In a globalized market, a company’s competitiveness no longer depends solely on its technology, but on its ability to attract the best professionals, regardless of where they are located. However, many companies in Spain—especially SMEs—continue to dismiss qualified foreign profiles simply due to a lack of familiarity with current regulations.
Recently, our founder Ainhoa Manero collaborated with the financial newspaper Expansión to demystify the hiring of foreigners in Spain. In a labor market where talent retention is key, we analyze why many companies miss out on opportunities due to purely legal misunderstandings.
The Myth of Slowness: Hiring in Record Time
One of the biggest hurdles to business growth is the belief that hiring a foreigner is an eternal and costly process. The current reality, thanks to the evolution of the regulatory framework in Spain and Europe, is very different:
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Bureaucratic Agility: There are procedures designed so that a worker can start in less than a month, or even in a single day, depending on the case.
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Overcoming Obstacles: The lack of a prior permit should not be seen as an insurmountable wall, but as a manageable administrative step with the right advice.
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Normalization of the Process: What used to take six months 15 years ago is now resolved in days, ensuring that companies do not lose competitiveness due to unfilled vacancies.
Commitment as a Solution to Employee Turnover
In a context where talent retention is a headache for Human Resources departments, international profiles offer a comparative advantage in terms of loyalty:
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Clear Motivation: Unlike certain local candidates seeking a salary without a clear career vision, someone who moves countries for a job demonstrates an intrinsic commitment to the project.
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Reducing Hidden Costs: Training a new employee in the company’s culture and protocols involves a very high cost that is lost if the worker leaves after a few months. Investing in international profiles helps amortize that investment over the long term.
Accessibility: SMEs Can Hire Too
One of the great misconceptions is that hiring foreigners is the exclusive territory of large corporations. At Sterna Abogados, we see daily that the size of the workforce is not an impediment:
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Realistic Requirements: The key is not having hundreds of employees, but demonstrating sufficient financial means to cover the professional’s salary.
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Diverse Profiles: You can hire anyone from highly qualified profiles to recent graduates at minimum wage, taking advantage of international agreements with countries like Chile or Peru that greatly facilitate the process.
The Strategic Value of Diversity
Beyond legal compliance, integrating professionals of different nationalities improves the customer experience. A multicultural environment brings a wealth of perspectives and allows for opening new markets much more naturally and effectively.
While turnover can be high in the local market due to a lack of connection with the project, international profiles show an evident commitment. As Ainhoa Manero points out: “If someone moves countries to work with you, the commitment is obvious.”
Sterna Abogados: Your Partner in International Mobility
At Sterna Abogados, our mission is to ensure that no company loses competitiveness because they don’t know how to hire the person they need. Whether as specific support to resolve HR doubts or as a comprehensive partner managing the entire immigration process, we accompany companies to normalize foreign hiring.
“Not having a permit is not an insurmountable obstacle; it is just a matter of knowing how to do it” — Ainhoa Manero.
Want to read the full interview in Expansión? You can access the original article here.