Britta Stermsek
Managing Consultant
The very first placement by Team Treasurer Search was not in the Netherlands but in Belgium. Although our roots are in Venlo. Most successes after that were in the Netherlands, but dozens in Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK, the US and Abu Dhabi. And in Germany. Even in the Dutch market, you can safely say that our recruitment is international: 70% of our clients and candidates are non-Dutch. Even in our own team, we have members from Syria, and now Germany.
Our International Reach
The last position as an employee of our founder, Pieter de Kiewit, was in Germany where he established a recruitment office with 80 employees and three offices at its peak. During that time he learned that German recruitment was, as you might expect, thorough and well-organized. Back then, candidates presented themselves with “Bewerbung-Mappen,” a folder containing a resume, photo, references and diplomas. Employers organized many meetings with candidates. Employment contracts had notice periods of up to six months. And recruitment was organized to serve these processes.
15 years have passed and Germany has joined globalization. Especially in large organizations, speaking English is no longer a problem. And the country is one of the world leaders in accepting refugees. The recruitment industry went along with this development and many of international players entered the country. Services are more accepted in all levels of the labour market.
German Recruitment: Past and Present
As for corporate treasury in general, Germany has not taken the international lead, but there are many very large companies that dominate their global market, such as SAP and all the major car brands. Their treasury teams are among the best in the world and certainly do not employ only German employees. When it comes to treasury technology, Germany has a pretty strong position. Of course, SAP’s treasury module can be found at many large companies, but companies like TIS, Serrala and, in the past, Bellin also have a large market share.
At Treasurer Search, we see a lot of potential in the German treasury recruitment market. As the media tell us, companies have a hard time finding good candidates and our own research has shown that, also in Germany, corporate treasury is a difficult job type for many HR managers and internal recruiters to understand. We expect the added value of our niche approach to work in the German market as well.
Being based in Venlo already gave us a basis for entering the German market. Our office is 2 kilometers from the border. Two of our consultants have worked in Germany for years and one of our assistants has her roots there. We speak the language. The backbone of our team is a managing consultant who is the first point of contact for assignments. We will introduce her in our next newsletter. Furthermore, our next recruitment for support will focus on the German market. At the same time, we are working on the translation of our infrastructure and are already open for business. With our previous German placements, the customer came to us, from now on we will come to them. Wollen wir einander kennen lernen?
