Mentoring & integration officer

Mentoring programmes are an excellent means of providing support for newcomers to the company. You should think about setting up a mentoring programme in your company especially if you have no experience of recruiting workers from abroad. For example, many expatriates appreciate having one specific person assigned to them who will look after them and help them even with personal problems.

Do you have experienced employees in your company who are well-acquainted with corporate and local structures, or who are immigrants themselves? They could act as mentors for the new workers. The important thing is that the mentors should be dedicated and motivated in their mentoring role. To ensure this, you can organise training courses for mentors on intercultural communication. Training courses which provide basic knowledge about the new recruit’s country of origin are recommended.

If organising a mentoring programme is too onerous for you, you can appoint an integration officer for your company. The integration officer works with the human resources manager to help new recruits in practical issues of everyday life in Germany and supports their professional development. 

Best Practice: an example

Evopro systems engineering AG made use of an integration officer in their integration concept. Read more about their experience.