Stereotypes are not always a bad idea – in relation to the labour market, sometimes they are able to help us identify the needs of employees, especially those that might be a little bit more difficult to understand – foreigners. What do particular nationalities expect from their Polish bosses?

What is considered by some to be a risky statement, may actually have a grain of truth in it: every nation has more or less prominent qualities, values and sympathies, that are shared within this particular group. This applies to working styles as well, and what is expected from an employer may be no different from that. People coming from different business backgrounds may look for something else in their dream job. A survey by Monster Polska asked which employer qualities are attractive to different national groups. The list is below...

• Nordic ex-pats do value good remuneration. There is nothing surprising in that, as the Scandinavian states or countries like Finland offer very good pay and increasing your wages is one of the most common reasons for moving abroad. You would not jump out of the frying pan into the fire!
• German employees are all about having clear instructions and straightforward procedures. They want to be informed about their rights and duties straight away and prefer not to leave such important aspects of their work-life aside.
• Czech people employed in Poland pay a lot of attention to the brand they work for; it is important for them to be employed by a recognisable company with a solid foundation.
• Italians are eager to work for big corporate companies. In Italy, the majority of enterprises are small to medium-size companies, so having an opportunity to work in a big international office is really tempting for some of them and makes up for a new professional as well as a social experience.
• The Spanish and the Portuguese, along with the Italians, may have a preference for those employers who let them combine work with getting a university education. The labour markets in these countries have been stricken by the recent economic crisis and young people from the south of Europe are particularly interested in looking for a career abroad, even in more remote locations, such as Poland.

All of the data has been collected by HR managers working in Poland on a daily basis.

At the end of the day, however, it is not the general tendency of your national group that matters; ex-pats in Poland point to respect to their culture that is valued the most. Luckily, they feel that 8.4/10 coworkers and 7.9/10 employers have this respect for them, but of course, the figures could and should be much higher.