After celebrating 15 years in professional services recruitment, we are delighted to unveil a new era of EMEA Recruitment as the bastion of people-first recruitment.

In 2022, we celebrated the 15^th anniversary of EMEA Recruitment. Since we were founded by Paul and Kelly Toms in 2007, we have always focused on building strong relationships with clients and candidates across Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Nordics, and the wider EMEA region.

Having been established for 15 years, during which time we have expanded into new disciplines and markets, we felt that the time was right to re-develop our vision and values to reflect where EMEA Recruitment is now.

Our people-first approach has been fundamental in becoming a strategic partner to some of the most reputable businesses in the world and a trusted advisor to our candidates. Moving forward, Paul wanted this to be the focus of our mission – to become the bastion of people-first recruitment.

While discussing and debating our renewed vision and values, the team listened to one another, challenged each other’s ideas, and championed the collective message. This process followed the methods our Consultants use when working with candidates and clients, thus creating our three core values:

• Listen
• Challenge
• Champion

To reflect this new mission for the business, we also decided to tweak the EMEA Recruitment brand with a fresh look.

Our new logo, colour palette and website honour the brand that we have built over the last 15 years, while signalling our renewed focus on people-first recruitment.

Richard Bailey, our Managing Director, says: “I’m really excited that our new website is going live, which features our new branding and values. Over the past 15 years, we have been incredibly proud of the relationships and networks our team have generated.

“We have taken time to listen to our team, our candidates, and our clients on how we can further add more value in recruitment. Our strategy continues to provide the best recruitment experience for everyone, and we remain committed to training our team and building our network with partners, clients, and candidates.”

He adds: “Recruitment is fundamentally a brokerage of people working with people. Putting people first is essential. A person’s skills can be measurable, managed and developed, but how influential are they within their teams? Or how good a leader or team-player are they? This requires a well-trained Recruitment Consultant to understand each personality and match good people with good career opportunities.

“We are proud to have worked with some of the biggest brands globally, and have helped them develop strong and diverse teams. We look forward to the future, as we build networks to further advance our clients’ and candidates’ ambitions.”  

Katie Insley, Associate Director, explores the second quarter of the year and discusses the uplift in HR opportunities across the Netherlands.

There have of course been significant challenges in some industries, but many have reported growth plans, especially in the second half of the year.

We continue to be in a candidate-led market where the competition for talent is still significant. Businesses must place attention on their employee value proposition in a bid to keep their best people, ensuring they have a working culture and environment that responds to their employees' needs, such as hybrid/flexible working and employee wellbeing initiatives. 

We also continue to see an investment in Compensation & Benefits functions, as rewarding employees in a competitive and attractive way remains a key tool to retain top talent.

A good number of organisations have gone through reorganisation activities, and - while this has led to decreases in some traditional HR roles - it has caused an increase in the positions more aligned to the future of HR and where it can add the most value to a business.

These have included roles focused on talent and HR intelligence, where businesses are looking for individuals who are great with data, but who can translate this information into meaningful stories that allow for better decision making.

A focus on HR technology continues, but through the lens of employee experience. How can a business have seamless processes enabled by tech that make an employee’s interactions with HR as easy as possible? This again requires a different skillset, where individuals must not only be great at system optimisation and process improvement but must be able to focus on the user experience, too.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the current recruitment landscape, please reach out to me at: katie.insley@emearecruitment.com

We are delighted to share some exciting news, highlighting Switzerland’s continued appeal as a hub for international businesses.

Over the past quarter, we have witnessed a handful of companies choosing Switzerland as their preferred location for setting up their global/regional offices. One of the key factors contributing to this trend is Switzerland’s tax environment, boasting some of the lowest profit and capital tax rates in the country.

Additionally, Switzerland offers an exceptional level of political and financial stability, fostering an environment conducive to long-term economic growth. Furthermore, individuals can benefit from attractive tax rates, positioning Switzerland as an alluring place to live. We anticipate that this positive momentum will continue, solidifying Switzerland's reputation as a premier destination for international business expansion.

In this edition of the newsletter, we would like to shed light on the thriving recruitment landscape in Switzerland and the advantages it offers to businesses operating in the Finance sector.

One remarkable aspect of Switzerland is its ability to attract top talent. We have witnessed a notable trend of highly skilled professionals choosing Switzerland as their preferred destination, drawn by the country's robust economy, excellent quality of life, and strong emphasis on work-life balance.

Moreover, Switzerland's geographical advantage in the heart of Europe makes it an appealing choice for professionals considering relocation. The central location provides easy access to a variety of global industries and allows businesses to tap into a diverse talent pool.

At EMEA Recruitment, we have capitalized on these advantages to supply top talent to our clients. By leveraging Switzerland's appeal, we have successfully sourced exceptional candidates, ensuring a streamlined and cost-effective recruitment process.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can support you, please get in touch with Associate Director, Annie Gosnell: annie.gosnell@emearecruitment.com

We often see a natural synergy between Procurement and Finance, with both functions contributing to the financial wellbeing of an organisation - albeit their areas of focus are distinct.

Over time, businesses have recognised the importance of aligning Procurement and Finance functions to achieve common business goals, optimise financial performance, and enhance resource management. This has led to increased collaboration and a recognition of the interdependencies between the two functions.

Following recent economic pressures and Supply Chain disruption, we have seen that it is more apparent than ever that the relationship between Procurement and Finance needs to be leveraged to its full extent to ensure business success.

We see collaborations between the functions, in terms of shared skills and qualities required for success in both roles. By recognising these shared competencies, organisations can create a cohesive and efficient team that collaborates effectively to drive financial performance and Procurement success.

For the most successful organisations, Procurement is no longer seen as a branch of Finance, but a genuine business partner and critical heart of Finance-related decisions.

Would you be interested in an event focusing on how Procurement and Finance functions can adapt and grow together for the future? Please reach out to Sasha Gill, Senior Consultant, to share your thoughts: sasha.gill@emearecruitment.com

On June 15th 2023, Keely Straw and Cameron Davies held EMEA Recruitment's first Talent Acquisition Roundtable in Switzerland. Keely shares insights into the event below...

The focus was to bring together senior Talent and Recruitment professionals to discuss relevant topics. We had identified that there aren’t many events focused on Talent and Recruitment specifically from a networking perspective.

The event topic was Breaking Barriers: Unveiling Unconscious Bias in Talent Acquisition. In partnership with Swiss Marketplace Group, Oerlikon, we were joined by Talent and Recruitment professionals from companies such as Syngenta, ABB, Takeda, Lonza, Glencore and Julius Baer, to name a few.

The roundtable began with an engaging introduction from Tshidi Khunou at Swiss Marketplace Group and Madlaina Brogt at Lonza, both emphasising the importance of recognising and challenging our unconscious biases, particularly in the context of Talent Acquisition. Their insights set the stage for subsequent discussions and debates - how can we influence hiring managers?

Throughout the event, participants had the opportunity to reflect on their own companies’ biases and gain a deeper understanding of how these biases can influence decision making within the recruitment and selection processes.

We explored a range of topics, including application processes, interview structures, Diversity & Inclusion efforts, influencing hiring managers and ATS/HRIS systems. This brought us nicely onto the topic of AI and how that will impact selection processes moving forwards.

The structure of the event allowed us to have a true discussion, with respectful debates and questions; we truly delved deeper into practical strategies and best practises for unconscious bias within Talent Acquisition.

One highlight of the roundtable was assessing applications and selection processes and the role that plays with unconscious bias, whether it be language capabilities, industry experience, age, or gender. There were some interesting concepts on how to utilise automation scoring techniques for candidates’ applications, which are then forwarded to the designated recruiter to follow up with a screening interview. It was a very interesting process, which provoked a debate on whether that would improve unconscious bias or have a negative impact.

The event concluded with a collective agreement that we could discuss unconscious bias for a lot longer, and that we may need another event to continue the topic. Following feedback from the attendees and local market, we will be focusing our next event on AI - positives, negatives, and whether we should embrace AI within our recruitment processes.

The next Talent Acquisition Roundtable will be held in October. If you are interested in attending, please email me directly at keely.straw@emearecruitment.com

Thomas Powell, Recruitment Consultant, takes a look at the Finance and Accountancy recruitment market in the Netherlands and shares the key to success...

In today’s recruitment market, demand for talent is heavily restricted and continues to be candidate driven across the junior to senior level.  

To be at the top of the competition, it is crucial for you, as the hiring manager, to offer the candidate the right opportunity with clear plans of progression - not a sidestep where they are doing the same role for more reward.

We are noticing that the biggest motivation to move in today’s market falls to the following:

• Lack of responsibility in their current role - in turn, looking to move to take on more responsibility and have each day be a new challenge where they learn and add value to a company
• Looking for progression, wanting the step up - candidates in the mid to senior market are constantly looking for the step up in their career and will rarely make the sidestep for additional compensation

How can you do this when recruiting into your team?

First, what profile are you looking for? If you have a strong desire for a particular level of experience in local reporting, you know this is non-negotiable for your business.

However, think about why someone who does this role already would move to your company to do the same role. Think of ways this person can progress and move up in the company.

To retain the best talent in your company, this is what you need to be outlining. This is where you sell yourself to the candidate.

As recruiters, we hear, “This role will have progression opportunities” all the time. Be direct about what progression opportunities are available and ask the question of why the candidate should move.

Secondly, identify a success story. If you have a profile that may fall slightly below the criteria - maybe they don’t hold enough Dutch GAAP or don’t have enough payroll processing experience - offer the training and development to the candidate.

While this can take time, look at how attractive your role becomes and look at the success story you can create in your company. You as the manager have achieved this and, in turn, this profile is likely to stay with your business in the long term, given the time and value you have invested in them.

This is where EMEA Recruitment can add value. We are a candidate-driven business and skilled in mapping the candidate’s motivation to the right business, where they will add value to your organisation and thrive.

If you’d like to speak to me about how we can assist you in your search for talent, please get in touch with me at thomas.powell@emearecruitment.com