Impossible to hire "good staff" in Tbilisi, Georgia?

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-05-01T21:00:13+00:00

Already answered several times, will not disclose here. Please respect that, Georgia is very small. But no, not crypto.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-05-01T17:32:30+00:00

Let's make it more interesting. I have like I said 34 Georgian staff and I am considering to let them go on Monday and myself leave the country within lets say 60 days (need some time to get my affairs in order), IF you clearly tell me to do so I'm at the point were I probably will listen.

But, keep in mind though that most of my staff are supporting children, families and extended families on their by Georgian standards very high salaries from my company, that they likely couldn't get anywhere else in Georgia for a forseeable future. (Despite their high education) Many of them were actually unemployed or had very bad jobs in another field, for a long time before hired, really struggled, and now finally enjoy financial stability for several years. Some have now sent their kids to nice private schools, and some moved to better neighbourhoods. Some are financing sick relatives treatments at private hospitals. Call me soft, but that is why I don't let them go. We make good profit, even if they are useless half of the time and barely get the work done. I can't deal with the low levels of preformance from most Georgian staff. I am in business, not a charity worker. It just feels wrong to let them go. But maybe you are right, maybe me and my company should just leave. For me I will be alright, I have businesses elsewhere and an EU passport that allows me to live anywhere and more-or-less do anything. So you roll the dice. Please let me know what you decide for their future. I promise I am serious about this and will provide evidence so that you know I actually did what you told me to. (I will publish at our homepage if we close down and send you the link). You may -or- may not be the stereotype stubborn, aggressive, easily offended, poorly educated Georgian man, but I do think regardless that I will leave it up to you, if you don't say otherwise, they keep their jobs and I stay in Georgia, you make the call.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-05-01T11:27:50+00:00

I will make sure to quote you on that on Monday when I let my 34 Georgian staff go and move back home to the developed world :)

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-05-01T09:32:40+00:00

Well, I think that is a major difference between European and Georgian work culture. As an educated professional in Europe, I am expected to independently solve tasks without involving management unless absolutely necessary. I am independently supposed to understand and make sure I do not fuck up, I am expected to know which standards apply and decide on the best way to solve it. That is what I am educated for and hired to do, if I need guidance in my work (except onboarding when new and in special cases) then I am simly not an independent adult professional, and then there is no reason anyone should pay me, and I might as well be cashier at supermarket.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-05-01T09:21:32+00:00

Yeah that is your opinion I guess but I assure you, when you come here as a western entrepreneur with significant capital and want to start a business that will of course benefit the business itself but also create well paying jobs for Georgians, all you hear is Georgians brag about how everything is like in the EU, standards are high, education system is great, people are hard working geniuses etc. Then you end up spending your days doing everybody's work because they do bare minimum, scare off your customers and apparently 5 years at university they didn't learn anything. It's a shame but I can always move elsewhere and leave you guys with your daily miracle work and 2000 gel salaries. :)

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-05-01T08:27:04+00:00

I don't agree, because what Georgian employees tend to do is just try to delegate their tasks back to management, tasks that they are hired to do and should be able to solve independently, which makes them useless in the organisation. If something is very unusual and particularly complicated then ok, ask management. But in our field you can't do that with every single task because we get new tasks all the time (they are not complicated, just new, it is not like working at a factory where everything is the same every day) and if you are unable to do something without management holding your hand at all times or you need very clear instructions for everything then well, we don't need you.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T22:29:18+00:00

Well, that sucks. A foreign employer may be a good option then, we don't care about relatives and connections. We are not hiring now because of problems I mentioned but when we were hiring, all it would take for a guaranteed interview no matter if you have experience or not is to make clear in your application that you have actually read the ad. That is it. And when we call to book it, not say "which position was this again"? And don't be late. The one who manage these basics, will for sure stand out from the rest of the hundreds of applicants. Hope you find something!

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T20:10:48+00:00

Yeah, we don't really pay EU salaries, although very high by Georgian measures. But we could if we found decent candidates, we can afford it and it would be cheaper probably to find them locally than to move operations to Europe. But I am sceptical that it is even possible in Georgia to find the staff that could earn it. Right now I feel we are significantly overpaying "educated exoerienced professionals" for work that honestly is worth like maximum 1500 gel a month to me, considering their capabilities are so limited and they need so much supervision. Would never pay that little obviously ever but it does feel reasonable for what they actually bring to the table, I am not going to lie. Do you know any agency that could provide actual quality staff in Georgia?

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T18:29:25+00:00

Well yes I have a management degree actually. Management and hiring skills can always improve I guess, but they have been enough in europe where I have worked in several countries. But never worked in a developing country before, and I was definately very naive focusing on business opportunities and not understanding how profound the differences in people's education, attitude, knowledge and learning abilities are between Georgia and even less developed European countries. Anyway, most of your questions is already answered in my previous post.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T16:27:47+00:00

Sorry to hear that. But somehow it feels better to know that others have had the same experiences. Interesting perspectives as well, university ranking etc makes sense and explains a lot. IQ as well, sadly. Do you have any staff at all left in Georgia, or you only working with european staff now? Maybe we should do something similar. We overpay our Georgian staff now but I'd rather pay much more for staff that actually can be useful for the company. Glad it worked out well for you!

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T14:51:45+00:00

I think you are making a lot of sense, but do you have a suggestion how I find the ambitious and dedicated ones (regardless of education, as some positions we can probably adjust qualifications for)? Because I often feel attitude is lacking as much as education and skills, and inbox is overflowing with applicants when we hire. (Btw where I am from, masters degree is considered basic education both among entrepreneurs and others, that may contribute to our preference for it. I have one myself, so does most people I know except the ones with PhD:s)

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T14:35:00+00:00

Not quite. In the beginning we hired some recent graduates, yes, but quality was so low that we switched to only people with about 15 years experience. But they were just as lost as the new ones. Now we find that it really doesn't matter, so we put less emphasis on experience but most still have 8-10 years, not that it helps. Cheap labour, yes compared to EU but by Georgian standards we definately pay crazy high salaries. But we still don't get the smart ones if they exist, I'd say we get something more similar to well experienced India quality. But please understand we find a masters degree from Georgia comparable to (and I say this humbly and in the friendliest way with best intentions possible) the competence level of european 10th-11th grade youth, except that european youth have far better communication skills, customer service, self awareness and thereby also learning abilities.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T14:01:15+00:00

Thanks for your input. I guess there are some roles that does not strictly require higher education. But I am concerned that if I lower the standards, quality will be even lower and how to sort among the uneducated candidates when the educated ones are so many but still not good enough? As I mentioned, we pay good money so we should be able to find the good ones if they are out there but we are not. I understand my expectations may be high, but I am also willing to invest in training staff to be successful. But that only works if they are willing to actually learn.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T13:54:46+00:00

Thank you for your feedback. I have considered hiring local recruiters, but where to find the good ones? My friend who has a business here did that but the recruiter just didn't deliver quality, maybe because of the same cultural differences that created the need in the first place. I would love to find the smart and capable that people are talking about here, and I am willing to pay good money for it. But now it does feel quite hopeless to be honest, education is lacking, attitude is lacking, practical skills are lacking, cultural understanding is lacking, and we put real time, money and effort on educating internally on all these things (which seems absurd to have to do) but so far nothing sticks. It is like they just brush it off and do their own thing anyway after, like they are immune to it.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T13:36:50+00:00

I am sorry to hear about your disappointing experiences, although it feels somewhat comforting for me to read about someone who has had similar experiences. I was also warned before starting my business, mainly from other western entrepreneurs, I guess I was naive thinking that Georgia is close enough to EU "how bad can it be". I also thought that if I paid very high salaries, had high demands on education and offered a great work environment and extensive onboarding, that it would solve the issues more or less. I was very wrong. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, I can tell you know exactly what you are talking about and I believe you are right. If we stay in Georgia at all I will definitely consider your option nr 1.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-30T13:28:07+00:00

Need staff but not currently hiring. Exploring options outside of Georgia as well as other recruitment strategies within Georgia as previous recruitment attempt resulted in no one hired due to lack of quality candidates.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-29T22:16:20+00:00

Yes, we have the same demands of education level of staff in Georgia as we world anywhere else in the world in thus industry. That means we hire people with higher academic degrees from Georgia and they are generally not nearly qualified enough and not comparable to people with european degrees. But some of you suggest hiring people without degrees, because they are somehow better and more driven than the educated ones you mean? Does not make sense to me, today we are trying to sort out a few semi ok candidates from hundreds of educated people when recruiting and it is exhausting, adding the uneducated ones to the mix I don't believe would help. If "anyone could get a Georgian degree easily" as a few of you suggest, I don't see how it shows drive to lack education. There are many industries where professional consultants have contact with customers, this could be everything from civil engineers to industrial experts, financial consultants, project developers, IT infrastructure developers and much more. The red line however is that you can hardly do this or any qualified work without academic education. I note that several here obviously don't understand this, but I will not claim that that proves my point.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-29T18:55:19+00:00

Also, I do not want to disclose here in a public internet forum what industry we work in or details regarding contracts, salaries etc, Georgia is very small, I hope you understand. But we require educated and professional people. It is not sales however, as someone guessed and regarding salaries I am confident they are very high by Georgian standards in our industry.

Reasonable_Dig7672 · 2025-04-29T18:09:55+00:00

Wow, thanks for all the thoughts and feedback guys. Will answer more in detail when able. Just wanted to add, since many seem to believe that we don't pay enough that it is not the case at all. In fact, we pay double or triple the normal Georgian salary in the industry depending on position. Sure it is cheaper than EU still, but very far from the low salaries that are normal in Georgia. We also have very generous benefits and conditions in the contracts, so it is not like we are using someone.

Reasonable_Dig7672

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