A crew that understands the foreman: recruiting Turkish installers with bilingual leads

01 / The request

Everyone has installation experience, not everyone understands the foreman

A Kyiv facade company won two ventilated facade projects and had nobody to work on the scaffolding. It looked for experienced installers in Turkey, where many people have spent years fitting cassettes and composite panels on high-rise buildings. Last time the company had hired Turkish workers through acquaintances, and the experience was bitter: brilliant hands, but they didn't understand the foreman, and every command at height went through hand signals.

So the request to us was short but came with a firm condition. Twelve installers, three crews of four, and in each crew a lead who understands the foreman without a phone. The company's foremen speak Ukrainian, some Russian. Nobody speaks Turkish.

Emre, our manager for workers from Turkey, suggested splitting the two requirements from the start. For the nine installers, what matters is experience and skill. For the three leads, experience plus language at a level we would test by conversation. Everyone writes languages on a CV; far fewer actually speak them.

Installers

9 people, at least three years on ventilated facades

Crew leads

3 people, experience plus working Russian or Ukrainian

Company foremen

Ukrainian and Russian, no Turkish

Who approves

The company's chief engineer, based on video and interview

Everyone lists languages on a CV. Only a conversation tests them.

02 / Language

Three language levels and the role that follows from each

To avoid arguing later about who 'speaks the language', we and the company's chief engineer described three levels in plain words. There's one criterion: what can the person do in that language on site? Not grammar or accent, but whether they'll understand the foreman's explanation and can pass it on to their crew in Turkish.

A crew lead needs level three. An installer is fine with level one: knowing the basic words to follow the lead when he switches to Russian. That scale gave us a clear filter and explained to the company why only three of thirty-one candidates became leads.

03 / Interviews

Part of the conversation in Russian, without warning

Emre held video interviews with candidates found by our licensed partner in Turkey. The first part was in Turkish: experience, projects, materials, heights, photos and videos of their own work. Every candidate showed at least one of his projects, and the chief engineer watched the recordings.

The second part was for those who had listed Russian or Ukrainian. Midway through, Emre handed over to a colleague who speaks only Russian and Ukrainian. She asked the candidate to describe his last project, then explained the plan for a sample working day and asked him to relay it in Turkish to Emre. That's where the difference shows: some people talk freely about themselves but get lost when they have to relay someone else's explanation.

Of thirty-one candidates, nine had listed Russian. Three showed level three and two more level two. We took those two as installers and marked them in the register as reserve leads in case the project grows.

• describe his last project in Russian: height, material, crew size;
• listen to the plan for a sample day and relay it in Turkish;
• name tools and fixings from photos;
• ask one follow-up question about the explanation;
• explain what he'll do if he doesn't understand a command.

04 / Crews

Three crews of four, each with its own lead

We formed the crews before filing permits so the company knew who would work with whom. The criteria were simple: one level-three lead, one level-two installer where available, and two experienced installers. Mehmet, the most experienced, led the first crew. Yusuf and Burak led the other two.

We also took account of who had worked together. Two candidates from Trabzon had installed facades in the same crew for five years, so we put them together. People who trust each other at height don't need to get used to someone new.

Each crew received a short guide in Turkish: who the lead is, who to contact about documents, and Emre's phone number. We asked the leads to run a group chat for their crew, where Emre posted document deadlines.

1. 01

   Mehmet's crew

   A level-three lead, a level-two installer and two installers experienced with cassettes.

2. 02

   Yusuf's crew

   A level-three lead, the two installers from Trabzon and a composite panel installer.

3. 03

   Burak's crew

   A level-three lead, a level-two installer and two installers with high-rise experience.

4. 04

   Reserve

   Two level-two installers from the crews as reserve leads, plus three candidates with videos ready as replacements.

05 / Names

Turkish letters that had to match everywhere

Turkish names contain letters that aren't in the English alphabet: ç, ş, ğ, ı, ö, ü. The passport shows them as they are, but translations and databases often turn them into something else. We've seen 'Yıldız' in a passport become 'Yildiz' in a translation and 'Yyldyz' in a contract. Every such mismatch raises questions at permit filing, at the bank and at the migration service.

So before the passports were translated, Emre drew up a table of all twelve names: as in the passport, in Ukrainian in the translation, and in Latin script in the contract. The translator worked from this table, and we checked every name in the translation, draft contract and permit application before filing. For two candidates with double surnames we separately agreed the word order, so the person could be found under the same record in the register and at the bank. What to do when foreign documents already arrive with different spellings is covered in the scenario about foreign documents at a machine-building plant.

06 / Job titles

A crew lead is a job title, not a nickname

The leads got higher pay and were responsible for relaying the plan to their crews. The company first wanted to register all twelve the same way, as installers, and pay the leads a separate supplement. We advised otherwise: if someone actually does different work for different pay, the documents should show it.

A work permit is issued for a specific job, and working on terms other than those in the permit is a violation for the employer. So together with HR we checked the staffing schedule: it already had a senior installer position. We filed permits for the three leads for that position, with matching pay in the draft contract, and for the other nine as facade system installers.

Each candidate signed an information sheet with his job, pay, housing address and conditions. The leads separately confirmed they understood their role. That way nobody in the crew discovered the pay difference only once on site. The full list of what a company prepares for filing is in the company checklist.

07 / Entry

Visa-free entry and ninety days that start counting on day one

Citizens of Turkey enter Ukraine without a visa, which is a big advantage for the company: the whole route from recruitment to starting on site takes four to seven weeks on average. But the legal period of stay starts on the day of entry, so we scheduled temporary residence permit applications before tickets were bought.

The group was split across two flights: the leads flew first with part of their crews, so the second group would have someone to ask on arrival. At the border everyone carried a document set, and the leads knew how to explain the purpose of the trip in Russian if a border officer didn't speak Turkish. On one flight the officer did switch to Russian, and Mehmet explained the purpose of travel in a minute. More on this route on our visa-free entry page.

1. Weeks 1-2

   Interviews, language checks, chief engineer's approval, crew composition.

2. Week 3

   Name table, translations, permit applications with correct job titles.

3. Week 4

   Permits issued, tickets for two flights, document sets for the border.

4. Week 5

   Entry, contracts in the first days, copies within 10 days.

5. Week 6

   Tax numbers, bank accounts, residence permit applications, registration of residence.

08 / Handover

On site with documents and leads who relay the plan

The company rented housing for the crew in Kyiv, and we checked the lease as we would any address: the owner agrees to registration of residence for twelve people, and the lease covers the contracts. The company runs its own health and safety briefing and training, and the crew leads relayed it in Turkish alongside the company's specialist.

On the first day on site each crew arrived with its lead, and the chief engineer received a file from us for each person: permit, contract, job title and residence permit filing date. That's where our work with the group ended. From here we handle documents through migration support, and what falls to the company is described on the employer duties page.

09 / Outcome

Three crews that understand the foreman from day one

Language

Three level-three leads, two reserve leads

Crews

Formed before permit filing, each with its own lead

Job titles

Leads registered as senior installers, installers as installers

Names

One spelling across passport, translation, contract and permit

Timeline

6 weeks from first interviews to starting on site

There's nothing in recruiting a crew with language that WORKIN can't solve: we test language by conversation, form crews before filing, record jobs as people will actually do them, and make sure every name is spelled the same in every document. The WORKIN replacement guarantee lasts at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept. How people are selected by language for customer-facing work is covered in the scenario about service language in a retail chain, and how a Turkish crew works on secondment in the scenario about a contractor's seconded crew. More on our pages about workers for construction, builders from abroad and recruitment.

10 / FAQ

Questions and answers