Daniel Sletteberg Loveryd at the AFRY office in Gothenburg, Sweden

Daniel recruits developers from all over the world

Daniel Sletteberg Loveryd works as a Section Manager of Embedded Systems, a role he has had for a bit more than a year. Since 2021, he has grown his team from two people to a multicultural team consisting of eighteen employees from several countries: Ukraine, India, Egypt, Brazil, Sweden, Pakistan, Iran and China.

Daniel, why are you recruiting so many people from abroad?

– First of all, I think recruitment, and finding the right candidate, is really fun. The fact that I hire employees mostly from other countries is actually not relevant, because I hire people based on their experience. If I would search for Software Developers only in Gothenburg, Sweden where I am based, I would not be able to find enough people within embedded software and infotainment. Recruiting candidates worldwide makes it possible for me to find the best talents no matter of origin, gender or culture.

How have you managed to find the right candidates when having the whole world as a recruitment field?

– I have found most of my employees through my network at LinkedIn and by receiving tips from newly recruited candidates. Amir Nazari, Inclusion and Diversity Manager, have given me a lot of support in this matter. Without his help, we wouldn’t been able to recruit so many developers overseas as fast.

Daniel Sletteberg Loveryd outdoors
Daniel Sletteberg Loveryd recruits team members from all over the world, but where his colleagues are from is not the focus – it's rather about finding the most qualified people, and having a team with diverse experiences and backgrounds.

What has been the challenges?

– One of the challenges, as many teams at AFRY are sharing, is the fact that we are working at our clients offices and not working together physically as a team. What I have done to improve this is recruit my employees in pairs, so they are working together at one client. Another challenge has been of course the pandemic and not been able to meet in real life and have a proper physical onboarding. Just recently we met up the whole team for a long-awaited after work which was so much fun!

Why is inclusion and diversity important, in your view?

– It is very important to not recruit people that are similar to yourself. By recruiting talents with different backgrounds, gender, experience and cultural heritage, we can embrace new perspectives and fuel innovation.

What is your best advice to create diverse and inclusive teams?

– Dare to recruit people from other countries. That is how you will find the best candidates. The pandemic has really shown that you don’t need to meet a person in real life for an interview, you just need to trust the other person in the virtual meeting. It works!

A group of five adults walking on a roof terrace

Immigrated competence

Since 2016, AFRY has been working with Immigrated Competence, a programme aiming to attract and recruit foreign-born and recently immigrated engineers. Learn more about the programme here.