The platform Preply analyzed job satisfaction levels in over 58,000 companies worldwide. Poland ranked highly among countries friendly to English-speaking expats. The level of job satisfaction in Poland turned out to be higher than in the Netherlands, Sweden or Denmark, confirming its attractiveness as a place of employment.
Looking for a job in English? Come to Poland
Poland ranked sixth in the list of most friendly countries for people who use English. Companies operating in Poland received as much as 70.8% of positive reviews from their foreign employees on Glassdoor, a platform for anonymous employer reviews.
For comparison, businesses in the Netherlands received 70.2% positive opinions, and in Sweden – 69.1%. Only Mexico (80.2%), Germany (73.4%), Chile (71.7%), Norway (71.6%), and Latvia (71%) performed better than Poland.
Preply prepared a summary that includes opinions about companies operating in 45 countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A total of 270,000 reviews of 58,000 companies were analyzed. All reviews with a minimum employer rating of 4 stars on Glassdoor were considered as positive feedback.
The high score Poland achieved in the ranking is in part a result of Poles’ excellent knowledge of English. Despite our typical modesty, studies show that we rank highly in this aspect globally. Our foreign colleagues enjoy working here because they can easily communicate within the team and do not feel excluded. Companies in Poland, especially corporations operating in the largest Polish cities, actively support international environments, notices Sylvia Johnson, a language and cross-cultural skills expert at Preply.
Grass is always greener on the other side
The platform also analyzed the general rating that employees gave companies from different parts of the world, considering reviews written by both expats and employees originating from a given country. In this aspect, working in Poland is rated slightly lower, although we still end up in the “better” half of the world. The overall percentage of companies rated at least 4 stars is 36.2%.
The percentage of positive opinions about companies operating in Poland, coming from expats (speaking various languages, not just English) is 70.6%. The conclusion is clear: foreigners appreciate working in Poland more than we, the Poles, do.
However, we are not the only country where this phenomenon occurs. Similar results were noticed in all the analyzed countries. In every corner of the world, expats are more satisfied with their work than the national average.
The biggest differences are seen in Mexico and the United States, where the disparity is over 47 percentage points. These are very interesting data. According to Preply, Mexico is the friendliest place to work for expats. Meanwhile, the US is where ten of the companies most highly rated by international employees come from, with Google, Microsoft and Apple in the top 3.
“There are many reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly, expats often feel more grateful to foreign employers for given opportunities than employees from the country. The latter are more demanding. There’s also a lower awareness of the political or economic situation in the country, resulting in foreigners having a somewhat distorted image of the local job market. Thirdly, working abroad usually has a ‘shelf life’. We know that we will return home at some point, which makes us see the current work conditions in a brighter light,” comments Sylvia Johnson, a language and cross-cultural skills expert at Preply.
The first place in the ranking of countries boasting the highest percentage of positively rated employers went to Iceland. 53.1% of companies in Iceland received at least 4 stars on Glassdoor. The next places on the podium belong to Estonia and Latvia. Poland takes the eighteenth place in this ranking.
Methodology:
The research covered over 270,000 company reviews based in 45 countries. The analysis considered 20,000 reviews written by employees who do not use the language spoken in the country where they work. The applied criterion of a “highly rated” company means that the given business achieved an average rating of at least four stars on Glassdoor. The data is from March 2022.
