Most hiring projects that fail don't fail because of the candidate. They fail because of how the employer set the project up. These are the eight most common mistakes we see.
1. Under-specifying the role
"We need a welder" is not a brief. Welding covers six processes, four positions, a dozen material types, and three typical work environments. A CV saying "10 years welder" will be attached to candidates with wildly different actual capabilities.
What to specify: process (TIG / MIG / MAG / SMAW / FCAW), position (1G / 3G / 4G / 6G), material (carbon / stainless / aluminium / duplex), standard (EN / ASME / AWS), environment (shop bench / field / shipyard / pressure vessel), certification required.
2. Skipping the skill test
"The CV looks good, let's just bring him" - the most expensive shortcut in foreign recruitment. A failed placement costs the full one-time hiring expense, the project delay, and the replacement cycle. A video skill test costs an afternoon.
What to require: a recorded skill test from the Pakistan side, plus a short live video interview before you commit.
3. "We'll bring him on a tourist visa and convert"
This is the single most dangerous shortcut. Conversion from a tourist visa to a work permit inside Turkey is tightly restricted and, for industrial trades, effectively impossible under current rules. If you try and it fails, you have an undocumented worker on-site, personal and corporate liability, and no clean way to fix it.
The only correct path: work permit applied while the worker is in Pakistan, visa issued in Islamabad after approval, worker enters on the work visa.
Labour inspections at industrial sites are routine. Fines for employing a foreigner without a valid work permit are heavy, doubled for repeat offences. Deportation is on the table. The shortcut is not worth it.
4. Picking by cheapest recruitment fee
Agency fees are 10-20% of the total one-time cost of the hire. Saving 30% on the fee is a ~5% total saving - if everything goes right. When it goes wrong (wrong candidate, slow permit, lost weeks of production), the "saving" is an order of magnitude larger in cost.
What to look at instead: licensed on both sides, clear service contract with replacement clause, transparent line-item quote, references from prior Turkish placements.
5. Housing as an afterthought
"We'll figure out where he sleeps when he gets here." Workers who arrive to unclear or substandard housing disengage fast. Bad housing is the single most cited reason in retention failures.
Minimum standard: proper bed (not hotel cot), shared room with 2-4 workers max, functional bathroom at reasonable ratio, halal-compatible cooking space, clean water, lockable storage. Decent housing costs modestly more and dramatically improves retention.
6. No Turkish-language plan
Expecting workers to pick up Turkish "by osmosis" wastes the first 3 months. A structured orientation - 50 essential workplace words in week 1, a short phrasebook, weekly practice with a Turkish-speaking supervisor - pays back in safety, productivity, and integration.
Starter: budget 4-8 hours of structured Turkish orientation in the first month, plus a printed phrasebook for the toolbox.
7. Ignoring rotation leave
A worker on a 12-24 month contract without any clarity on rotation leave becomes restless. Most Gulf-seasoned Pakistani workers assume a 6/1 or 12/1 pattern - 6 months on with 1 month home leave paid, or 12/1.
What to do: define the rotation in writing in the contract. If you can't offer a rotation, explain that in the offer stage so expectations are aligned - don't surprise the worker at month 8.
8. Poor aftercare
Hiring is not the end of the project. The first 30 days drive retention. If no one owns the worker's integration after arrival, problems compound quietly until the worker quits or the relationship sours.
Who owns it: assign a named person (HR, supervisor, or ops manager) as the point-of-contact for each new foreign hire's first 90 days. Housing issues, banking problems, cultural friction - all handled through that channel.