Six, then twenty-four: how a pilot group from India refined our selection criteria

01 / The request

Yellow tape marking thirty stations

The new building at the auto parts plant outside Ternopil still smelt of paint. The workbenches had not arrived, but yellow tape on the concrete floor already marked out thirty workstations. The plant's HR director walked Olena, WORKIN's client projects lead, along the tape and set out the task: the area opens in seven months, thirty assemblers cannot be found on the local market in that time, and the plant has never hired workers from abroad.

The plant did not name a country. The HR director asked us to work out where to find people and added the owner's condition: the plant belongs to a European group, and the group wanted evidence rather than promises. Before signing off paperwork for thirty foreign workers, management wanted to understand three things: whether people would communicate well with the supervisors, whether candidates' experience matched what they said at interview, and how a group would settle into a new country.

Olena proposed splitting the hiring into two stages. First a pilot group of six and four weeks of close observation, then a wave of twenty-four under refined criteria. Six people are enough to see differences between candidates and few enough that a mistake in the criteria is not multiplied by thirty. To stop the pilot eating into the deadline, the long list for the wave would be built in parallel, while the first group was still on its way.

Who is needed

30 assemblers for a new assembly area

Deadline

The area opens in seven months

Plant's experience

Has never hired foreign workers

Owner's condition

Test with a small group first

WORKIN's plan

A pilot of 6, then a wave of 24

02 / Country

Why India, even though the visa route is longer

We compared destinations on four points: hands-on assembly experience specifically at auto parts plants, the language people would use with supervisors and engineers, the length of the route against the opening date, and the pool of candidates available through our partners. Visa-free countries offer a shorter route, but at that point our partners there had few candidates with this kind of experience. In India, hundreds of plants around Delhi, Pune and Chennai supply components to carmakers, and experienced assemblers are plentiful.

The second reason was language. The plant's engineers and quality team work with the European owner's documents in English, and the area supervisors have working English. Candidates from India who have spent years at plants with international customers are used to English labels and short explanations. The third reason was time: the D visa route takes eight to twelve weeks on average, and even with a pilot it fitted into seven months.

It was the length of the route that made the pilot essential. If thirty people arrived under the wrong criteria, replacements would have to come along the same visa route, which means another two or three months. A pilot adds a few weeks at the start but protects the whole wave. The plant agreed to both the country and the two-stage plan.

03 / Pilot

Six people selected against the first version of the card

Rajesh, our worker relations manager for India, began selection with a licensed partner in Gurugram, next to the Manesar industrial area. Before the interviews we drew up the first version of the candidate card together with the plant's engineer. It had five requirements: at least two years of assembly work at an auto parts plant, conversational English, a practical task, a passport with plenty of validity left, and agreement with the terms in the information sheet.

The practical task was designed by the plant's engineer: assemble a small unit from tiny parts following a simple diagram. Candidates did it on camera at the partner's office while the engineer watched over video link and asked questions in English. Forty-one candidates came to the first interview, fourteen reached the task, and the engineer approved six plus two in reserve.

The strongest in the group was Arun, thirty-two: seven years at a brake systems plant in Manesar and two years' work in Oman before that, so his English was fluent. Vinod, twenty-six, had assembled electrical units in Gurugram and was travelling this far from home for the first time, from a village near Aligarh where his parents are finishing their house. Santosh, thirty-eight, had the longest track record of all and spoke confidently about assembly at interview. What exactly lay behind that word was not a separate question on the first card.

Before departure Rajesh went through the information sheet and the candidate document checklist with each of them in Hindi, and then told them plainly: you are the first group, every week we will ask what you find difficult, and your answers will shape who we select next. People liked being first.

04 / Calendar

The pilot on its way while the wave takes shape

We filed the applications for six permits in week four. Nataliia, head of our documents team, gathered the plant's documents using the employer checklist, and the candidates' packs contained copies of passport pages with a certified Ukrainian translation, colour photos measuring 3.5 x 4.5 cm and draft employment contracts certified by the plant. The decision to issue is due within seven working days; our permits came in five, followed by invitations, visa packs and the consulate.

The most important work ran in parallel. While the six waited for their visas, the partner opened the long list for the wave: interviews in Manesar and in Pune, another large auto parts cluster. We advised candidates who passed the first conversation to order police clearance certificates straight away: with an apostille and translation they take four to six weeks and are the most common hold-up on a visa route. But nobody was given final approval: everyone knew the decision would follow the pilot's findings and that the criteria might change.

We did not file permits for the twenty-four at the same time as the pilot, for two reasons. First, once a permit is issued the employment contract must be signed within 90 calendar days, and the consulate and the journey both have to fit into that window. Second, an application for someone the pilot might screen out under new criteria would mean a state fee and a slot in the calendar for a candidate we would never bring.

1. Weeks 1-3

   Country choice, first candidate card, pilot selection in Gurugram.

2. Week 4

   Applications for 6 permits, permits issued in five working days.

3. Weeks 5-10

   Visas for the pilot. In parallel, long list in Manesar and Pune, certificates.

4. Weeks 11-15

   Pilot group at the plant, weekly conversations with the people and the plant.

5. Weeks 15-17

   Second version of the card, re-selection, 24 people and 4 in reserve.

6. Weeks 18-23

   Permits for 24, consulate in groups of six.

7. Weeks 24-25

   The wave arrived in two groups of twelve.

05 / Four weeks

Friday, fifteen minutes and the same questions

The six arrived in November. Rajesh met the group at the border and took them to a dormitory four kilometres from the plant, whose documents we had checked in advance as part of living support. The plant signed the employment contracts in the first few days, we filed the copies within the 10-day term, and the temporary residence permit filings went ahead in the first weeks.

We agreed with the plant that the pilot would test our selection, not the people. Every Friday Rajesh called each of the six separately and spent fifteen minutes on the same questions: what turned out differently from what you expected, and what should you have known before leaving home. The same day Olena asked the HR director and the area supervisor whether people understood explanations and whether their experience matched what they had said at interview. Every answer went into one table: person, week, observation.

The very first week produced four entries we had not expected. Vinod arrived in a light jacket: the sheet gave the dormitory address but said nothing about November weather in western Ukraine. Four of the six do not eat meat, could not find familiar food in the shop near the dormitory and lived on rice for the first few days. Imran was anxious that he still had no bank card, because he did not know that a tax number takes a few working days and an account can only be opened after that. And the area supervisor said explanations reached the group fastest through Arun, who within days had become everyone's interpreter.

In week three the key entry appeared. The supervisor told Olena that Santosh needed more time than the others, even though his experience was the longest. Rajesh talked to Santosh and found the reason: for fifteen years he had assembled large mechanical units, working with tools and hoists, and had done almost no fine manual work. At interview both kinds of experience sounded the same: assembly at an auto parts plant. By week four Santosh had settled in, but the conclusion for the wave was obvious.

06 / New criteria

The candidate card, version two

In week fifteen Olena came to the plant with the four-week table. Around the table were the HR director, the area supervisor and the engineer, with Rajesh on the line from Delhi. The pilot confirmed the main point: the country and route were the right choice, people communicated well with the supervisors, and the group had settled in. The plant gave the go-ahead for the wave, and we set out five refinements to the candidate card and the information sheet.

Three refinements became requirements used to select candidates: the type of experience, the language role within the group, and a practical task that the engineer now explains in English first and does not prompt during the work. The other two became planning data. Nobody is screened out for travelling abroad for the first time or for not eating meat, but we need to know it in advance so that rooms, kitchen and the first days are ready before arrival.

07 / The wave

Twenty-four people in four groups of six

By week fifteen the long list held seventy candidates from Manesar and Pune. Rajesh and the partner held a second conversation with them using the new card, and the very first question about experience changed the picture: nineteen people had spent years on large mechanical units, although they would have passed under the first card. Thirty-eight went on to the new practical task, and nine talked to the engineer about the lead role. The plant approved twenty-four, including four leads, plus four in reserve.

While re-selection was under way, Arun recorded a six-minute video in Hindi on his phone: a room in the dormitory, the shared kitchen, the shop in the district town where familiar grains and spices could be found, and the road to the plant under the first snow. Rajesh played it at the briefings in Pune and Manesar, and candidates' questions changed noticeably: fewer about what life is like there, more about documents and timings. The new information sheet already included a calendar of the first weeks and a warm clothing list, and every candidate card carried the data needed for room planning.

The plant's documents were still on file from the pilot, so for the wave Nataliia updated the staffing table extract and added the candidates' packs. The twenty-four permits were issued in week eighteen, and we booked consulate appointments in groups of six, each with its lead, so that people went through the consulate and the journey with the people they would live with.

1. 01

   Group of six

   Six people from the same selection city and one lead with fluent English.

2. 02

   Consulate

   Appointments in groups of six, each pack checked against the list before booking.

3. 03

   Arrival

   Two groups of twelve a week apart, so each could be met and housed without a rush.

4. 04

   Housing

   Rooms by group of six, a kitchen for those who cook for themselves, warm clothing on day one.

08 / Summary

Thirty people in the assembly area and a card that stays in use

The first twelve arrived in week twenty-four and the second a week later. Rajesh met both groups at the border, and the pilot six were waiting at the dormitory: Arun showed the leads the kitchen, the shop and the road to the plant. Contracts, copies within the 10-day term, tax numbers and residence permit filings followed the same path as for the pilot, only in groups of six. There were still four weeks to go before the area opened.

That is where our part ended: training and assigning workstations is the plant's job, and we continue to handle the documents of all thirty people under migration support. The second version of the candidate card did not go into the archive: if anyone needs replacing, the four reserve candidates have already been checked against it.

Pilot

6 people, 4 weeks of weekly conversations

Candidate card

5 refinements after the pilot

Long list

70 candidates, built alongside the pilot

Wave

24 people, 4 groups of six with leads, 4 in reserve

Timing

The whole team in place four weeks before opening

The pilot did not slow recruitment down; it made it precise. Six people and four weeks gave us the criteria that brought the next twenty-four in without guesswork. This is how WORKIN opens any new source country for a company: test the selection on a small group first, then scale what works. The WORKIN replacement guarantee runs for at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept: finding a replacement is not charged again, while state fees, the migration partner's services, the flight and the new worker's living costs are paid by the company. How to hire in waves is covered in the scenario on a crew for a precast concrete plant, and how to bring two routes to one start date in the scenario on a plastic packaging plant. The documents are described on the pages on the work permit and the D visa, and the whole journey on How it works. More on the pages on workers for manufacturing, production workers from abroad, mass hiring and workers from India.

09 / FAQ

Questions and answers