Originally published by Tristan Fender in The Copenhagen Post on August 22, 2025.

Denmark’s labor market is facing a structural challenge. Fewer people are available for work, while companies, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), struggle to find qualified candidates. More and more often, internationals are filling this gap. Yet many smaller companies lack the experience and tools to recruit and retain them effectively.

“Demographic changes mean we don’t have enough talent anyway,” said Marianne Danling, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Copenhagen Capacity.

“Especially when you talk about the high-skilled people. It is a problem we have to deal with in all of Europe, but our priority is looking at it in Denmark,” she told The Copenhagen Post.

Internationals already contribute significantly to the Danish economy.
A March 2025 survey by Copenhagen Capacity found that foreign labor added more than 361 billion DKK to GDP and filled approximately 330,000 full-time positions in just the first half of the year.

Yet retention is a growing problem. In the Capital Region, 50 percent of internationals leave within five years. The figure is even higher in the rest of Denmark, at 53 percent. Ten years ago, the figure was 45 percent.

Learning from these findings, Copenhagen Capacity has developed a new digital tool: the Quick Guide application. It is free to access and designed to help SMEs understand and overcome the barriers that often prevent them from successfully hiring internationals.

Six barriers in total
“We have conducted the research through different projects to find the barriers that companies and internationals are struggling with,” explained Ditte Meincke, who works on the program.

The barriers identified are: language and communication, cultural differences, the recruitment process and practicalities, competences of internationals, resources and economy, and onboarding and integration.

When companies open the application, they are presented with these categories. Each category contains a series of short questions.

For example, under “language and communication,” companies may be asked whether their workplace already uses English, whether they have an employee handbook in English, or whether the role requires Danish to interact with customers.

By answering the questions, companies receive tailored advice in PDF form, complete with tips, explanations, and links to relevant resources.


Transitioning from recruitment to retention
The need for such tools is clear from the Expat Survey 2025, which gathered more than 2,100 responses from internationals in Denmark.

While 92 percent reported being satisfied with their stay, nearly half eventually leave within a few years. The survey divided internationals into several groups. The largest, the “Future Danes” (43 percent), plan to stay longer than originally intended.

A quarter, the “Happy Residents,” expect to stay as planned. 8 percent, the “Discontent,” want to leave earlier than planned, while nearly a quarter remain undecided. Another 6 percent – the “Global Nomads” – have already left.

The reasons for leaving are telling. Among the Discontent, the top three factors are lack of workplace inclusion, difficulty finding employment, and challenges in making Danish friends.

Those planning to extend their stay cite job security, children’s well-being, and workplace inclusion as decisive.

“Work-life balance and the opportunity as a woman to combine career and children without having to compromise. A society with a high level of trust and collective thinking – so crucial to daily wellbeing,” one respondent explained.

This emphasis on both employment and inclusion confirms the challenge for smaller businesses. It is not enough to hire. Employees must feel supported, both professionally and socially.


Political and practical context
Danling pointed out that willingness to adapt is slowly increasing.

“What we see is that companies are slowly becoming more willing to adapt, for example by speaking English internally. This is happening because they don’t have a choice. Otherwise, they will run out of employees.”

She added that without proper integration, recruitment alone is a waste of resources.

“If 40 percent of expats leave within a year, despite all the investment from government and companies, it becomes too expensive.”


Time for cautious optimism
The Quick Guide is EU-funded and available for free to all companies. It is currently in Danish, but work is underway to develop an English-language version that will be accessible through Copenhagen Capacity’s website.

Both Danling and Meincke see reason for cautious optimism. “It’s a nice development,” said Danling, adding:

“You see the companies, you see the government very slowly getting to a point where they realize that something needs to be done. But it is a positive development, no question about it.”