How to Help Refugees — and Your Company — by Hiring from This Overlooked Talent Pool

A professor from Afghanistan who speaks multiple languages. A highly experienced doctor who fled her home in Syria. A student from the Democratic Republic of Congo whose education was interrupted by conflict and who is eager to increase his skill set. 

This is just a small sampling of the talent pool in the refugee population. “We now have more than 27 million refugees around the world, people who have left their home country due to war, violence, conflicts, or persecution,” said Lisa Gunnarson, LinkedIn’s Stockholm-based manager of Nordic countries, who moderated a LinkedIn Live event focused on hiring refugees earlier this year. 

The idea behind the event? Millions of people have landed on foreign soil after being displaced and many are looking for work. Lisa added that this number is expected to increase, due to growing environmental crises around the world.

This migration is usually born of tragedy. But refugees can strengthen local economies and provide a rich talent pool at a time when many industries are experiencing labor shortages. “Refugees are motivated and loyal employees,” says Helene van Melle, director of European partnerships at the Tent Partnership for Refugees, who participated in the LinkedIn event. In its research, Tent has found that workers who are refugees also have higher retention rates and employment engagement than the workforce at large.

Refugees have long made a huge difference in the business world. Andy Grove, a Hungarian refugee to the U.S., cofounded Intel; Sergey Brin, who escaped the Soviet Union as a child, cofounded Google, which became Alphabet. After fleeing the Somali civil war as a 9-year-old, Omar Munie became a refugee in the Netherlands, where he created the high-end fashion design company, Munie. Mursal Hedayat, the founder and CEO of Chatterbox, an online language school that trains and employs refugees as language teachers, fled from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom. 

Marta Gerlach Kaleta, head of delivery and permanent placement at the human resources provider Adecco in Poland, says that “we all need to be aware, when hiring refugees, that it’s not a standard recruitment process.” She adds that you need to approach the process with the right sensitivity because most refugees have just endured the most difficult time of their lives. Here are a few guidelines to help you hire people who have been displaced.

1. Partner with outside organizations to guide you through the process

Hiring workers that have been displaced is more complex and challenging than hiring employees who are longtime citizens or residents.That’s why it’s smart to partner with an outside organization to guide you through the process. “Connect with organizations that are working in this space and already have connections in the communities you’re trying to target,” advises the Catia Dawood, people and cultural lead at Kiron, a Germany-based online learning platform for refugees worldwide, and a participant in the LinkedIn event. 

Tent Partnership for Refugees, where Helene works, is one of those organizations. The nonprofit was created in 2016 by Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO and founder of Chobani, a U.S. food company particularly known for its yogurt products (click here for Tent resources). The organization provides companies with individualized guidance on how to hire people who are refugees, along with best practices, cutting-edge research, and connections to other companies that are doing the same. Currently, more than 250 major companies — from Adidas to Zynga and including LinkedIn, Sodexo, Unilever, and Sony — are members. 

Along with the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Tent has created a U.S. Employers’ Guide to Hiring Refugees, which walks employers through the necessary steps and potential barriers to hiring. In the U.S., employers can also contact these nine national resettlement agencies to assist with finding and hiring people who are refugees.

2. Tap into platforms that link employers with displaced job seekers

Adecco recently created Jobs for Ukraine, a nonprofit platform that matches Ukrainian refugees to jobs in about 26 countries worldwide. It has portals for both job seekers and employers. “We have a dedicated team with Ukrainian-speaking consultants available for our refugees,” says Marta, a participant in the LinkedIn event, “and we support them in a variety of different situations.” The site went live in March and more than 5,500 people who are refugees as well as 1,750 companies have registered since. 

For job seekers, LinkedIn offers a resource page that will help workers who are new to a country create a profile and start building a network. 

3. View resumes and CVs through a different lens 

When reviewing the resume or CV of someone who has been displaced, you’ll need to look through a different lens. For starters, Helene says, “people might have a gap in their CV because of their journey.” They may have lived in refugee camps or asylum centers temporarily or resided in countries where they did not have the legal right to work. 

You may also be surprised to see refugees apply for jobs they seem overqualified for. Keep in mind, though, that many newly arrived refugees feel a need to take jobs that aren’t in line with their skill level to start earning income, so they can survive. Rather than dismissing them as overqualified, Helene advises, “Meet the people, talk to them, and look at their motivation. Meeting people will also allow you to glimpse their potential and consider what other positions might be feasible.” 

3. Focus on skills, not certificates or credentials

People who are forced to flee their homes and country often don’t have time to gather the documents or certifications they need to apply for a job. They also may have educational or other credentials that don’t easily transfer from one country to another. 

Because of this, Catia says, it’s a good idea to consider candidates based on their skills. “If we want to be serious about connecting to more diverse talent, we have to think a little bit outside of our traditional boxes,” she says. “We have to think in terms of skills, not certificates.” She cited the example of one of her colleagues, who was displaced from Syria before he could finish his education but is now a software engineer at Kiron. Even though he didn’t have a degree in computer science, he was hired to do the job after teaching himself English and coding online (while also working 12-hour shifts at a shoe factory).

Companies can also provide refugees with the training they need. Amazon’s Welcome Door program helps newly arrived refugees gain necessary skills by providing them with training benefits, such as free college tuition and English as a Second Language classes. JPMorgan Chase, which just hired 50 Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, is training its new employees to work in areas such as finance, human resources, and operations. The company is also helping these workers secure housing and childcare. 

If you’re hiring for roles, such as doctors, nurses, or lawyers, that involve strict licensing requirements, you might want to check out Upwardly Global, which helps professionals who are immigrants or refugees find employment in their fields.

4. Be creative about overcoming language barriers

Many people arrive in foreign countries without the skills to communicate fluently in the language of their new home. This can create challenges on both sides during the recruiting process as well as during onboarding and the early months in a job.

But you can find creative solutions. First, look at your open roles. Are there any that can be performed without needing strong language skills, at least to start? Then, consider working with a refugee resettlement agency to assist with interpretation and paperwork completion for the initial screening and interviews. You might consider hiring one bilingual “team lead” to serve as an interpreter. Translate important documents, such as safety signs and holiday schedules, into frequently used languages. And consider offering onsite language classes. 

GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky, recently hired more than 50 people who are refugees from Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They partnered with local refugee agencies and held group interviews in the language in which each job seeker felt most comfortable. Gabriela Salazar, a recruiter for GEA, says that about 40 different languages are now spoken among employees at the company’s Louisville Appliance Park.

After LinkedIn hired a number of Syrian refugees in its Stockholm office six or seven years ago, the team there created a schedule in which Swedish-speaking staff would take turns going on 20- or 30-minutes walks with their new Syrian colleagues, to help them master the language. Lisa says that those walks were possibly even more helpful than on-the-job language learning. “It was a testament to how important the language barrier is,” she says, “and how easy it is to overcome if an organization is committed.” 

5. Be culturally sensitive and inclusive 

It’s important to keep in mind that workers who are refugees may embrace different cultural practices or traditions from those in their new country. So, consider the accommodations that might help new workers feel like they belong. 

For example, you may need to reconfigure break times to align with religious needs. Muslim employees often need a private space and break times to complete their daily prayers. They may also need time during Ramadan to break the fast and pray. Meanwhile, people from Bhutan may require more time off for funerals; Bhutanese funerals are a weeklong ritual. 

If possible, try to bring in a sensitivity trainer to work with your current employees. This will help them understand, for example, that some cultures do not engage in direct eye contact — and that lack of eye contact does not indicate low self-confidence or dishonesty. Be open, also, with new employees who are refugees about the business culture of your country. And talk to your new hires, so that you clearly understand their point of view and that there are no misunderstandings. 

Final thoughts: Value your new employees’ contributions

After hiring a worker who has been displaced, do everything you can to make them feel welcome. “When an organization offers a job to a refugee,” Catia says, “you are their gateway to feeling more at home in that place, that country, and that culture.” But at the end of the day, remember that you’re also hiring talent. “It’s important to acknowledge that they have a lot to contribute,” Catia adds, “and saying this to them is key.”

*Photo by Brett Zeck on Unsplash

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