German business? Get over there!
FROM APRIL 2014's RECRUITER MAGAZINE
Recruitment industry observers suggest that a local presence in Germany is becoming increasingly important to successfully compete for business there.
Fear of losing business drove IT technology recruiter Darwin Recruitment to open an office in Munich recently, the company’s chief executive officer has told Recruiter.
The launch of a presence on the ground resulted when “in quick succession a number of customers said ‘We are not prepared to do any more business with you unless you come here’,” said Daniel Mulholland. Darwin’s new office officially opened for business on 31 March.
Mulholland said that the clients, all based in Southern Germany, took the view that only by opening an office in Germany would Darwin show them the commitment they expected. When discussing matters such as preferred supplier lists (PSLs) and frameworks, “clients’ senior people were only prepared to do business in German”, he added.
And while it was possible to continue serving clients in Northern Germany from London, “there is a stronger sense that customers [in the South] want to do business face to face… Doing business in Bavaria is different to doing business in other regions – it’s a regional country”, he said.
James Ballard, director at HR, IT and business change recruiter Annapurna Recruitment, told Recruiter that for now, the company was servicing its German clients from London.
“It’s a massive cost in terms of setting up a branch over there, and you also have to divert your staff from an existing successful office,” he said. However, he said that it was likely that Annapurna would open a German office at some stage.
Thomas Leister, a partner in law firm Osborne Clarke’s recruitment team in Munich, told Recruiter that having a physical presence in the country undoubtedly helped UK staffing companies.
However, he said that it depended on the client. “Whereas international companies don’t care whether or not staffing companies have this physical presence in Germany, middle-sized German companies are more likely to want to do business with companies based in the country.”
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