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Games for Recruiters and Sourcers (but everyone can play). Check it out here

Who contributed to this guide?

We have 170 brainfooders resident in the Czech Republic, or a.k.a ‘Czechia’ in a perhaps not altogether successful rebrand. 25 Czech brainfooders contributed to this guide, including 13 internal recruiters, 3 recruitment agents, 6 HR manager, and 3 tech vendors to the recruitment sector. Contributors came mainly from the capital – Prague – but also from Brno, Chrudim and Přelouč.

What category best describes your work?

What city or town do you currently reside in?

What industry sectors do you have recruiting experience in?

Insights from Local Czech Recruiters

We asked all respondents to anonymously contribute their thoughts on working and recruiting in Czech Republic. All but two of the contributors were Czech or Slovak and those who are not state that they currently live and work in Czech Republic. There we also two Czech national recruiters who contributed who were now resident in other countries. Here is a summary of their best quotes, followed by advice to a non-native recruiter derived from that insight.

Super competitive local market

“Be aware of the current labour market situation – we have the perfect storm. Historically low unemployment rate (3%), decreased numbers of fresh graduates, employers looking for people speaking foreign languages, market dominated by Prague and Brno, competition for EU talent in Western Europe plus significant barriers for the non eu candidates where it can take up to 9 months to get the working visa. This means the candidate responsiveness is low and recruiters have to work extra hard to do their jobs:

jiri sunnies

Jiri Herodek , Senior Talent Partner, Accolade

Recruiter Tip: Candidate – especially tech – is king in Czech Republic

pexels-photo-1314544

Standard Two Calendar Month Notice Period

2 months notice period is standard – and it must be the same for both the employer and the employee. Notice starts on the first day of the month following when the notice was delivered to the other party. Both parties (employee and employer) however, can find mutual agreement and end the working relationship sooner.”

Recruiter Tip: Step up relationship development on final week of every month

Innovation, Workarounds & Hacks

“Don’t be afraid to try. Czech’s love workarounds and creative solutions. I think this part of our culture can really help in recruiting, as – whilst we work hard – we really love to find clever ways to get the same or better result!

For me it is no surprise that we have super creative recruiters from our country – some of the best in Europe I would say – because of this”

Jan Tegze, Creator, Sourcing Games

Recruiter Tip: Creativity is a valued trait – take risks and experiment!

Prague, Brno

“Prague is our capital city and undoubtedly the No1 region in the country. It is the biggest by population, market size – all of the big international companies if they come to Czech, they will come to Prague. Brno is definitely No2 – a really beautiful city with great Universities and social life. I would say that most of the comments in this guide applies primarily to experiences hiring in Prague or Brno – the rest of the country would be very different, especially in Internationalisation, foreign language proficiency and so on”

Recruiter Tip: Prague & Brno are the ‘big two’ metropolitan centres

Overtime & Workload

“We work long hours. This is one of the things I really don’t like about the working culture here. I don’t mind to work hard but overtime is often expected by many companies – it is not paid – and I think this can be have a bad impact on employees. If I could change one thing about working in Czech I would change this”

Recruiter Tip: Presenteeism is a thing in Czech Republic…

infomration commujnication

Organisational Structure

“Of course it will be different according to each company – for example I worked for a big International tech company here and it was very similar to working in the UK, very open & inclusive culture etc. I then worked for a US company and was based in Prague, however the culture was much more reserved & conservative and did not feel “international” at all. Having said this, I would say that generally we do not like too much formality and there is not much difference between the senior manager and the normal worker”

Recruiter Tip: Treat everyone like a colleague, irrespective of seniority

Czech, Czech Republic or Czechia?

“You may be know that we went through a national rebranding recently – from Czech to ‘Czechia’. Officially this is now the name of our country! Don’t pay any attention to it – almost everyone ignores the change and continue to call the country Czech or the Czech Republic. Please do not make sure not to call us Czechoslovakia though – this has not been the case for over 20 years”

15CZECH-web1-jumbo

Recruiter Tip: It’s Czech Republic

ice hockey

Ice Hockey

“Ice Hockey is the national sport of the Czechs. Whilst it is now competing with football in the summer, it is fair to say that it is a topic almost everyone will have an opinion. 

The national team is the focus but there is also a great club scene at national level. Třinec, Liberec and Mladá Boleslav are the best, though personally I am for Zlin!”

Recruiter Tip: Get into it – and learn to skate

Maternity / Paternity Leave

Maternity and Parental leave It lasts 28 weeks and starts 8 to 6 weeks before planned childbirth. However, if you have two or more children at once, maternity leave takes 37 weeks. Parental leave can start after maternity leave and may not last longer than until the child reaches the age of 3 years. However, you can stay with your kid till longer, but you must apply for approved absence from work to take care of your child. This absence from work is based on mutual agreement with the employer and employee

iStock-625891754

Recruiter Tip: Understand the cultural practices as well as the statutory requirement

Screenshot 2019-09-02 at 18.20.17

Ondrej Prochazka, Beer Drinker

Best Beer is Czech Beer

“Most people abroad would think of brands like Staropramen, Kozel or Pilsner Urquell, but locals would instead favor pubs with beers like Svijany, Bernard or with beer from Brevnov monastery. What ultimately decides what makes a good beer, however, is not the brand, but the quality. Czech Republic is a country that has perfected the way how to distribute, conserve and serve the beer without removing some of its best properties. So while there are be hundreds of pubs serving Czech beers in Prague, you’ll find Praguers crammed in a few select ones, typically ones with a beer in a tank and a setup that allows for serving unfiltered beers or unpasteurized beer as it just tastes so much better. That’s why you sometimes leave our country wondering why the beer tasted so good or different from when you have it abroad! It’s also why our country has a few exceptions from EU regulations on how we’re allowed to brew beers – we also have such consumption that it’s worth making unfiltered/unpasteurized beers as they turn sour faster. Which beers you might get? Traditionally, you’d be looking at pilsners and lagers, however nowadays each bigger brewery produces a wide range of beer types, with IPAs being more and more favored”

Recruiter Tip: Drink unpasteurised beer only

Visegrad Group

“We have a special group within the EU together with, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. It’s called ‘Visegrad Group or Visegrad 4’.

So definitely there is very tight cooperation with these countries, though more on cultural and political spheres. For recruiting the visa / immigration laws are still different; Poland has the most liberal laws; Hungary you can buy a citizenship for example. It does mean that in some cases people who want to relocate to Czech first go to Poland to get a permit there, before moving across”

Recruiter Tip: Spend time to understand immigration flow between the V4 countries

Best sites, tools, communities, events & people

The purpose of these guides is collect information from local recruiters. As such, the following list(s) of services describes the responses of these recruiters when asked questions which usually began with the formula ‘what is the best X’. All services mentioned are listed, with the order determined by frequency of citation. It’s the verdict of the local recruiters with no editorialising from brainfood!

ServiceDescription%age cited
Jobs.czGeneralist job board72.00%
StartupJobsLeading job board for tech startup60.00%
LinkedInProfessional social network36.00%
FacebookSocial network20.00%
PraceTech job board20.00%
IndeedJob aggregator / job board12.00%
CocumaMuse like Job board8.00%
Company websiteCompany career pages8.00%
ProudlyMuse like Job board8.00%
AngelListProfessional social network4.00%
FlekJob board / CV database4.00%
Universities’ WebsitesUniversity webpages4.00%
Expat JobsJob board for English language first immigrants4.00%
ServiceDescription%age
LinkedInProfessional social network96.00%
jobs.czCV database24.00%
GithubSocial network20.00%
FacebookSocial network16.00%
GoogleX-ray16.00%
BehanceSocial network for design8.00%
MeetupSocial network for event discovery8.00%
AngelListSocial network for tech startup4.00%
DribbbleSocial network for design4.00%
EventbriteSocial network for event discovery4.00%
ServiceCount%age
#HRdinky624.00%
recruitment forum416.00%
Sourcing sorcerers312.00%
HR (k) sobe28.00%
Recruitment Academy416.00%
#HolkyzMarketingu14.00%
blog lovec-hlav.cz28.00%
blog.proudly.cz14.00%
BrandBakers.cz14.00%
HR Forum CZ group (LinkedIn)14.00%
HRnews14.00%
ovec-hlav.cz14.00%
vimvic.cz14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Evolve Summit1872.00%
Evolve Masterclass28.00%
Recruitment Academy28.00%
Recruitment meetup28.00%
HR Days14.00%
HR meeting14.00%
HR Talks14.00%
HR Večer14.00%
TruPrague14.00%
PersonJob Title%age cited
Matej MatolinHead of HR at STRV56.00%
Josef KadlecCo-founder at GoodCall & Recruitment Academy48.00%
Jan TegzeSenior Recruiting Manager at SolarWinds & Author of Full Stack Recruiter32.00%
Jiri HerodekSenior Talent Acquisition Partner at Accolade16.00%
Petr SkondrojanisFounder at COCUMA16.00%
Michal TomanManaging Partner at Engage12.00%
Pavel PlachyManaging Partner at flow-r12.00%
Jan KlusonCEO at Proudly8.00%
Milan NovakCEO at GoodCall8.00%
Petra NulickovaHR at Alza8.00%
Martin GazoFounder at DreamBig4.00%
Michal HardynCEO at Tipli4.00%
Pavel BrozekTeam lead at DreamBig4.00%
Petr HovorkaManaging Partner at Brandbakers4.00%
Štěpán BartyzalFounder at Recruitis.io4.00%
Tereza MacháčkováPeople Ops Lead at ProductBoard4.00%
Tomas Ervin DombrovskyParterships at LMC4.00%
ServiceCount%age
Recruitment Academy1560.00%
Matej Matolin28.00%
Don’t know28.00%
Brand Bakers14.00%
digitalnihr.cz14.00%
GoodCall14.00%
Honestly14.00%
Jan Tegze14.00%
Jiří Herodek14.00%
Josef Kadlec14.00%
lovechlav.cz14.00%
Michal Hardyn14.00%
People Matter14.00%
socialbakers.cz14.00%
Socialtalent14.00%
What are the top Universities in your country?Description%age cited
ČVUT (Czech Technical University)Czech Technical University34.43%
Karlova Univerzita (Charles University)Charles University21.31%
MUNI (Masarykova Univerzita)Masaryk University in Brno18.03%
Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci (Palacký University Olomouc)Palacký University Olomouc14.75%
Vysoká škola ekonomická (University of Economics Prague or VSE)University of Economics in Prague3.28%
Vysoké ucení technické v Brne (VUT or University of Technology Brno)University of Technology Brno3.28%
ServiceCount%age
GoodCall936.00%
Don’t know832.00%
Dream Big312.00%
Grafton28.00%
Hays28.00%
Reed28.00%
Brickman Executive Search14.00%
Carpiness14.00%
Cool people14.00%
Digimates14.00%
Drill14.00%
Engage Advisory14.00%
Kienbaum14.00%
Talentica14.00%
Wolfhunt14.00%
Zeebra14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Don’t know832.00%
GoodCall728.00%
Hays520.00%
Grafton312.00%
Reed28.00%
Brickman Executive Search14.00%
ISG Personalmanagement14.00%
jobs.cz14.00%
Manpower14.00%
Randstad14.00%
Talentor14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Don’t know936.00%
GoodCall624.00%
Grafton28.00%
Hays28.00%
Brickman Executive Search14.00%
Digimates14.00%
DreamBIG14.00%
HALBICH Consulting14.00%
ISG Personalmanagement14.00%
Kienbaum14.00%
Livio consulting14.00%
SourceFirst International14.00%
Zeebra14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Don’t know624.00%
Pedersen & Partners520.00%
Arthur Hunt312.00%
Bubenik & Partners312.00%
GoodCall312.00%
Spengler Fox28.00%
Advanced Search Technology14.00%
Anderson Willinger14.00%
DreamBIG14.00%
Engage14.00%
HALBICH Consulting14.00%
IDK14.00%
Kienbaum14.00%
Korn Ferry14.00%
Livio Consulting14.00%
mBlue14.00%
Prušák Group14.00%
SourceFirst International14.00%
Talentor14.00%
touchdown.cz14.00%
Wolfhunt14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Don’t know1144.00%
GoodCall832.00%
Cielo28.00%
Alviso14.00%
Grafton14.00%
Hays14.00%
Korn Ferry14.00%
Randstad14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Don’t know2184.00%
Czechcrunch14.00%
Navolnenoze.cz14.00%
Proudly14.00%
Techloop14.00%
ServiceCount%age
Don’t know832.00%
DataCruit728.00%
Feedyou28.00%
Otys14.00%
PurposeFly14.00%
Recruitis14.00%
Sourcing.Games!14.00%
StartupJobs.com14.00%
Techloop14.00%
Worklio14.00%

How does Czech Republic compare vs the Rest of the World?

The methodology is based frequency of citation / number of contributors to generate a percentage of the responder population which made the citation. This ‘frequency score’ is compared against other countries and against global averages.

Percentage of respondents who cited LinkedIn as a primary source for active sourcing

LinkedIn for posting jobs?

Screenshot 2019-08-31 at 19.57.18

LinkedIn for active sourcing?

Screenshot 2019-08-31 at 19.58.40

Email as preferred channel for candidate first contact

Screenshot 2019-08-31 at 19.59.32

‘Not enough candidates’ as main problem in hiring

Screenshot 2019-08-31 at 20.00.25

If I was hiring in Czech Republic right now, I would…..

1. Base myself out of Prague or Brno

2. Buy a ticket to Evolve Summit and go!

3. Read Full Stack Recruiter

4. Go to Matej Matolin’s Meet up

5. Learn to drink beer

6. Invest time in understanding the relationship between Slovakia, Poland & Hungary

7. Take risks –  be creative in candidate generation techniques

8. On that note, sign up to Recruitment Academy to get more creative in sourcing

9. Sign up to Sourcing Games

10. Learn to skate on ice

Games for Recruiters and Sourcers. But everyone can play. Check it out here

“Truth Prevails”

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