another issue related to relocation is salary. Just convert the Moscow salary from rubles to euros will not be enough. To develop a correct approach to compensation, it is worth focusing on two factors: salary data on the local market (Salary surveys) and cost-of-living indicators (COLA).
As a barometer, I can recommend to look here and here . In addition, it is necessary to take into account differences in the income tax rate, as well as the tax on special benefits. Paradoxically, in order to organize a corporate holiday in Tallinn, it is worth including additional taxes in the cost of its holding. But this is local specificity and you get used to working with it very quickly.
Another discovery is medicine. Local residents safely use the state CHI program. Employers rarely provide LCA as a benefit. There are few commercial insurance companies on the market. For example, the employee insurance tender did not take place because of the almost complete absence of LCA providers in the local market.
Migration aspects
Everything turned out to be much easier than we thought! Here you will find only three main stages:
- Registering a short-term job with the Police Department;
- Obtaining a long-term visa → entry → employment;
- Obtaining a residence permit
At all stages there is a convenient remote process of signing and submitting documents to government bodies.
Instead of an epilogue
We transported about forty employees along with their family members. These were key developers with high motivation to move. For various reasons, the first few "settlers" returned to their homeland. For some, it was difficult to live far from family, relatives and friends, someone thought that the quality of life in Europe and Russia is not much different. As for our tasks, on the whole the company managed to achieve them: the squad did not lose their fighters, while the NPS remained at the level of a “healthy person”. Have you ever relocated a team? Share your experiences in the comments. Thank.
