Adapt how your company communicates if you want to hire internationals – customer success specialist

For many companies in the Northern Netherlands, hiring an international employee can feel like a big step. Questions about language, integration, and workplace culture often come up, especially for smaller organisations that may be considering it for the first time.

But for some businesses, international hires can also open the door to new markets, new skills and new perspectives.

Recras, a Groningen-based company that develops booking and administration software for recreational businesses, is one such example. As the company began expanding into Germany, hiring German-speaking talent became a natural next step.

Make it in the North spoke with Paul Rühsen, a customer success specialist at Recras, about how the company hires internationals, what they look for in candidates, and why companies sometimes need to adapt their own communication style if they want to attract international talent.

Recras offers an all-round administration and booking software for recreational companies. It started out in the Netherlands 12 years ago when the founders had their own recreation company and they needed software to manage their bookings.

They went on to create this software and other recreational companies believed this would also be helpful to them. So they turned the software into a company and came up with a pricing structure.

What’s your role and what do you do day to day?

Recras needed somebody who speaks German who could also look at the system technically and also be able explain how it works to clients. So my job title is customer success specialist. In the beginning it was mostly cold calling potential clients in Germany. As more and more companies started using Recras, the company needed somebody to help with the setup and improve the software usage.

Yes, right now we have nine Dutch people working at the company, but there are, including me, also three Germans. In late 2025 we hired our third German colleague for our sales and customer support department.

We assessed for German language skills. Speaking a little bit of Dutch was a bonus. For sales jobs we looked for extroverted candidates. We also looked for technical understanding – candidates who were familiar with certain statistics software like SPSS, for example – it’s not that we use that programme for our job but our logic was: if a person was able to grasp complex software like SPSS, it’s likely they’d have an easier time learning how our own systems worked.

Learning Dutch, I think, is the number one thing. And having the qualifications that are needed for the job. In my case, it was mostly speaking perfect German.

Internationals who are serious about getting hired here in the Netherlands should also be serious about learning Dutch.

If you’re interested in hiring internationals, then see that all your meetings, all your documentation, and your daily life in the company revolve around English. You have to adapt how your company communicates day to day.

Mostly yes but it also depends on a case-by-case basis. But if a small company wants to expand into the German market for instance, hiring someone who speaks German is ideal.

I learned most of my Dutch at Recras. I did a language course before applying but I still didn’t have the confidence to order in Dutch in a restaurant. At the interview they said something in Dutch and asked me if I understood.

I had enough courage to reply: Ik heb het verstaan (I got that). And that was good enough for them! They just wanted someone who spoke a little bit of Dutch, just enough to get along in casual chit chat.

Nowadays we’re talking about technical stuff in Dutch at the lunch table.

My advice to job seekers is: Take a Dutch course. Try your best when you’re out and about like when you’re in the supermarket. You will learn the rest once you’re hired.

Personally I don’t think so. I like learning by doing, if it’s a really important conversation, everybody can switch to English. You can then learn Dutch on the side.

I do encourage students to make use of the free Dutch courses your university offers though.

If companies do want to offer employees a carrot, perhaps they can give a little bonus for learning Dutch – like giving people time off to study or paying them for their time taking classes.

I rarely talk to people who really want to stay in Groningen. On the other hand, there is a big university that attracts many internationals, and since Groningen is less connected to other parts of the country it creates a bit of a hub.

Personally I find Groningen quite small. Eventually you’ve seen everything and you keep running into people you know. You can’t really be anonymous outside.

I also see companies struggling to hire non-EU citizens. They feel they need to pay extra for their visas, working permits, and just in general. I’ve spoken to internationals who feel like companies wouldn’t consider hiring them because of this.

If the city wants to be serious about attracting more internationals, it has to do something about the housing prices. There seems to be no end to the housing crisis. That’s why a lot of people leave when they come here since they can’t find a place to live.

This was definitely the case in Recras - we’ve adapted to the German market and we can gather accurate feedback from German customers about what they want and need.

Extremely… it was the one thing that they were looking for, right next to being extroverted and liking to talk on the phone.

Check out Make it in the North, of course. And when you’re browsing LinkedIn, try different keywords. The algorithm doesn’t always show you the closest match. And always look until the last page on LinkedIn. I found my job on page 13.

Also be flexible about what kind of job you’re looking for. At some point you just need to start somewhere and then go from there.

I studied psychology and when I first started, I thought this might be something I would end up doing on the side while finishing my course. Eventually, it developed into something I really enjoy doing.

Just start somewhere. The opportunities will present themselves as you go along.

The interview took place in February 2026 and has been edited for clarity and brevity.