How far away does it have to be?
If the solution to the resource problem is to look a little further away than Denmark, then the next question is how far away must it be? It depends on:
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Do you work with personal data or is it just system development?
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How often do you have to be onsite in Denmark?
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How important is price?
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What about a work permit in Denmark?
1. Do you work with personal data?
If you work with personal data and your developers need access to databases in connection with operational tasks and debugging, it is easiest for them to be based in another EU country. If it is a third country, you must use the EU's supplementary contracts to ensure users the same GDPR rights, and at the same time you must obtain the users' acceptance that their data is processed in a third country. For personal data, countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria are preferable to Ukraine, India, the Philippines.
2. How often do you have to be onsite?
If you have to be onsite fairly often, the travel time from door to door should ideally not be longer than 3 hours. Same time as getting from Aarhus to Copenhagen. That is that there must be direct flights from Copenhagen, Billund, Aalborg or Aarhus. At the same time, it should preferably be as cheap as a domestic train ticket.
3. Work permit in Denmark?
A foreign consultant from a third country outside the EU may not perform regular work in Denmark. Not even if the duration is less than 3 months. A tourist visa is not a work permit. That is you can come to meetings, events and courses in Denmark, but you must not sit for 2 weeks in the office and code. But if you are an EU citizen, it is a different matter. If you have to be onsite some of the time, it is therefore preferable to have an employee from the EU.
4. How important is the price?
There are no countries left in Eastern Europe that can be called really cheap. Those days are over. The demand is too great, and has become so global that the price for a developer no longer depends on local conditions. The hourly rate depends on how much a US customer is willing to pay for the best qualified developer. Especially in the time after Corona, how many have been remote anyway. If it has to be cheap, you can consider Asia, but the downside is skill level, time difference and cultural difference. Eastern Europe, on the other hand, can offer really skilled employees, which you may not find in Denmark at a reasonable salary level.
Other businesses in Gdańsk
Relocation to Poland is not new for Danish companies, but things have changed a lot. It is no longer low wages that attract manufacturing companies. Today, it is knowledge companies that are attracted by highly educated labour, of which we have difficulty finding enough in Denmark. Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot, called the Tri-City, together have approx. 1 million inhabitants. Many Danish companies have chosen Tri-City as their location for IT, R&D, HR or administration (BPO). Companies such as Nordea, Arla, Jysk and Maersk. There are good air connections to most major cities in the north. Copenhagen can be reached in just 45 minutes. Billund and Aarhus in 1 hour. International companies are also present with R&D departments: B.a. Intel, Amazon, Lufthansa and Boeing.
