Screening abroad
Maarten Brands’ (professor of History for some time at the Amsterdam University) cry from the heart has turned into a standard joke unmasking many a politician. ‘But sir! Abroad! What do you mean by “abroad”? Foreign countries surround Holland! What am I saying, beyond Vianen it starts looking foreign to me.’
What Brands was saying is that you have to specify what you are referring to, since every foreign country is just a little different. This article is about the foreign countries in the former Eastern bloc, the new members of the EU, having freedom of movement for people and goods and the same European laws that we have.
Last year when we were conducting a number of screenings, we ran into the fact that ambitious people coming from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia have a substantially different attitude to what we regard as prevailing standards. These standards, which usually have not been written down or set by law, are still considered to be ‘normal’ or common knowledge by most Dutch. But to most Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians or Estonians, these standards are not ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ at all, because they have been brought up with totally different norms, which in turn are unfamiliar to us.
One of the important norms of our eastern neighbours is that something is allowed if it is not expressly forbidden. This idea probably springs from the extremely restrictive and repressive government regularization that prevailed in the former Eastern bloc. In Holland, the intention of the Law and the unwritten norms and principles are often thought to be just as binding. There are things you just cannot do.
Without entering into the highly explosive debate on different cultures, each with their own standards and principles, it is important for your organisation to start communicating what it stands for, which unwritten rules prevail, when taking on new staff. It is also necessary that you give applicants the third degree about what they really think of integrity, values, principles, what is ‘normal’ and what is not.
Apart from that, it is only practical to have a close look at the actual phrasing and contents of the employment contract. Is everything that you find important included? If it is not there, you don’t have to worry about it, some will think, won’t they?
Finally, if you would like to ‘screen abroad’, you had better leave that to the professionals. Otherwise you will experience how tricky it is to find out about the real past of applicants from Riga, Vilnius or Warsaw. It will soon ‘look foreign’ to you, as Maarten Brands felt in his day.
What Brands was saying is that you have to specify what you are referring to, since every foreign country is just a little different. This article is about the foreign countries in the former Eastern bloc, the new members of the EU, having freedom of movement for people and goods and the same European laws that we have.
Last year when we were conducting a number of screenings, we ran into the fact that ambitious people coming from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia have a substantially different attitude to what we regard as prevailing standards. These standards, which usually have not been written down or set by law, are still considered to be ‘normal’ or common knowledge by most Dutch. But to most Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians or Estonians, these standards are not ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ at all, because they have been brought up with totally different norms, which in turn are unfamiliar to us.
One of the important norms of our eastern neighbours is that something is allowed if it is not expressly forbidden. This idea probably springs from the extremely restrictive and repressive government regularization that prevailed in the former Eastern bloc. In Holland, the intention of the Law and the unwritten norms and principles are often thought to be just as binding. There are things you just cannot do.
Without entering into the highly explosive debate on different cultures, each with their own standards and principles, it is important for your organisation to start communicating what it stands for, which unwritten rules prevail, when taking on new staff. It is also necessary that you give applicants the third degree about what they really think of integrity, values, principles, what is ‘normal’ and what is not.
Apart from that, it is only practical to have a close look at the actual phrasing and contents of the employment contract. Is everything that you find important included? If it is not there, you don’t have to worry about it, some will think, won’t they?
Finally, if you would like to ‘screen abroad’, you had better leave that to the professionals. Otherwise you will experience how tricky it is to find out about the real past of applicants from Riga, Vilnius or Warsaw. It will soon ‘look foreign’ to you, as Maarten Brands felt in his day.
Meer informatie
