Timeline & Schedule: Hiring Healthcare Workers in Scandinavia

Are you a healthcare worker considering moving to Scandinavia and working in their healthcare system?

Then it would be useful for you to know what hiring healthcare workers in Scandinavia looks like, and what the role of HR in this is.

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Hiring Healthcare Workers in Scandinavia

The process of hiring healthcare workers in Scandinavia mainly depends on which of the two employment models are being used.

There are two employment models in healthcare – foreign and national. We’ll discuss what each of these entail below.

Foreign Employment

In the case of foreign employment, the governments of Sweden, Denmark, or Norway allocate financial assets with the goal of combating worker shortages. The job positions are open on the initiative of the healthcare organizations that need workers.

That’s why foreign employments are less common than national employments.

Advantage:

Relocation costs and language course costs are covered for future workers.

Disadvantages:

This employment model implies you’ll need to wait for new job positions for which the funds have been allocated to be opened. That means you can’t autonomously plan when you’ll relocate and start working.
You have a smaller pool of healthcare institutions where you can work since you can only apply for specific job positions.

National Employment

As opposed to foreign, national employment lets you apply for all existing job positions in Scandinavia.

The job positions are opened by healthcare institutions that need new workers. There are also no subsidies from the government for new hires.

Advantages:

You don’t have to wait for the governments to make decisions. You can look for new job positions and apply independently.
Gives you more room to plan. You can decide when you’ll move and start working on your own or in agreement with your employer.

Disadvantage:

You’ll need to cover your language course and relocation costs yourself.

The first step with this employment model is learning the language of the country you want to move to.

You can learn Swedish in Zrinka’s Swedish school. Our students are specialists and non-specialist doctors, as well as dentists, medical nurses and technicians, and others. Additionally, the Swedish language can serve as an adequate replacement for Norwegian and Danish since these languages are highly similar.

After you learn the language, you’ll need to obtain a work license and get a job.

Our consultants can help you with the entire process, from learning the language and obtaining a license to finding a job and relocating.

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The Role of HR Departments in Employment

HR departments in Scandinavian healthcare have an adequate number of experts in comparison to the number of healthcare workers. Their role revolves around cultivating interpersonal relationships and communication and identifying their workers’ wishes.

They support team leaders in things related to the work environment and workers’ health, as well as negotiation and salary-setting in case of any promotions, replacements, transfers, or retirements.

However, perhaps the most important piece of information is that HR departments are the ones that lead the processes of national and foreign hiring of new workers.

HR departments from Scandinavia frequently outsource foreign employments to us so that we can advertise them in their name and their account. You can find the past and current job openings on our pages.

The Benefits of Working in Scandinavia for Healthcare Workers

Employee satisfaction plays a big role in the Scandinavian healthcare system. Scandinavia wants to ensure that the workers are happy in their role and strengthen their brand as a desirable employer.

We’ll mention only a few benefits that the Scandinavian system offers:

✅ There is no pyramidal hierarchy, only a slight linear hierarchy. U njoj je svaki zaposlenik zadužen za svoj dio posla i nema strogog odnosa nadređenosti, odnosno podređenosti. Every worker is responsible for their part of the job and there is no strict relationship of superiority or inferiority.

✅ The workers are being listened to, advised, and guided. Every worker can always talk about his department leader or HR specialist, regardless of what types of problems they have in their private or professional life.

✅ They have a sense of safety and loyalty toward their employer because the employer is there for them through the job, salary, stimulations, and reward programs.

✅ Workers get feedback about their work. This helps them improve, evolve, and know that they are needed and appreciated.

✅ Special attention is paid to good interpersonal relationships across departments and establishing an atmosphere of zero tolerance for violence and abuse.

✅ There are many benefits offered to the workers, such as participating in conferences and congresses, getting funds for taking care of their health, free access to a fitness center, etc.

✅ Scandinavian countries also have benefits for young families. In Sweden, the maternity leave lasts 480 days, 90 of which is reserved for the fathers. In the first 180 days since the birth, HR departments also pay their workers a fee for their child alongside the regular national-level subsidies.

✅ Specialist training in Scandinavia is often more comprehensive and of higher quality since the residents complete everything described in the program. Their mentor supervises them, teaches them, and corrects them in their work.

✅ Healthcare institutions don’t sign compulsory contracts with their resident doctors; doctors independently decide whether they want to stay in the same workplace or go work somewhere else as specialists. This is one of the key differences in comparison to other countries, like Croatia, where doctors need to sign penalty contracts for their specialist training.