Thinking of hiring internationals? Don’t just start with one, says ASTRON’s director

Make it in the North sat down with ASTRON’s General and Scientific Director, Dr Jessica Dempsey, to discuss how intentional diversity helps build an organisation that attracts the world’s top talent.

In a nutshell, what does ASTRON do?

ASTRON is the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. Our mission is to make discoveries in radio astronomy happen. In practice, this means we’re end-to-end. From the design of the technology, through to building the radio observatories, operating them, and harvesting the data that we get from observing our universe using radio waves.

These invisible wavelengths have shown us some of the most powerful and creative forces our universe has to offer, from black holes to the formation of planets.

Sounds exciting! It’s said we’re all made of stardust, including us internationals in the Netherlands. I’m curious to hear about whether ASTRON hires internationals?

Absolutely, we have an incredibly international and diverse workforce. This is largely because we need to bring in incredibly specialised types of skills to complete all our highly technical and specific work.

Of course, we’re also a scientific research group. That means astronomers from around the world want to come and work at ASTRON because we have an exceptional reputation. This is where they can actually accelerate their careers.

Is it also beneficial to the Netherlands when internationally-oriented companies gain more clout?

We not only offer a research environment but people here have the opportunity to get their hands on actual projects and use our instruments. There are only a couple of places in the world where you can get this kind of experience and ASTRON is one of them. That’s a really powerful magnet of high-level talent.

Are internationals interested in coming to the Netherlands to work?

Absolutely and we have an oversubscription of opportunities, particularly those for young researchers. We see that interest coming largely from international applicants.

What makes the Netherlands so attractive to internationals?

I actually poll my staff who come in on this, because it's an interesting topic for me. Of course, I'm also coming in as one of these internationals into the Dutch landscape. Like a few of our scientists I’ve lived in many places in the world. So I have a comparison to make.

It's incredibly easy to get a fast ramp-up to being embedded in the Netherlands, compared to other places. There's a lower barrier to entry. I would also call it a soft landing. All of these things, especially compared to places like the United States and others, mean you're treated almost immediately like someone who's integrated and part of the community.

I hear that a lot from our international staff, that there’s less red tape than in other places.

Many applications can also be handled online. I believe if such things are advertised more clearly, we’d attract more internationals.

How many internationals work at ASTRON?

I would say around 30% of our staff. Around 70% are Dutch and most work in our administration and business services. Then at our R&D department we have lots of engineers who tend to come from abroad, but also there the Dutch ratio is higher.

But if you look at our science research, there you’ll see an extremely high level of international staff. Around 20 countries are represented in ASTRON. On the scientific research and development end, that's where we definitely see our highest number of internationals.

Do you offer them a specific onboarding process to help them integrate?

We do and in fact we've just made it a bit more robust based on staff feedback. It now includes Dutch lessons. We’re also offering English lessons because we're a dual language organisation. Our Dutch staff really appreciated being able to brush up on their English as well. So that was a really nice addition.

But certainly, we have far more offerings now in our onboarding programme for our new recruits coming from overseas. This means they integrate faster and have a greater sense of belonging in the community.

Can you take us through the main steps of your onboarding programme?

It starts from making sure they've found accommodations and all those basic things. Then they have a buddy system within the organisation to make sure that if they have any questions, they have someone to ask. It works even better if their buddy is somebody who's also come through the process, but maybe is a year or two ahead. That really helps in order to share experiences.

We organise a lot of social activities for our staff, which are highly attended by our internationals, because, of course, that's where they want to develop a feeling of community and find new ways to navigate around.

When you're having conversations with internationals, what is one of the biggest challenges they face once they're entering the local workforce?

I think the language barrier is an obvious one, although it’s less of an issue at ASTRON where we use English a lot.

We’ve also been working on inclusive practices in the workplace to make sure that there isn't any ‘us and them’ between our internationals and locals. And that's actually quite easy within an organisation like ASTRON once you have a critical mass of diversity. It is less difficult than if you have one or two internationals in a monolithic Dutch company.

Sounds like you put a lot of thought into this. So what would be your suggestion for other companies that are maybe facing this specific challenge of the language barrier? Or maybe they've discovered another challenge within their team?

Inclusive practices are always the best way to do that, right? That means accommodating the minority and making sure that you're aware that there are different perspectives.

It really just starts with polling your incoming and outgoing employees, and saying: What can we do better?

Careful and thoughtful onboarding practices make a difference. And then the final one is making sure your managers have the tools they need to accommodate a diverse workforce.

If your managers are sensitive and adaptable, then that's half of your battle won.

Do you encounter administrative challenges? Does ASTRON sponsor visas for non-EU workers?

We do sponsor visas. We’re open to a global workforce. Astronomy as a field is very global, so it wouldn’t be uncommon for us to be bringing in Australians, Americans, or Canadians for instance. We of course have a lot of Europeans as well.

Is the visa process complicated?

It's absolutely doable. Once you've done this once or twice, you get into the habit.

The North of the Netherlands also offers great initiatives. The International Welcome Center North (IWCN) is an amazing one. I think that's been a really smart initiative to help companies in the North to make these processes easier.

It takes away some of the misconceptions that you might have about the visa process being too hard.

Do you tangibly benefit from having an international team?

Bringing in global diversity means you just get better outcomes within your organisation. Diverse teams solve problems better and faster and in ways you might not expect.

Which means it’s not just bringing talent you might be missing. You're actually bringing in a broader set of perspectives and that's really valuable. And I challenge any organisation to say: I don't need that.

So it’s also beneficial from a business perspective?

It's actually been shown that if you have diverse teams, and particularly teams led by women, these tend to solve problems faster.

It's not that I want to advocate for all women teams, by the way. I do, however, advocate for gender equality and for including parts of your community that might otherwise be overlooked. It’s really valuable — it helps get the work done better, faster, and more efficiently.

For companies that are hesitant about hiring internationals because they’re worried they’d disrupt their internal office dynamics, what would your message be to them?

I would suggest, don't just try with one. If you put one individual into a very monolithic organisation you'll set that person up to fail. I often say, find a flexible team that's adventurous and willing to do this and drop a few internationals in.

Then you’ve created a little test group that’s willing to think a bit differently. That's a really measurable way, an incremental way, to see whether this is going to work for you and your company.

But I think making sure that those people are supported, onboarded, and feeling like they're actually welcome in the company is not just about ticking a box of, ‘Hey, I've hired a person from outside of the Netherlands’, and then just hoping for the best.

Photo and Video: Julia Dumchenko
Editor: Christoph Schwaiger

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.