Poland is one of the most frequent destinations for nearshoring by the Nordic countries. If you wonder why companies such as Nordea, Volvo Group or Nokia have decided to set up their offices in Poland – read this article and find out if this is the right direction for nearshore software development.
What is nearshoring?
Before we answer why you should choose Poland to nearshore your software development, let’s explain what nearshoring is. In short, nearshoring is outsourcing business processes to relatively close regions – both geographically and culturally. The nearshore model allows for better communication without the need to adapt to a different time zone, as well as mentality, organizational, or legal culture of the country to which the services are outsourced. Many companies in Eastern Europe, such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Ukraine, have developed their IT services by offering their support to Western European companies struggling with staff shortages.
If you want to know more about nearshoring and how it differs from onshoring and offshoring, read the article: Onshore, Nearshore & Offshore – what is it?.
Nordic companies that decided on nearshoring to Poland
Many Nordic companies have long been successfully hiring Polish software developers. Thanks to such solutions, they can work so well and offer the highest quality services. The most well-known companies that not only employ remote developers from Poland, but also decided to open their offices there include:
- Nordea Bank
- Nokia
- Danske Bank A/S
- Handelsbanken
- Jyske Bank
- Nykredit
- Volvo Group,
- Ericsson
- Skanska
- Assa Abloy Group
- Fortum
But this is just a drop in the ocean. The number of companies choosing to hire Polish programmers is growing by the month because it is a direction that just works well.
Have you heard of a Danish IT company KMD? In 2015 it settled into new offices located in Warsaw. Léo Apotheker, KMD’s Chairman of the Board, said: “Our presence here is a testament to the incredibly high standards of IT-competencies in Poland. Each day our Polish team members help their Danish colleagues develop the digital solutions that shape the future digital landscape of public administration in Denmark. We create solutions which further welfare and establish new standards in public digitalization in Denmark. We plan to continue that progression and I expect our Polish division to grow significantly in years to come.”.
Six key reasons why Nordic companies hire Polish software developers
1. A high number of qualified software developers
Today, the biggest problem facing the IT industry worldwide is staff shortages. According to Solving the UK Skills Shortage – Technology, over 70% of IT employers experienced skills shortages. What’s interesting, this report was published in 2018, and the problem with IT talent shortages is still increasing.
For example, according to Fredrik von Essen, a Swedish enterprise policy expert, it is estimated that a deficit of people with IT or digital-related competency in Sweden will be around 70,000 by 2022. In the other Nordic countries, demand for IT specialists is also increasing, so outsourcing is one of the most popular solutions in the area.
One country that has a relatively vast IT talent pool is Poland. According to the State of European Tech 2019, there are currently over 295,000 programmers in Poland. By comparison, the same source indicates that there are 179,100 developers in Sweden, which is the best result in the Nordic countries. Denmark has 95,700 IT specialists, Finland 89,600, and Norway 77,100. As you can see, the difference is significant, so it is no surprise that Scandinavian countries and Finland decide to look for IT employees in Poland.
2. Geographical and cultural proximity
Now, you may be thinking: “Ok, but why not hire specialists from countries where there are even more programmers, such as India or China?”. The answer is proximity. Not only geographical but above all: cultural. Asian countries have a completely different work culture from European, especially Nordic countries. Working with their representatives can involve many misunderstandings and communication problems related to their English skills and even verbal communication.
Another issue to be aware of is the time zone difference, which can make complications when working with employees from other continents.
When you work with Polish developers, there is not only little or no time difference, but above all, you are sure that you are working with people with a work culture that is familiar to yours. Poles have been working closely with Nordic companies for years, and their working style does not differ significantly. What is more, Poles are considered to be one of the most hard-working nations in the world and enrich the economy of many other countries. For example, do you know that the population of Poles living in Sweden amounts to 100,000?
3. Lower Costs
Another important issue – money. Below you will find the average annual rates of software developers from Poland and the Nordic countries based on data from three sources – Glassdoor, PayScale and SalaryExpert.
As you can see, Polish developers’ rates are much lower. The ratio is around 2:1, so it means that you can hire two Polish programmers for the cost of one programmer from the Nordic country.
But this is not the end of the savings that the nearshoring of IT services in Poland brings. You should also include other cases such as:
- Salary for HR specialists engaged in IT staff recruitment
- Healthcare and other benefits
- Payroll taxes
- Time for onboarding
- Administrative costs such as office maintenance
If you calculate all these factors carefully, you may find that the decision to hire Polish employees costs even several times less than searching for employees from your own country.
4. Time savings
Another critical issue that you should take into account is the time needed to hire suitable candidates. For example, the recruitment time for an IT employee in Finland takes on average six months. If you decide to choose the services of a Polish IT outsourcing company, this time can be reduced to as little as one month. Thanks to such a solution, you can implement your key projects faster, without waiting a long time to find employees.
5. High skills
Did you know that Polish software developers are among the best ones in the world? According to the Programming Olympics — a popular ranking presented by HackerRank, Poles are in 3rd place among the world’s best software developers.
Are you curious how the Scandinavian countries (and Finland) performed in the same ranking?
- Finland came in 15th place
- Sweden came in 25th place
- Denmark came in 34th place
- Norway came in 36th place
There’s no denying that your team’s skills often determine the success of a particular project or even the success of the whole business. Therefore, if you are looking for some of the best IT specialists globally, Poland will be a good choice.
6. Good communication
You already know that hiring Polish software developers will save your time and money, and it will also be an investment in talented professionals. Now, the last thing you may probably have doubts about is eventual communication problems with Poles. But do you really have any reason to be worried? Probably not.
According to Wikipedia’s list of countries by English-speaking population, today, as many as 37% of Poles speak English.
Moreover, the EF English Proficiency Index rates the Poles’ English proficiency as “high” and ranks them 16th among countries with the best English skills.
Do you want to get more information about cooperation between Polish IT professionals and Nordic companies? Download our free ebook “Scandinavians hire Polish developers“!
If you want to learn more about how to best employ Polish software developers for your company we encourage you to contact us.