In my environment, almost every second person, including me, has lived, studied, worked outside of Bulgaria. The accumulated life and professional experience is invaluable. For me, the greatest enrichment is the access to different cultures and meeting people of different ethnicities and backgrounds. Getting to know people from different cultures allows you to touch the uniqueness of diverse customs and habits, and at the same time to understand that no matter how different we are, we are still very much the same.
I touch on this topic because in Bulgaria this wealth is limited, bearing in mind that in our country the ethnic diversity is relatively small, as according to the census of NSI from 2021 representatives of Bulgarian ethnic group are 84.6%, Turkish ethnic group are 8.4% and Roma ethnic group are 4.4%. At the same time, in Bulgaria, as in Europe, there is a problem with an aging population and a lack of labor. That is why we more often observe agreements with various countries to attract workers from 3rd countries.
Hiring seasonal workers is not a new practice in Bulgaria and is in accordance with the relevant European and national requirements. A bill was also recently introduced to facilitate the process of hiring workers, as well as to extend the term of employment contracts. For the hiring of workers, the services of licensed foreign and Bulgarian intermediaries are most often used, which manage to reduce the administrative burden for both the workers and the companies offering jobs.
Recently in a conversation I heard the following "We will easily bring the workers, but the biggest problem is keeping them." If you're wondering why, once arrived, many migrant workers leave, these are some of the the reasons: difference in pay between them and their Bulgarian colleagues, delays in payments, minimal free time, uncertainty and difficulties in extending visas, especially for seasonal workers, as well as a language barrier when interacting with public administration. And while administrative hurdles and legal regulations are improving, what can employers do if they want to retain new workers?
Good practices
In Bulgaria, initiatives for diversity and inclusion in the workplace are increasingly being developed, but they are most often related to diversity between genders, age and different opportunities, and not so much to ethnic diversity or sexuality.
Good practices, which can implement are anti-prejudice training, mentoring programs, diversity, inclusion and inclusion training, celebrating different cultural holidays, employee resource groups, team blending, feedback opportunities and psychological support.
In Bulgaria, there are already workers from Nepal, Uzbekistan, Moldova, India and Vietnam, representatives of different races and ethnicities, who can only enrich our culture. In addition to respect, we can show that we are willing to include them and include them in the workplace and learn something from them. For companies throughout Bulgaria, this means that diversity does not only include groups of women, people of different ages and with different capabilities, but also people of different origins, ethnicities and races and sexual orientation. The more diverse the teams, the greater the opportunity to attract new and diverse clients and to discover new business opportunities and partnerships.