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Corporate Recruiting Best Practice
Folgen Sie diesem Blog, um Rezensionen von Fachleuten zu verfolgen oder schreiben Sie selbst eine. Ihre Meinung ist mir wichtig!
Viel Spaß,
Myron Panczuk
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Roland Rott, General Manager Women´s Health Ultrasound & IT bei GE Healthcare:
„Myron Panczuk hat mit dem vorliegenden Buch ein wertvolles Tool für Hiring Manager geschaffen. Zum einen enthält es eine umfassende und detaillierte Darstellung der Prozesschritte von der Bedarfsplanung bis zur Besetzung und ist damit ein wervoller „Refresher“ für jeden Hiring Manager, der nicht permanent oder im Detail mit diesen Prozessen vertraut ist. Damit fungiert es auch als gemeinsame Basis zwischen Hiring Managern und den involvierten Recruitern – legt ein Vokabular von Fachtermini fest und enthält eine Vielzahl praktischer Best Practices, Tipps und Details, die im Eifer des Gefechts rasch vergessen oder andernfalls teuer und zeitraubend „erlernt“ werden müssten.
Selbst als geübter Hiring Manager tendiert man im Laufe der Zeit dazu, seine „übliche“ Vorgehensweise auszuspielen und nicht aus den breiteren Möglichkeiten der passenden Recruitingtools zu wählen – Panczuks Buch beugt dem vor und ermuntert damit auch Hiring Manager ihr Toolkit der jeweiligen Hiringsituation anzupassen.
Panczuk schöpft diese Erfahrung aus seiner langjährigen Zusammenarbeit mit Unternehmen verschiedener Größenordnungen, aber mit klarem professionellen Anspruch.
Ich habe mit Myron Panczuk im Zeitraum 2012-2013 bei GE Healthcare zusammengearbeitet und im Rahmen einer Talent Expansion rund 15 Kandidaten aus dem Management und Spezialisten gesourced. Myron Panczuk hat dabei den Recruitingprozess in bemerkenswertem Tempo und stets höchster Qualität ausgeführt – die hohe Besetzungs- und Retentionquote dieser Kandidaten stellt Zeugnis über handwerkliche Kompetenz von Myron Panczuk im Bereich Recruiting.“
Folgen Sie diesem Blog, um Rezensionen, Previews und Meinungen von Fachleuten zu verfolgen oder schreiben Sie selbst. Ihre Meinung ist mir wichtig! Der Veröffentlichungstermin wird hier bekannt gemacht.
Viel Spaß,
Myron Panczuk
„Corporate Recruiting Best Practice“ ist das erste Fachbuch über Personalbeschaffung in Unternehmen, das in Zeiten des Fachkräftemangels einen ganzheitlichen Ansatz zur Optimierung dieser wichtigen Unternehmensfunktion verfolgt. Die Leistungsfähigkeit der Personalbeschaffung wird von 4 Elementen bestimmt, die alle in diesem Buch kenntnisreich und praxisorientiert beschrieben werden. Dazu zählt der eigentliche Beschaffungsprozess selbst, der aus fünf Schritten besteht: der Personalbedarfsplanung, dem Suchauftrag, dem Active Sourcing, der Bewerberauswahl und dem Abschluss. Das zweite wichtige Element sind IT Systeme wie das Bewerbermanagement System, welches nötig ist, um die Abläufe effizient zu unterstützen. Leser erfahren, wie externe IT Systeme, Soziale Netzwerke – Facebook, Xing, Linkedin und Co. – noch effektiver für die Rekrutierung von Fachkräften genutzt werden können. Als drittes Element werden moderne Organisationsstrukturen der Unternehmensfunktion Personalbeschaffung beleuchtet. Dabei werden Faktoren wie die Einbettung in die Unternehmenshierarchie ebenso beleuchtet, wie Spezialrollen und vor allem notwendige Kompetenzen und Fortbildungsmaßnahmen für Personaler und Recruiting Spezialisten. Dieses Buch gibt ihnen wertvolle Hinweise über die Einsatzmöglichkeiten von externen Dienstleistern und Outsourcing, damit die Recruiting Abteilung schnell und flexibel auf den volatilen Arbeitskräftebedarf reagieren kann. Als viertes Element werden Kennzahlen und sogenannte Key Performance Indicator vorgestellt, mit deren Hilfe sich nicht nur Erfolg oder Misserfolg in der Vergangenheit messen lässt. Sondern die darüber hinaus, richtig eingesetzt, dazu dienen können, die Leistungsfähigkeit der Rekrutierung und ihrer Mitarbeiter kontinuierlich zu verbessern.
Folgen Sie diesem Blog, um Rezensionen von Fachleuten zu verfolgen oder schreiben Sie selbst eine. Ihre Meinung ist mir wichtig! Der Veröffentlichungstermin wird hier bekannt gemacht.
Viel Spaß,
Myron Panczuk
Neulich habe ich an einer Bewerberumfrage zu zeitversetzten Videointerviews als Ersatz für persönliche Vorstellungsgespräche teilgenommen. Bei dieser Gelegenheit habe ich mich gefragt, welchen Nutzen das haben könnte.
Zeitversetzte Videointerviews funktionieren folgendermaßen. Das Unternehmen, bei dem man sich beworben hat, sendet einen Link mit der Bitte zu, das Videointerview in einer vorgegebenen Frist durchzuführen. Der Bewerber kann dann im Grunde selbst entscheiden, wann genau er das Videointerview starten möchte. Am Wochenende, früh morgens oder nachts. Der Link führt ihn zu einer Website, in der er sich kurz registriert. Das Unternehmen, bei dem er sich beworben hat, stellt sich in einem Video vor und der Bewerber kann ein Testinterview durchführen, um sich mit den technischen Gegebenheiten und dem Ablauf des Interviews vertraut zu machen (Webcam einstellen, Hintergrund festlegen, Tisch sauber machen…). Das eigentliche Interview besteht aus einer Reihe schriftlicher Fragen. Für jede Frage bleibt dem Bewerber eine Vorbereitungszeit von wenigen Minuten, bevor seine Antwort aufgezeichnet wird. Auch für die Antwort ist eine begrenzte Zeit vorgegeben. Das einmal gestartete Interview kann nicht gestoppt werden, Antworten können nicht mehr gelöscht oder neu aufgezeichnet werden.
Der Nutzen für den Bewerber liegt darin, dass er innerhalb der vorgegebenen Frist flexibel entscheiden kann, wann er das Interview durchführen möchte. Für Recruiter hat es den Vorteil, dass keine Termine für Interviews koordiniert werden müssen. So weit, so gut.
Zeitversetzte Videointerviews sind gar keine echten Interviews
Die Schwäche zeitversetzter Videointerviews liegt auf der Hand. Es sind im Grunde gar keine Interviews, weil elementare Grundbedingungen eines Interviews nicht erfüllt sind: Es findet kein echter Dialog statt und dem Bewerber ist sein Gesprächspartner gar nicht bekannt. Zu einem Dialog gehört Rückkoppelung. Wenn man mir in einem Interview eine Frage stellt, dann möchte ich die Chance haben eine Rückfrage zu stellen, wenn ich das Gefühl habe, die Frage nicht richtig verstanden zu haben. Wenn ich als Recruiter merke, dass ein Bewerber meine Frage missverstanden hat, dann kann ich ihn in einem echten Interview schnell wieder auf das richtige Gleis bringen. Beides ist in zeitversetzten Interviews nicht möglich. Ein wichtiger Aspekt in strukturierten Interviews ist die Nachfrage durch Recruiter. Kein Recruiter gibt sich mit der ersten Antwort des Bewerbers zufrieden, sondern es wird nachgebohrt und tiefer gebohrt. Auch dies ist in zeitversetzten Interviews nicht möglich. Diese Methode ist überhaupt recht einseitig, denn der Bewerber hat seinerseits keine Möglichkeit, Antworten auf seine Fragen zu erhalten. Auch aus Gründen der Höflichkeit sollten Bewerber wissen, wer ihr Gesprächspartner ist. Nur dann kann ein Interview auf Augenhöhe stattfinden. Bewerber beschweren sich häufig zurecht darüber, dass sie kein Feedback erhalten. Bei persönlichen und Telefoninterviews bekommen sie zumindest eine Ahnung, wenn sie auf Mimik, Gestik und Tonfall ihres Gesprächspartners achten. In zeitversetzten Videointerviews haben sie nichts von dem, weil sie wie ein Nachrichtenmoderator in eine Kamera sprechen. Aus dieser Perspektive betrachtet sind zeitversetzte Videointerviews kaum mehr als ein Quiz. Aber trotz aller Popularität für Quiz Sendungen im TV, sollte die Bewerbung um eine Stelle wirklich zu einem Quiz verkommen?
Chancengleichheit für Bewerber?
Anbieter von zeitversetzten Videointerviews führen häufig an, dass mit dieser Methode alle Bewerber die gleichen Chancen hätten, weil allen Bewerbern dieselben Fragen gestellt würden. Auf diese Weise würden Bewerber objektiv miteinander verglichen werden können. Selbst wenn man der Ansicht ist, dass man Objektivität nur dadurch zustande bringt, dass man allen Bewerbern dieselben Fragen stellt, ist dies natürlich kein Alleinstellungsmerkmal für zeitversetzte Videointerviews. Natürlich kann man diese Methode auch in Telefoninterviews und persönlichen Interviews einsetzen. Aber wird man damit allen Bewerbern wirklich gerecht? In der Praxis möchte man einen Bewerber nach seinen auffälligen Lücken im Lebenslauf fragen, einen anderen fragt man das nicht, weil es keine Lücken gibt. Dafür möchte man den anderen Bewerber fragen, wie er sich die Arbeit in einem stark regulierten Konzern vorstellt, wo er doch bisher nur in kleinen Startup Unternehmen gearbeitet hat. Videointerviews könnten die Objektivität sogar ungewollt einschränken. Man denke nur an störende Hintergrundgeräusche bei der Aufzeichnung. Die Attraktivität der Tapete im Hintergrund liegt im Auge des Betrachters. Was, wenn der Recruiter findet, die sei echt gruselig (und deshalb der Bewerber vielleicht irgendwie auch)?
Schneller und besser?
Ein vielzitierter Vorteil von zeitversetzten Videointerviews soll die schneller Entscheidung und die bessere Auswahl der Bewerber sein. Schnelligkeit wird dadurch erreicht, dass man nur einmal Gehirnschmalz in die Formulierung von Interviewfragen pro Stelle investieren muss und in das System einpflegen muss. Wie gesagt trifft dieser einmalige Aufwand auch auf Telefoninterviews und persönliche zu, wenn man denn immer dieselben Fragen stellen möchte. Der Auswertungsaufwand ist bei allen Methoden auch gleich, weshalb das Argument Schnelligkeit nicht wirklich nachvollziehbar ist. Das einmalige Einpflegen in das System birgt unter Umständen sogar einen Praxisnachteil, der in seiner Tragweite nicht zu unterschätzen ist. Ähnlich wie bei Stellenanzeigen besteht bei den Interviewfragen die Gefahr, dass sich im Tagesgeschäft eine „Copy & Paste“ Kultur einschleicht. Fragen werden dann auch nicht mehr stellenspezifisch immer wieder neu formuliert, sondern man greift einfach und schnell auf alte Fragen zurück. Recruiter scheinen mit der Formulierung von Interviewfragen durchaus Probleme zu haben, weshalb einige Anbieter solcher Produkte „Beispielfragen“ anbieten, die Softskills wie Teamfähigkeit thematisieren. Falls sich diese Standardfragen in der Praxis durchsetzen, werden bald auch Standardratgeber für Bewerber wie im Bereich von Assessment Centern erfolgreich vermarktet werden können. Am Ende werden alle Unternehmen, ob groß oder klein, die gleichen Fragen stellen und der beste Standardbewerber wird sich durchsetzen.
Innovation oder Unsinn?
Zeitversetzte Videointerviews sind technische Möglichkeit, aber im Vergleich zu persönlichen, telefonischen oder Skype Interviews keine wirkliche Innovation im Auswahlverfahren. Strukturierte Interviews kann man auch in konventionellen Verfahren einsetzen und zwar besser, weil es sich um dialogorientierte Methoden handelt. Die Hersteller dieser Lösungen verkaufen es daher auch selten als Ersatz für das persönliche Vorstellungsgespräch, sondern als Ersatz für das Telefoninterview. Aber auch das erscheint mir nicht als sinnvoll. Viele Bewerber fühlen sich als Bittsteller, die von Unternehmen selten Feedback erhalten, was das einstellende Unternehmen wie eine unnahbare Black Box erscheinen lässt. Wenn nun auch das Telefon- oder Skype Interview von einer unpersönlichen Methode wie dem zeitversetzten Videointerview ersetzt wird, dann verlieren Unternehmen, deren wichtiges Gut ihr Umgang mit Bewerbern sein sollte, vollends an Glaubwürdigkeit. Man könnte sogar meinen, solche Unternehmen möchten Bewerber nicht mal mit der Kneifzange anfassen. Aber Bewerber, die nach Lage der schriftlichen Unterlagen geeignet erscheinen, sollten auch die Chance auf echte Interviews erhalten, in denen sie nicht nur Fragen beantworten, sondern auch stellen dürfen. Von echten Menschen. Interviews sollten auf Augenhöhe mit der nötigen Ernsthaftigkeit durchgeführt werden. Kein Recruiter möchte einen Bewerber im Schlafanzug sehen und kein Bewerber möchte, dass sein Bewerbungsvideo von einem Recruiter nebenbei beim „Tatort“ schauen bewertet wird. Der Aufwand für die Terminvereinbarung für ein echtes Telefon- oder Skype Interview sollte doch zu vertreten sein, notfalls lässt sich der auch gut outsourcen.
Vielleicht könnte man trotzdem noch einen Nutzen aus dieser Technik ziehen. Wenn man es nicht als Interviewersatz verwenden würde, sondern als eine Plattform für Auswahltests (Programmierung, Präsentationstechnik etc.). Das könnte mehr Sinn machen.
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… sondern als eigenständiges Ressort direkt an den CEO berichten muss“.
Viele, die diese Forderung lesen, werden denken, dies sei eine geradezu verrückte und unerhörte Provokation gegenüber der HR Funktion, eine vollkommen realitätsfremde Vision, deren Schöpfer dringend zum Arzt müsste. Denn diese Forderung widerspricht der heute allgemein akzeptierten Überzeugung und Realität, dass die Unternehmensfunktion Personalbeschaffung eine „natürliche“ Teilfunktion des Personalwesens ist und daher auch organisatorisch in dieser Unternehmenseinheit angesiedelt sein muss. Auch ich dachte „verrückt!“ als ich den Blog von Lou Adler „Why Recruiting Should Report to the CEO, not HR“ zum ersten Mal las. Lou Adler ist ein US-Autor und Talent Acquisition Berater, der dafür bekannt ist, über den Tellerrand des Gewohnten und Althergebrachten hinauszuschauen. Diese Fähigkeit ist ja nicht selten die Grundlage für Ideen, die am Ende auch zu echten Innovationen führen können. Schließlich wird man nicht dadurch besser, dass man nur tut, was man schon immer getan hat oder das, was alle anderen auch tun. Außerdem machen „verrückte“ Ideen einfach Spaß, weil sie den Alltag auch mal sprengen. Deshalb fasse ich den Artikel von Lou Adler kurz zusammen und mache mir einige Gedanken zu dieser Provokation.
Als Fachmann mit jahrzehntelanger Erfahrung stellt er zuerst klar, dass die Rekrutierung erst seit den 90er Jahren im Zuge der aufkommenden Internettechnologie und des Aufkommens von Bewerbermanagementsystemen zum Gegenstand von Effizienzbemühungen von Seiten der HR Funktion wurde. Dies führte seiner Meinung nach zu einer Verlagerung der Verantwortung weg von den Fachbereichen (Hiring Managern) hin zum Personalwesen, wobei HR sich dabei auf die Reduzierung der Einstellungskosten und die Optimierung der Einstellungsprozesse fokussiert hätte. Im Ergebnis, so Adler, hätte HR allerdings versagt, weil sie es nicht geschafft hätte, die Personalbeschaffung als externen Wettbewerbsvorteil des Unternehmens zu positionieren. Vielmehr hätte HR seine Bemühungen darauf beschränkt, den internen Prozess der Stellenbesetzung und die Kosten dieses Prozesses zu optimieren. Für die Verlagerung der Personalbeschaffung weg von der HR Leitung hin zum CEO führt er folgende Gründe auf, die alle auf das Versagen der HR Funktion in ihrer Rolle als Heimathafen der Personalbeschaffung hinauslaufen:
Der Fachkräftemangel in Kombination mit dem demografischen Faktor muss zwangsläufig dazu führen, dass man Fehlinvestitionen bei der Besetzung von Stellen in Zukunft noch stärker vermeiden muss. Deshalb muss sich die Unternehmensfunktion Personalbeschaffung noch mehr mit diesem Thema beschäftigen als in der Vergangenheit. Leider habe ich als Corporate Recruiter heute keine Möglichkeit, systematisch strukturierte Rückmeldungen über die Qualität meiner Einstellungen einzuholen. Sobald ich die Stelle besetzt habe und die Vakanz geschlossen habe ist sie für mich verschwunden. Da kräht kein Hahn mehr danach. Ich erfahre nicht, ob der neueingestellte Mitarbeiter die Probezeit „überlebt“ oder wie gut er bei seiner ersten Jahresleistungsbewertung abgeschnitten hat. Kundenzufriedenheitsumfragen sind für einen CEO ein wichtiges Steuerungsinstrument, aber sie werden für die Kunden der Personalbeschaffung, also für Bewerber und neueingestellte Mitarbeiter sehr selten eingesetzt. Vielleicht glaubt Adler auch deshalb, dass die Personalbeschaffung als eine Unternehmensabteilung, die auch externe Kunden betreut, besser beim CEO angesiedelt sein sollte als in der HR Abteilung, die ja nur interne Kunden (Mitarbeiter) betreut.
Adler nimmt kein Blatt vor den Mund, das muss man ihm lassen. Allerdings legt er auch an diesem Punkt den Finger auf eine Wunde. Denn die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Corporate Recruitern und Hiring Managern ist manchmal nicht ganz einfach. Wenn Recruiter eine neue Stellenbesetzung beginnen und im Zuge der Requirements Analysis mit dem Hiring Manager sprechen wollen, hat dieser oft keine Zeit für sie und sagt, das stünde doch alles in der Stellenbeschreibung. Wenn Recruiter wissen wollen, wie der Hiring Manager die vorgestellten Bewerber bewertet, bekommen sie manchmal nur „passt nicht“ zu hören, oder „bitte Interviewtermin vereinbaren“. Hiring Manager wiederum wissen oft gar nicht, was Recruiter eigentlich den ganzen Tag so machen, welchen Vorteil es hat, mit ihnen zusammenzuarbeiten (nur weil HR das so bestimmt hat?). Die Qualität der Bewerber ist manchmal gut, dann wieder grottenschlecht. Für Hiring Manager sind Corporate Recruiter manchmal einfach nur lästig und halten sie von ihren wirklich wichtigen Aufgaben ab, weil sie wieder irgendetwas besprechen wollen. Wenn diese „Missverständnisse“ in der Praxis vorkommen, dann kann es durchaus daran liegen, dass die Verantwortlichkeiten bei der Personalbeschaffung den beteiligten Parteien nicht ganz klar sind. Der Hiring Manager ist überzeugt, dass die Verantwortung beim Recruiter liegt, dieser wiederum glaubt, sie läge beim Hiring Manager. Dass die Verantwortung bei beiden liegen könnte wird unter Umständen übersehen, was häufig zu gegenseitigen Schuldzuweisungen führen kann. So weit, so schlecht. Es ist zu fragen, ob die Änderung des Berichtsweges der eigenständigen Unternehmensfunktion Recruiting hin zum CEO die Lösung ist. Vielleicht würde sie es tatsächlich erleichtern, dass Hiring Manager und Recruiter sich als Team verstehen. Vielleicht würde es helfen, wenn die Arbeitsziele (Key Performance Indicator) von Recruitern und Hiring Managern tatsächlich besser aufeinander abgestimmt wären. Vielleicht hat das Machtwort des CEO bei Hiring Managern mehr Gewicht als das des Leiters HR Operations (an den die Personalbeschaffung häufig berichtet). Andererseits gibt es genügend gute Beispiele, in denen die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Talent Acquisition und Business sehr gut funktioniert, obwohl TA nicht an den CEO berichtet (in diesen Fällen berichtet sie jedoch meist direkt an den Personalvorstand).
Richtig ist aber, dass sich die Aufgaben der Personalbeschaffung in den letzten Jahren enorm verändert haben. Früher konzentrierte sich die Rekrutierung auf die Auswahl der richtigen Bewerber aus einer genügend hohen Zahl von geeigneten Bewerbern. Die Auswahl der richtigen Bewerber ist auch heute noch wichtig, aber in den meisten Fällen Routine. Die Herausforderung liegt heute woanders, nämlich in der Generierung einer genügend hohen Anzahl geeigneter Bewerber. Der Fachkräftemangel lässt grüßen. Heute benötigen Recruiter neben einem sehr guten Urteilsvermögen bei der Bewertung von Bewerbern vor allem „active sourcing“ Fähigkeiten, was das gleiche ist wie „consultative selling skills“. Sie benötigen diese Fähigkeiten, um externe Fachkräfte beispielsweise in Plattfomen wie Xing und LinkedIn zu identifizieren und sie individuell anzusprechen und ihr Interesse an einer Position zu wecken. Klassische Personaler haben jedoch nicht in der Uni gelernt wie man das macht. Die klassischen Lehrinhalte im Bereich Personalwesen ignorieren heute noch oft den vertrieblichen Marketingcharakter der Personalbeschaffung und beschäftigen sich noch mit „old school“ Auswahlverfahren wie der Grafologie (das habe ich tatsächlich einem Lehrplan für einen Bachelor Studiengang entnommen). Klassische Personaler sind zwar sehr routiniert in Mitarbeitergesprächen, aber gar nicht gewohnt oder auch nur gewillt mit unternehmensfremden Personen zu denen sie keine Autoritätsbeziehung pflegen „Verkaufsgespräche“ zu führen.
Adler liegt auch nicht ganz falsch, wenn er moderne Marketinginstrumente für die Personalbeschaffung einfordert. Das beginnt schon bei der heute sehr komplexen Notwendigkeit, „den“ Fachkräftemarkt richtig zu segmentieren. Es gibt viele Fachkräftemärkte, die sich in unterschiedlichen Plattformen tummeln, in offensichtlichen wie „Xing“, aber auch in versteckten wie „das Auge“. Moderne digitale Marketing Aktionen im Bereich Produktwerbung kommen heute ohne SEO (search engine optimization) Maßnahmen nicht mehr aus. Aber welche Recruitingabteilung in Deutschland wendet bei der Gestaltung und Veröffentlichung von Stellenanzeigen SEO Maßnahmen an? Wenn Ihre Stelle nicht auf der ersten Trefferseite in Google erscheint, dann ist SEO in Ihrer HR/Recruitingabteilung wahrscheinlich unbekannt und Sie verzichten dadurch unnötigerweise auf Fachkräfte, die sich nur deshalb nicht auf Ihre Stelle bewerben, weil sie sie einfach nicht gefunden haben.
Bei differenzierter Betrachtung des Innenverhältnisses zwischen der HR Teilfunktion Personalbeschaffung und dem Selbstverständnis der übrigen HR Teilfunktionen kann man in vielen Unternehmen folgendes Symptom erkennen. Die Belegschaft in der Personalbeschaffung ist häufig jünger als in den übrigen HR Funktionsbereichen. Das kommt oft daher, dass Personalverantwortliche die Personalbeschaffung als typische Einstiegsposition betrachten. Schließlich haben diese Personalverantwortlichen, als sie selbst noch HR Referenten, HRBP oder HR Generalisten waren, Personalbeschaffung nebenbei gemacht. Aus dieser Erfahrung heraus kann die Überzeugung erwachsen, dass Berufsanfänger am besten in der Personalbeschaffung beginnen, weil sie dort nicht viel kaputt machen können. Ein weiterer Faktor für das oben angeführte Symptom sind eingeschränkte Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten für Mitarbeiter in der Personalbeschaffung. Wenn sie in der HR Abteilung Karriere machen wollen, dann müssen sie dafür oft die Abteilung Recruiting verlassen. Die Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten in der Personalbeschaffung sind in vielen Unternehmen sehr eingeschränkt, es gibt kaum recruitingspezifische Fortbildungsmaßnahmen und kaum definierte Entwicklungspfade für fachliche Weiterentwicklung, die man innerhalb der Funktionsgruppe ansteuern könnte. Sobald Recruiter Fähigkeiten erworben haben, die sie beispielsweise zu „trusted advisor“ von Fachbereichen machen, verlassen sie die Personalbeschaffung und werden HR Referenten oder HRBP. Falls die Personalbeschaffung jedoch als reine Ausbildungsabteilung fungiert, dann widerspricht dies in der Tat den gebetsmühlenartig wiederholten Unternehmensaussagen, dass die Personalbeschaffung in Zeiten des „war for talent“ Priorität genieße.
Ich gebe ehrlich zu, dass ich Freude daran habe, fachlich provokante und zugespitzte Meinungen zu lesen. Sie rütteln mich auf und zwingen mich dazu, meine Komfortzone zu verlassen, in der ich es mir mitunter gemütlich gemacht habe. Das passiert ja schneller als man denkt. Adler fordert, dass die Unternehmensfunktion Personalbeschaffung sich von der „Mutter“ HR emanzipiert und zu einem eigenen Vorstandsresort wird. Im Grunde ist diese Forderung – rein betriebswirtschaftlich – konsequent zu Ende gedacht. Es ist klar, dass in Unternehmen verschiedene Organisationen um begrenzte Ressourcen (Geld) streiten. Je höher eine Organisation in der Unternehmenshierarchie angesiedelt ist, desto größer ist der Geldtopf, um den sie mit anderen konkurrieren kann. In der Unternehmenspraxis zeigt sich allerdings, dass die Zahl der Vorstandsposten zurückgeht und einzelne Vorstände mehrere Ressorts verantworten. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist Adlers Forderung etwas Pippi Langstrumpfhaft: „ich mache mir die Welt wie sie mir gefällt“.
Glücklicherweise erkennen viele Unternehmen zunehmend die Wichtigkeit der Personalbeschaffung als strategisches Investitionsfeld für den Einsatz ihrer Ressourcen. Dort steigt die Unternehmensfunktion Recruiting tatsächlich in der Hierarchie auf, indem deren Leitung direkt an den Personalvorstand berichtet. Damit ist schon sehr viel gewonnen. Aber es ist kein Selbstläufer. Die Leiter der Unternehmensfunktion Recruiting stehen vor einer schwierigen Herausforderung. Es ist ihre Verantwortung, ihren direkten Draht zum Vorstand tatsächlich „zu Geld zu machen“. Daran werden sie sich quantitativ messen lassen müssen. Sie müssen den Vorstand überzeugen können, dass die Einstellung von neuen Mitarbeitern nicht nur eine Frage geringer Einstellungskosten ist, sondern eine Investitionsentscheidung in die Zukunft. Dazu müssen Kennzahlen entwickelt werden, mit denen man diesen ROI tatsächlich messen und belegen kann. Und last but not least ist es die Verantwortung der Recruiting Leitung, Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten innerhalb der Personalbeschaffung zu etablieren. Diese Abteilung darf ihre Mitarbeiter nicht als „Kostenstellen mit Ohren“ betrachten. Steigende Qualifikationsanforderungen werden auch von steigenden Gehältern in diesem Bereich begleitet werden müssen. Aktuell besteht durchaus die Gefahr, dass die Aufgabe Recruiting wieder zu einer Commodity wird wie es früher einmal war. Damals beschränkte sich Rekrutierung darauf, Bewerbungen aus dem Briefcouvert zu nehmen, zu schauen in welchen Fachbereich sie gehört und sie dann per Hauspost an den entsprechenden Fachabteilungsleiter zu senden. Diese Aufgabe konnte auch die Poststelle des Unternehmens bewältigen. Recruitingabteilungen, die heute ihre Kernaufgabe nur in der Bewerbervorselektion sehen, laufen Gefahr, in wenigen Jahren von Algorithmen in der Big Data Cloud ersetzt zu werden. Dann wird auch der direkte Draht zum CEO nicht helfen und die Kostenstelle Recruiting verliert ihre Ohren. Recruiter müssen Recruiting Business Partner werden, um auch in Zukunft noch einen Mehrwert im Unternehmen leisten zu können, der von keinem Algorithmus erbracht werden kann. Sie müssen neue Aufgaben übernehmen und Kompetenzen erwerben, also Verantwortung übernehmen, die man nicht an Algorithmen delegieren kann. Das schaffen Recruiter aber auch als Teil der HR Abteilung, wenn sie das mit einem Business Case begründen können.
Adler hat noch viel mehr Gründe für die Abspaltung der Personalbeschaffung von der Personalabteilung aufgeführt. Lesen Sie nach (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-recruiting-should-report-ceo-hr-lou-adler ). Aber ich warne Sie vor, er mag HR wirklich nicht.
Klicken Sie unten auf Follow, um den Corporate Recruiting White Paper regelmäßig zu folgen und empfehlen Sie diesen Blog weiter. Besten Dank.
Bisher erschienen:
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.1: Einführung in die Reihe
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.2: Englische Fachbegriffe kurz erläutert
Recruiting White Paper Vol.3: Personalbedarfsplanung
Recruiting White Paper Vol.4: Die Requisition
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.1: Weshalb sich oft die „falschen“ Kandidaten bewerben – Phrasen in Stellenanzeigen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.2: Talent Pools – die Fata Morgana der proaktiven Personalbeschaffung?
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.3 – Wie man es schafft, 30% aller Stellen durch Mitarbeiterempfehlungsprogramme zu besetzen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.4: 4 Tips, wie man Personalberatungskosten senkt ohne die Qualität zu mindern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6: Warum Corporate Recruiter keine Headhunter sind – aber sein müssen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6.1: Warum passive Kandidaten selten zu Bewerbern werden.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.1: Wann Hiring Manager mit der Leistung von Recruitern zufrieden sind – Die Bewerber Shortlist
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.2: Wie Fehlentscheidungen der der Bewerberauswahl vermieden werden – Effektive Auswahlmethoden
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 8: Warum gerade hervorragende Bewerber ein Angebot auch mal ablehnen – Effektives Closing für Recruiter
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 9: Warum die richtigen IT Systeme Einfluss auf die Leistung der Recruiting Funktion haben
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10: Zwei Bedingungen, damit die Recruiting Funktion tatsächlich Gehör (Geld) im Unternehmen findet.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.1: Was zeichnet gut Recruiter wirklich aus?
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.2: Was unterscheidet durchschnittliche von sehr guten Recruiting Abteilungen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.1: Umfragebasierte KPI im Corporate Recruitment
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.2: Manuelle und systemgenerierte KPI
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.3 – 5 KPI Best Practices: den Erfolg nicht nur messen, sondern steuern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 12: Warum Recruiting der aufregendste Job im Unternehmen ist.
Über ttr-net: http://bit.ly/ttrnet
Get yourself prepared – research and cherry picking
In the previous blog posts I have given you some hints about German specifics applying for jobs here. German language skills are important as well as unique formal requirements for application documents. Some interview techniques you are going to face here will be new to you. Many attractive jobs are posted in local job boards which foreign job seekers might not know about. Now, I want to give you some practical hints how to get yourself prepared for the German job market.
Choose the right jobs in the first place
When I screen CVs and cover letters for my job openings I must reject 90% of them straight away because they simply do not match with the job requirements published in the job advert. Sometimes I must ask myself if job applicants have really read the job advert at all. In many cases it seems to me that applicants get excited by some buzz words in the job advert and stop reading further. Applicants, for example, read “Sales Key Account Manager” in the job title and apply for the job. They are hoping to get the job because they are experienced sales professionals. What they obviously have not read is that this job requires a track record in selling complex radiology software solutions to hospitals (other buzzwords in the job advert: radiology, B2B, software application, healthcare, clinical information systems). I need five seconds max to reject a sales professional with a track record in selling cell phones to private consumers in a telco provider’s shop downtown. They have no B2B experience (selling to corporations/public services). They have no clue about enterprise software architecture. They have no idea about radiology. And if they are healthy they have even never been in a hospital before not to mention their knowledge of purchase processes in hospitals, point of sales in public services, competition in the CIS market and so on. I have not made this story up. This is business as usual for recruiters every day.
For applicants it is a waste of time applying for jobs which do not really match their skills. And it is frustrating getting rejected again. The solution is to read job adverts carefully. Read every bullet point in the job description, in the qualification and requirements section, too. Compare your skills and experience critically with every bullet point and mark them with “yes”, “no” or “unsure”. If you can’t answer the majority of questions with “yes” you should seriously consider not to invest time and effort applying for this job. High application numbers are no guarantee for success – they are a lottery. Cherry picking on the other hand is increasing your chances. Use the saved time to search for other opportunities instead. There are many of them out there. Give the recruiter a call if it is a cliff hanger. If the recruiter is competent they will be able to tell you if your chances to get on the short list are good or not. Trust them, because they know your competitors.
Customize your CV and cover letter
Earlier on I have described the preference of German recruiters and hiring managers to hire spot on candidates. If you have carefully read the job advert and you have decided to apply as a result of that you will know what spot on means. Now it is your turn to show in your cover letter and your CV that you really are spot on. Especially if you are a graduate with no or just few practical job experience this is very important. You need to highlight that you have the required skills. Let me give you some examples to make this clear. Assuming that you have a master’s degree in marketing. You learned a lot about marketing in five years, right? If you apply for a brand marketing position you should highlight the things that you learned about brand marketing. If you apply for a product marketing position you should highlight other topics which are more relevant for product marketing. If you apply at a company in B2B business you should highlight what you learned about B2B marketing. If it is a B2C company you are about to apply to you should highlight B2C instead. Pick the relevant information from your skill set and highlight them. Do not think that the corporate recruiter will do that for you. If you do not make this clear to them they will rather reject you.
Do some research before you apply for a job
Well, in order to customize your CV and cover letter you need to know some basics about the company you want to apply to. If you apply for a marketing position you know that there are many marketing disciplines, methods, techniques and instruments. You also know that you need to pick the right tools from this tool box depending on the markets, industries, products and so on. As a marketer you need to know what to sell to whom before you decide how to do that. You need to find this out when you apply for a job, too. You need to do some research about the company first in order to decide what skills to highlight in your application. You will see that it is hardly enough to just read the headlines on the company’s website. It is not about the size of the company and turnover only. Once I interviewed a candidate who told me that he applied for a job in our company because it was a market leader and very successful. I replied asking him “how successful?” He had no idea because he had not invested any time to read further. He made lip service and missed to back it up with some more information.
At this point I want to make one thing clear to you. All the research about a company and its products I do not recommend in order to make you to compliment the job or the company you are applying to. It is not about making compliments and backing them up with additional information. It is not a tactical recommendation. I do recommend this for two reasons. First, it will help you to find out if a position is really a fit for you. A sales position in car sales is different to a sales position in investment goods. Second, it helps the recruiter and the hiring manager to evaluate your ability to convince other people and to assess your analytical capabilities. This is a basic requirement in today’s work life. No one will buy a car from you, because you are such a nice person. Buyers expect you to know something about the car, too. In addition buyers expect you to ask them the right questions in order to find out what they need the car for. You then must be analytical enough to match relevant features of the car with the intended usage of the car. A family with two children will like the huge space in the car. A single male will like the fact that he will not be overtaken by anyone else on German Autobahns because this car is damn fast, too. Same in the application process. Applicants have a huge set of skills, experience and qualification. They must be able to highlight just those which are relevant for a specific position. In order to do so they must know about the job, the company, and the products. Only if they are analytical enough they will be able to convince the recruiter and later their colleagues and customers. Researching about a company is helpful in order to provide facts that show that you are a spot on candidate. Germans love facts!
Use friends, trainers, books to cross check your application efforts
Applying for jobs is a personal thing. Many people keep it to themselves which does actually make sense. You surely will not speak about this with your boss or colleagues. The downside of this is that you will get hardly any feedback about the quality of your application. Recruiters often have no time to tell more than “We are sorry to tell you that …” But feedback is important in order to improve your efforts efficiently. There is a saying in Germany: “Four eyes see more than two”. Let your friends cross check your application by comparing it to the job advert. Does your cover letter really make sense to a person who does not know you personally? Do your statements really reflect the requirements of the job advert? Is the layout of your CV easy to read, crisp but still informative? Ask your friends to help you and help your friends if they ask you for help. Help each other because sooner or later all of us will be job seekers.
You can utilize trainers, too. Make sure though that the trainers and the workshops are focused on enabling you to pick matching job opportunities and to apply smartly. There are many ghost writers on the market offering to write the application for you. I do not recommend this. Recruiters read many applications every day. They recognize easily which applications are written by ghost writers and they will reject you in this case. The same with books for job seekers. You will find many books with wording examples for cover letters, wording for answering standard interview questions and so on. Do not copy and paste these. For example you will find the following recommendation in many books. If you had been unemployed for a while they recommend saying that you were taking a sabbatical in order to help your mother who suffered from a serious illness. Some recruiters will not comment on that but they will reject you because they read those books, too. They will simply believe that you made this up. Others will maybe ask you to explain in more detail what tasks you had to do in order to help your mother. People who made this story up will have serious problems coming up with tasks which fill a whole day for seven days a week. Do not make up stories. You will be asked many drill down questions and you will find yourself caught in contradictions sooner or later. Unless you are a professional liar.
Companies are looking for honest, credible and authentic candidates. Career gaps happen. They may happen to you as they might have happened to the people who interview you. Let me give you an example. I once interviewed a person who openly said that they suffered from a burn out years ago. I asked them how did it come about and what did they learn from it. This person was able to describe the mechanism of becoming sick step by step. They also described how they changed their behaviour since then in order to stop this mechanism. At the end of the day the hiring manager and I were confident that they are now much better protected against burn out than any other colleague who has not suffered from this before. They elaborated their senses to recognize early alarm signals and they have developed individual methods how to react to them. I personally learned a lot from this candidate. So, in the end, their career gap was no issue for us. We hired them with confidence and it has been proved to be a good decision.
Ask smart questions
Many candidates forget one crucial purpose of a job interview. It is not only about giving companies the opportunity to choose the right candidate. It’s also about giving candidates the opportunity to choose the right employer. I admit that German interviews often do not provide enough time for that. But candidates can influence that. They can find out by researching about the company, the industry segment etc. They can also ask smart questions in interviews. Do not wait until interviewers ask you to ask questions. An ideal interview should be a conversation between two equal parties. But candidates must be confident and silver-tongued enough to play an active part in it. The questions should be smart though addressing the right person (see my blog post about how to act in interviews). At this point, smart candidates become the interviewer asking questions to find out if the company is the right place for them to be. There are surely some common questions for this purpose like “What are the common attributes of your top performers”? But many questions will come up during the interview. If an interviewer asks you how you handle stress and pressure you could answer and then follow up by asking them what common working situations cause stress in their team and why. You will get many insights by asking smart questions.
Well, this is it. This miniseries for foreign job seekers in Germany ends now. You find all blog posts here https://targettalentrecruiting.wordpress.com/ . I hope that some of these hints will be helpful for you. And I also hope that you will be successful learning to sell your skills and qualifications “the German way”. Let’s make it a win-win situation for everybody! Good luck!
The blog “Corporate Recruiting White Paper” addressing professionals in talent acquisition will be continued here in German. Stay tuned.
Please follow and share this blog with your network.
Cheers, Myron
Über ttr-net: http://bit.ly/ttrnet
Have you been asked by German interviewers to explain your weaknesses? Do German interviewers really expect you to tell them why you are wrong for the job?!? This blog post provides some helpful answers and hints for foreign job seekers in Germany.
Finally, your application succeeded and you have been invited for an interview. Great! Make sure that you are well prepared when you show up. First of all you should consider some formal aspects in interviews. Companies are looking for reliable employees. Make sure to appear to the interview right on time. If the interview is scheduled for 1 pm be there at 1pm. Five past one is not an option. Make a call prior to the interview if you realize that you are going to be late. Make this call as soon as possible not just five minutes before the interview is supposed to kick off.
The dress code is another important factor at this stage. Show up in business dress code except you know for sure that business casual or even smart casual is fine for your interviewers as well. Do not assume anything at this stage. It is better to call the recruiter beforehand if you are unsure about the dress code. It may happen to you though that you show up business like while your interviewers show up in shorts and flip-flops. Some companies do this on purpose to see if candidates become nervous and to see how they handle an unexpected situation.
Applicants should know who their interviewers are. It can be an HR representative or the hiring manager, a peer or even a top manager. Or maybe even all of them at once. Applicants should make sure to address them appropriately. If you have a question for the top manager it should be an appropriate question for top managers. You shouldn’t ask top managers about working hours. It’s better to ask this question to HR interviewers instead. If you address the HR person you should not ask them why their software developers use waterfall instead of agile development methods. Candidates often prepare questionnaires for interviews, but sometimes they forget to think about who they should ask which questions.
There is one mistake many foreign applicants make in interviews in Germany. They oversell themselves. Let me give you a live example for this. I have interviewed a candidate together with the hiring manager for an hour and the candidate seemed to be spot on. The candidate’s answers had been as perfect as his questions. Everything went smoothly, but for me it went too smoothly. That’s why I decided to ask a provocative question to finally challenge this candidate. I asked him why his university degree was negatively outstanding compared to all his other achievements. It was provocative, because his degree was actually good and not mediocre at all as I claimed. The candidate who had performed so well up to this point was focused on selling himself as good as possible. The answer he gave us surprised both the hiring manager and myself. It was the reason for rejecting him later. He said, that the mediocre degree was caused by his university teacher who did not like him. He spend some time explaining why the teacher did not like him but this was not really helpful for him to be honest. What we heard was that he was the best and it was always other people’s fault if really something went wrong. These things can happen if candidates are too focused on selling themselves in the best way. Perfect candidates though are often seen as too good to be true in Germany. This is when HR interviewers step in and ask nasty or provocative questions. I believe this is again a cultural thing. Remember the first issue of this miniseries. German companies are focused on developing the best products, but they are aware that this is a never ending endeavour. Candidates who claim that they are perfect raise doubt.
There is one frequently asked question in German job interviews which reflects this. “What are your weaknesses?” Most candidates hate this question because it makes an interview a cliff hanger. It is sometimes difficult to balance between selling yourself and being honest. Talking about your weakness though is not as dangerous as candidates might think. As a recruiter I like candidates who are aware of their skill gaps, experience gaps and areas for improvement. Because only these people are able to work on their weaknesses or gaps in order to improve them. The purpose of this question is to find out if candidates are able to assess their skill level realistically. It’s not the recruiter’s intention to make the candidate to reject himself. Another frequently asked question in German interviews is “How do you learn?” It may surprise you that the purpose of this question is to find out if a candidate is a team player. Many candidates answer that they learn by reading books, online services and trial and error. What they really say is that they learn on their own. I am still surprised how few people say that they learn by asking questions, by watching how peer students, colleagues and managers are getting things done. There are many more interview questions which actually address other skills than you might assume at first sight. Their real purpose is to find out if you really are a team player, if you are able to handle stress and pressure, if you are reliable and honest. No hiring company will rely on what you claim in your cover letter.
I believe that salary topics are covered differently in Germany than in many other countries. In the UK you find salary information published in the job advert. In Germany however candidates must express their salary expectation during the interview. Many foreign candidates have difficulties to do so. One reason might be that they do not know the German salary taxation regulations. In Germany there is a gross salary (“brutto”) and a net salary (“netto”). Gross salary is an employee’s salary before any taxes (income tax) and social security contribution are deducted. Gross salary is never paid out to employee’s bank account in Germany. The employer pays income tax and social security directly to the German federal authorities. After that the rest (net salary) is paid out to the employee. Many foreign candidates don’t know what gross salary to ask for because they do not know what this means in terms of net salary. But Companies never ask what net salary a candidate expects. They only ask for gross salary in Germany. This sounds like a dilemma. But in fact it is not. The internet helps. There are many online calculators which show the net salary once you put in gross salary and some other relevant criteria (e.g. are you married or not). Using these calculators will give you a better idea about the difference between gross and net salary. But be aware that these calculators are not approved by tax authorities, the results are not exact.
There is one thing you should avoid as soon as salary becomes a topic in an interview. Do not say that you have no idea about your salary expectation because you do not know the German salary system. Recruiters expect candidates to find out basic German labour conditions if they seriously intend to work here. If candidates don’t know these basics they may look like being not seriously interested, naïve, or just lazy.
Germans are often very direct. Some people may even say they are rude. German interviewers will ask you about your weaknesses instead of your areas for improvement. They will make you talk about them, about what you like about their products and how you might fit into their world. German interviewers often do not spend much time to sell their offering to you even though they are desperately seeking professionals like you. Don’t take it personally. This is what makes cultures different. Germans are not rude, they are just communicating differently. Some people say Germans are honest and you will know what you get. No surprises, which is not too bad I think. There is not a lot of small talk in German interviews compared to other countries. Opinions are often spoken out strictly and “alternativlos”, they are full of facts and often lack some vision. A former German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, once said, visionary people should go to see a doctor. Many years ago there was a merger between a US and a German company. At the initial board meeting the German CFO reported facts. An American board member stood up and told him that he does not want to know how a clockwork is working but he wants to know what time it is. When German interviewers ask you what you like about their company they want to hear facts not just lip service. Applying for jobs in Germany is therefore more time consuming than in many other countries.
Let’s see what you can do to be well prepared. Watch the following issue of this blog.
Please follow and share this blog with your network.
Cheers, Myron
Bisher erschienen:
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.1: Einführung in die Reihe
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.2: Englische Fachbegriffe kurz erläutert
Recruiting White Paper Vol.3: Personalbedarfsplanung
Recruiting White Paper Vol.4: Die Requisition
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.1: Weshalb sich oft die „falschen“ Kandidaten bewerben – Phrasen in Stellenanzeigen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.2: Talent Pools – die Fata Morgana der proaktiven Personalbeschaffung?
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.3 – Wie man es schafft, 30% aller Stellen durch Mitarbeiterempfehlungsprogramme zu besetzen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.4: 4 Tips, wie man Personalberatungskosten senkt ohne die Qualität zu mindern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6: Warum Corporate Recruiter keine Headhunter sind – aber sein müssen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6.1: Warum passive Kandidaten selten zu Bewerbern werden.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.1: Wann Hiring Manager mit der Leistung von Recruitern zufrieden sind – Die Bewerber Shortlist
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.2: Wie Fehlentscheidungen der der Bewerberauswahl vermieden werden – Effektive Auswahlmethoden
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 8: Warum gerade hervorragende Bewerber ein Angebot auch mal ablehnen – Effektives Closing für Recruiter
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 9: Warum die richtigen IT Systeme Einfluss auf die Leistung der Recruiting Funktion haben
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10: Zwei Bedingungen, damit die Recruiting Funktion tatsächlich Gehör (Geld) im Unternehmen findet.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.1: Was zeichnet gut Recruiter wirklich aus?
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.2: Was unterscheidet durchschnittliche von sehr guten Recruiting Abteilungen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.1: Umfragebasierte KPI im Corporate Recruitment
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.2: Manuelle und systemgenerierte KPI
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.3 – 5 KPI Best Practices: den Erfolg nicht nur messen, sondern steuern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 12: Warum Recruiting der aufregendste Job im Unternehmen ist.
Jobsuche ist wie Partnersuche – Traum oder Alptraum? Gedanken zum Jobportal „Talents Connect“
Bewerbungsratgeber richtig verwenden – 5 Tipps für das Vorstellungsgespräch.
Active Sourcing in Sozialen Netzwerken: Zwei Anwendungsbeispiele für die Personalbeschaffung
Recruiter als Recruitment Business Partner im Rahmen des Ulrich HR Modells
English miniseries for expats and foreign graduates applying for jobs in Germany – Vol.1: Cultural aspects
English miniseries for expats applying for jobs in Germany – Vol.2: How to compile application documents correctly.
Demnächst/next:
How to act smart in interviews in Germany
Über ttr-net: http://bit.ly/ttrnet
The last issues of this miniseries addressing foreign job seekers in Germany covered language and cultural specifics as well as application document requirements to be aware of when applying in Germany. Now, what are the best ways to find a job in Germany in the first place?
Online job boards like “Monster” or “StepStone” are widely known. For graduates, however, there are some niche players to be considered, too. https://www.talentsconnect.com/ is focusing on students with job offerings for interns, dual studies, trainee programs and permanent jobs for graduates. It is different from other boards because it is not only focused on job postings. Candidates can also define their individual but still generic job preferences in order to received matching job adverts. This might be a good approach specifically for graduates who need some kind of filter in order to find jobs which match their individual character, behaviour, tasks and work preferences. The match making approach of this service provider is based on a questionnaire for job seekers and a matching algorithm.
www.absolventa.de/ is also an established job board addressing university students and graduates only. Job seekers can search for jobs in Germany and also upload their CV to enable corporate recruiters to contact them for specific vacancies in their company.
Another channel to find jobs and support is the Federal Employment Agency. Have a look at the services of the “International Placement Services” department. They offer services for both blue and white collar job seekers in Germany: http://www.arbeitsagentur.de/web/content/EN/index.htm
You will see though, that many job adverts posted in these boards are in German. This might be another argument for you to follow my advice and to learn German as soon and as well as possible. Otherwise you might exclude yourself from a huge job market!
The most successful method of finding a job in Germany is called “Vitamin B”. B stands for “Beziehungen” – relationship networking! Most of you might use LinkedIn” which is definitely a good place to manage personal professional networks. In Germany though, “Xing” is very popular but the dominating language is German again. Both professional social networks are heavily used by corporate recruiters in order to find potential candidates for their vacancies. The so called “recruiter licenses” are very expensive though. That’s why many companies do not have recruiter licenses for both platforms. Companies hiring in Germany often prefer “Xing”, at least from my experience. Therefore it might make sense for you to complete and to manage your profile in “Xing”, too. This will increase your chance to be found by recruiters for German vacancies and it will increase the amount of job opportunities for yourself. I recommend both in order to maximize your chances.
Many companies in Germany run Employee Referral Programs. Employees can recommend external candidates for vacancies in their company. You can significantly increase your chances for an interview if you apply through this channel! Practically, you can use “LinkedIn” and “Xing” for this quite well. Whenever one of your university fellows, alumni, ex colleagues joins a new company have a look at their new employer’s career page. When you find a matching job contact your fellow and ask them if they would introduce you into the recruiting process. It is a win-win situation for both of you. Your chances to get into the interview process increase dramatically. If you finally succeed your colleague will get a bonus from their employer and invite you for a drink for sure.
Proactive job applications (“Initiativbewerbung”) are common in Germany as well. You should not hesitate to apply for jobs in companies that you really like even if these jobs are not vacant there (e.g. not posted on their career site). There are some details to bear in mind though. The application set (CV, cover letter) must be perfect. It makes no sense to send standard documents around the world because only spot on applications will be kept by recruiters for future vacancies. All the mediocre applications will be deleted – be sure of that. Find out what kind of jobs this company is offering over a certain period of time. No company will create job roles from scratch that do not exist in the organization – just for you. This means you should regularly check their career site for jobs that might match your skills and expectations and keep a hard copy of them. This is quite an effort and needs discipline. Therefore I recommend selecting just a few ideal target companies which you really would like to join. If the right time has come for you but they do not have a matching vacancy at this time you can send in your proactive application. Proactive does not mean generic. You still should be specific about the job and the line of business that you are seeking in this company. That’s why it is important to screen job adverts over a longer period of time. Then you will know that the job that you apply for proactively really exists in this company. Maybe you will also know the responsible recruiter for this kind of job and you can address this person directly.
This method is good but it definitely takes a lot of time. It must be prepared thoroughly. Do not expect to get a job straight away. This method is more strategic. Your aim should be to get into the “talent folder” of a recruiter. So when there is a new vacancy to be filled they will take a look into their folder first. If your application is part of this folder you might be invited for an interview even before the job advert is posted! Proactive applications are not the field for trial and error. They are the method of choice for top candidates who are confident not to mess up and who plan their career strategically. Have a look for special one on one coaching (e.g. http://bit.ly/1NnhvBt ).
Next time I will give you some hints how to act smart in interviews in Germany. Have you been asked by interviewers to explain your weaknesses? Do German interviewers really expect you to tell them why you are wrong for the job?!? Stay tuned.
Please follow and share this blog with your network.
Cheers, Myron
Bisher erschienen:
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.1: Einführung in die Reihe
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.2: Englische Fachbegriffe kurz erläutert
Recruiting White Paper Vol.3: Personalbedarfsplanung
Recruiting White Paper Vol.4: Die Requisition
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.1: Weshalb sich oft die „falschen“ Kandidaten bewerben – Phrasen in Stellenanzeigen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.2: Talent Pools – die Fata Morgana der proaktiven Personalbeschaffung?
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.3 – Wie man es schafft, 30% aller Stellen durch Mitarbeiterempfehlungsprogramme zu besetzen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.4: 4 Tips, wie man Personalberatungskosten senkt ohne die Qualität zu mindern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6: Warum Corporate Recruiter keine Headhunter sind – aber sein müssen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6.1: Warum passive Kandidaten selten zu Bewerbern werden.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.1: Wann Hiring Manager mit der Leistung von Recruitern zufrieden sind – Die Bewerber Shortlist
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.2: Wie Fehlentscheidungen der der Bewerberauswahl vermieden werden – Effektive Auswahlmethoden
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 8: Warum gerade hervorragende Bewerber ein Angebot auch mal ablehnen – Effektives Closing für Recruiter
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 9: Warum die richtigen IT Systeme Einfluss auf die Leistung der Recruiting Funktion haben
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10: Zwei Bedingungen, damit die Recruiting Funktion tatsächlich Gehör (Geld) im Unternehmen findet.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.1: Was zeichnet gut Recruiter wirklich aus?
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.2: Was unterscheidet durchschnittliche von sehr guten Recruiting Abteilungen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.1: Umfragebasierte KPI im Corporate Recruitment
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.2: Manuelle und systemgenerierte KPI
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.3 – 5 KPI Best Practices: den Erfolg nicht nur messen, sondern steuern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 12: Warum Recruiting der aufregendste Job im Unternehmen ist.
Jobsuche ist wie Partnersuche – Traum oder Alptraum? Gedanken zum Jobportal „Talents Connect“
Bewerbungsratgeber richtig verwenden – 5 Tipps für das Vorstellungsgespräch.
Active Sourcing in Sozialen Netzwerken: Zwei Anwendungsbeispiele für die Personalbeschaffung
Recruiter als Recruitment Business Partner im Rahmen des Ulrich HR Modells
English miniseries for expats and foreign graduates applying for jobs in Germany – Vol.1: Cultural aspects
English miniseries for expats applying for jobs in Germany – Vol.2: How to compile application documents correctly.
Demnächst/next:
How to act smart in interviews in Germany
Über ttr-net: http://bit.ly/ttrnet
Last time I have explained some cultural specifics to be aware of applying for jobs in Germany – 1. Language Requirements and 2. Cultural mind set. Now, I want to give you some valuable hints compiling application documents.
3. German requirements for application documents
There are some formal criteria to consider when applying for a job in Germany. When you read job adverts you will often notice that “complete” application documents are required. In German it says “vollständige” or “aussagekräftige Bewerbungsunterlagen”. What they mean by saying “complete” is quite strict. They expect your application to include the following documents:
An easy rule is to use the same language that is used in the job advert itself. If you are unsure do not hesitate to call the company before you invest time in preparing your application set. Contact details are often posted in the job advert. I generally recommend making calls prior to sending in an application. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the job. You can then utilize this information to highlight relevant data in your CV and cover letter! Thus, you can maybe show better than other candidates that you are the “spot on candidate”. Do not miss this opportunity. Another advantage of calling before applying is to avoid wasting time in applying for the wrong job opportunity. When you find out during the call that this job is not really what you had in mind or the contact person tells you that your chances are not very high compared to other candidates then do not apply in the first place. Save your energy and time for other jobs instead which might be a better match.
You might now ask yourself why preparing your application is time consuming. Your CV is ready, your cover letter, too. Well, in Germany you should not send in standard covers if you really want to succeed. Remember what you learned in the last issue of this blog: German companies look for spot on candidates who are not only looking for a great job but who are looking for a great job in a great company selling great products. The cover letter is the place where you must convince them that this is really the case. If you apply for a customer service job your cover letter for an automotive company should be different from a cover letter for a bank. Your chances to get to the next round will drop significantly if you do not deliver convincing arguments in your cover letter. The purpose of the cover letter in Germany is to sell yourself, your skillset, your motivation, well, your value add to the hiring company. The challenge is to get all of this on a single sheet of paper.
Formally, the one pager (ideally) must include the following sections:
Many companies prefer online applications. Sometimes there is a free text field you can paste your individual cover letter into so you do not need to include addresses and job title. Sometimes you can upload your cover letter as a separate document together with your CV. Most companies have upload limitations though. Again, do not hesitate to cover the application document set in a previous phone call with the contact person stated in the job advert.
There are some basic rules when you prepare your CV for use in Germany. First of all think about the reader. Make it as easy as possible for them to identify relevant information. Be aware of the fact that your CV will be read by a recruiter who screens about 100 CVs per day. Recruiters therefore like well structured layouts. They do not like fancy layouts with graphs or other “creative” design patterns making it rather difficult for them to read it quickly. The recruiter is the first gate keeper for your application who is deciding whether you pass or whether you get an automatic rejection email. This decision takes between five seconds and one minute! There is no common rule whether the recruiter screens the CV or the cover letter first. You better make sure that both documents are decent and attractive enough to make them screen a second document from you. When you write a user friendly CV please be aware that recruiters are not specialists for the position that you apply for, they are part of the HR department. They do not only screen CVs for one vacancy at a time, but for 20, 30 or even more. When recruiters screen a CV they compare it with the job spec of the position you applied for. Remember that they look for spot on candidates in Germany. Let’s assume that you apply for a sales position. Your CV though states that you studied marketing and that you did internships in marketing, without any information about sales activities. Your chances will be reduced to pass this first gate keeper I am afraid. If your marketing courses at university did include sales though, please state it in your CV. Do not assume that the recruiter will automatically know that “marketing” in your university includes “sales” as well. Make it clear in your CV and back it up with some additional info (e.g. B2B, B2C). Many CVs that I have screened during my career as recruiter showed focus on soft skills like “team player, committed, accountable, initiative” and so on. Be aware that these statements are found in almost every CV. They are business as usual for recruiters. Be also aware that these skills are found in job adverts at the bottom not at the top. If you focus your CV on “bottom” priority skills and miss out top priority skills you should not be surprised that your chances to pass are rather low. Most of the CVs I have read only claim soft skills instead of actually proving them. So do not be afraid of mentioning some examples of you having acted as a team player before.
Another element of a user friendly CV is reverse chronology. Begin your CV with your current position not with elementary school. It is very important for foreign applicants to not only state the company names where they worked at as permanent employee or intern. Again, please do not assume that a recruiter in Germany will do some internet research in order to find out if your former employer in let’s say Argentina is a SME company in automotive or something else. Be sure that they do not know all companies in Argentina, China, Greece or India. Be user friendly instead and add some info about the companies you worked at. Keep this in mind when you state the university in your CV. If you studied at an Ivy League university do not hesitate to mention this explicitly. Also, please help the recruiter assessing your grade: is 80% in this university rated average or top?
Try to stick to this golden rule when writing your CV: Do not assume anything! Do not assume that the recruiter likes your multimedia CV and that they enjoy searching for your address, your internships, your university degree, your work experience, your skills, your language skills and your work permit in Germany. Do not assume that the recruiter knows all companies in the world, small ones and big ones. Keep in mind that it is important in Germany to know in what company types or industries you have gained experience in. Do not assume that the recruiter knows that you mean “sales” when you say “marketing”. Do not assume that the recruiter knows that the course Information Technology at your university in China trained you to become a C++ specialist. Do not assume that the recruiter will try to verify this in your Chinese university credentials. Do not assume that the recruiter will contact you if your application set is incomplete. Do not assume that the recruiter will interpret your application as your value proposition. The recruiter is not a headhunter who sells you to an employer. He is an HR employee at the company you want to work at. Make sure that your CV and cover letter is your value proposition.
There is no clear standard in Germany for photos on CVs. Photos used to be an inevitable part of an application set in Germany not very long ago. This is changing – very slowly – due to the non-discrimination act. But as you might know a legal act is not changing a given mind set straight away. Therefore I do recommend to add your photo to the CV. Make sure that it is not a selfie though. It should be a serious and business like photography (don’t forget to smile though, because your future colleagues should like to sit next to you).
Well, CV and cover letter are the most important documents in your application set in Germany. Both should be created to achieve a positive impact on the reader. They should be user friendly, crisp and well structured. They should enable the reader to assess your value proposition for a specific position even though they are read stand alone. If the recruiter reads your cover letter first it should make him want to read your CV, too, and vice versa. The recruiter’s decision to pass or to reject your application in this initial phase of the recruiting process is mostly based on these two documents. I recommend to state if you have German work permit and good German language skills.
Certificates of employment are the third part of a complete application set in Germany. As far as I know there is no other country in the world that has something like this. Therefore foreign applicants usually cannot provide it if they have not worked in Germany before. So what is the certificate of employment? Every employee in Germany is entitled to receive an official document from their employer that certifies their employment. The company has to issue this document. Formally, this letter is printed on company paper, with date of issue, the name of the employee and is signed by senior company representatives (HR and line of business manager) certifies the duration of employment (date to date) and the title of the role. In addition to that, this certificate also describes in quite a detail the employee’s tasks and performance. This description has to be positive in general. This does not mean though that a poor performer will be described as a top performer. There are books on the market which show wordings for various performance levels. They all sound positive but if you read “between the lines” they are not. The employee is entitled to receive this document when they leave the company. It does not matter for what reason they quit or had been made redundant. So, if you work in Germany and leave the company always ask the HR for your “Arbeitszeugnis”. If you state in your CV that you had been employed in Germany before but you have no certificate this can be rated negatively. In addition to that, employees are also entitled for a so called “Zwischenzeugnis” a kind of interim certificate when they are working still in the same company but moving to another department or their manager leaves. So employees who had been working for a company for 20 years might have many interim certificates and one final one. If you do internships or working student assignments in Germany ask for this as well.
The German certificate of employment system actually makes sense. It ensures that candidates cannot fake or blow up their CV with unreal jobs and employments which actually never happened. This is a real problem. That’s why many companies conduct background checks verifying every single employment, school, and university degree listed in the CV. This is conducted by specialized third party service providers and it takes time. The German system is quicker.
Well, if you have never worked in Germany before you will of course not be able to provide an employment certificate, right? Make sure to state this explicitly in your application simply because this does not exist in your country! Do not assume that every recruiter knows that this is unique in Germany. Instead I do recommend that you provide letters of reference. This is based on good will from your former managers abroad but if they liked your performance they will write one for you. Handle reference letters like employment certificates. State in your CV that you have them and list them in the “enclosure section” of your cover letter. Be aware that there will be conducted a background check anyway to verify your CV. So do not fake it! Manipulating application documents is a major offense in Germany.
University credentials and school degrees should be attached to your application as well. Often it is not possible and necessary to upload more than cover letter and CV when you apply online. This might vary from company to company though. But online application systems should state exactly what documents have to be provided. Make sure that your credentials are in English.
Obviously there is much more to say about cover letter and CV if you want to increase your chances to succeed in the competition for cool jobs. There are many trainings on the market (mainly in German though), and there are also many books. If you decide that you want to do workshops improving your application you will find two ways to do so. There are service providers who act as ghost writers. They write the cover and CV for you. As many of them will never win the literature Nobel Price, they are often using standard out of the box wordings. The other option, however, is to search trainings that rather focus on enabling you to write your own covers and CV. Trainings that teach you how to read job adverts correctly and how to decide what skills to mention in your application. Many companies accept English applications which makes it even easier. If you already study in Germany ask your university to provide trainings or to facilitate trainings provided by external trainers– ideally conducted by professionals who have a track record as corporate recruiter. Pay attention to the skill level of these trainers and make sure that there is no blind leading the blind.
The next issue will provide hints for useful job search channels in Germany and how to behave in interviews. Have you heard about “Initiativbewerbung”? Stay tuned!
Please follow and share this blog with your network.
Cheers, Myron
Bisher erschienen:
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.1: Einführung in die Reihe
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.2: Englische Fachbegriffe kurz erläutert
Recruiting White Paper Vol.3: Personalbedarfsplanung
Recruiting White Paper Vol.4: Die Requisition
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.1: Weshalb sich oft die „falschen“ Kandidaten bewerben – Phrasen in Stellenanzeigen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.2: Talent Pools – die Fata Morgana der proaktiven Personalbeschaffung?
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.3 – Wie man es schafft, 30% aller Stellen durch Mitarbeiterempfehlungsprogramme zu besetzen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.4: 4 Tips, wie man Personalberatungskosten senkt ohne die Qualität zu mindern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6: Warum Corporate Recruiter keine Headhunter sind – aber sein müssen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6.1: Warum passive Kandidaten selten zu Bewerbern werden.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.1: Wann Hiring Manager mit der Leistung von Recruitern zufrieden sind – Die Bewerber Shortlist
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.2: Wie Fehlentscheidungen der der Bewerberauswahl vermieden werden – Effektive Auswahlmethoden
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 8: Warum gerade hervorragende Bewerber ein Angebot auch mal ablehnen – Effektives Closing für Recruiter
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 9: Warum die richtigen IT Systeme Einfluss auf die Leistung der Recruiting Funktion haben
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10: Zwei Bedingungen, damit die Recruiting Funktion tatsächlich Gehör (Geld) im Unternehmen findet.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.1: Was zeichnet gut Recruiter wirklich aus?
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.2: Was unterscheidet durchschnittliche von sehr guten Recruiting Abteilungen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.1: Umfragebasierte KPI im Corporate Recruitment
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.2: Manuelle und systemgenerierte KPI
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.3 – 5 KPI Best Practices: den Erfolg nicht nur messen, sondern steuern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 12: Warum Recruiting der aufregendste Job im Unternehmen ist.
Jobsuche ist wie Partnersuche – Traum oder Alptraum? Gedanken zum Jobportal „Talents Connect“
Bewerbungsratgeber richtig verwenden – 5 Tipps für das Vorstellungsgespräch.
Active Sourcing in Sozialen Netzwerken: Zwei Anwendungsbeispiele für die Personalbeschaffung
Recruiter als Recruitment Business Partner im Rahmen des Ulrich HR Modells
English miniseries for expats and foreign graduates applying for jobs in Germany – Vol.1: Cultural aspects
English miniseries for expats applying for jobs in Germany – Vol.2: How to compile application documents correctly.
Demnächst/next:
How to find jobs in Germany.
Über ttr-net: http://bit.ly/ttrnet
I have been working in corporate recruiting for multinational corporations in Germany for many years now. Germany is currently suffering from the so called “war for talent”. The labour market especially needs highly qualified professionals and graduates from abroad in order to fill high profile job vacancies here. On the plus side Germany is an attractive country. Living as well as working conditions are excellent. Particularly families with children will love it here since they are choosing a safe environment. The employment regulations e.g. social security in terms of health care and holidays, just to name a few, contribute to Germany being an enjoyable working environment. German Companies are often hidden champions in their sector offering attractive jobs developing cutting edge products for global markets. So we are talking about a clear win-win situation for employee and employer if they find each other. Nevertheless real life oftentimes is different from theory. Expats and foreign graduates are rather frequently facing difficulties applying for jobs in Germany. Therefore, this special edition of the “Corporate Recruiting White Paper” is written in English. I want to provide expats and foreign graduates with useful advice in order to make their application for jobs in Germany a successful endeavour. I have conducted around 5,000 telephone interviews, face to face interviews, as well as candidate pitches. During my career as a business manager in the IT industry, Partner of an Executive Search firm and as Corporate Recruiter and Recruiting Advisor at GE, SAP, CSC, Dassault Systemes and many more. I have seen many expat’s application documents which did not meet the formal requirements and therefore maybe reduced their chances to be invited to an interview. It is a shame if candidates miss out good job opportunities just because they do not know how to present themselves appropriately. This miniseries in English includes three issues. Part one starts with cultural specifics to be aware of.
I will use the term (corporate) recruiter in this blog. A recruiter is no headhunter though! Recruiter are part of the HR department of a hiring company. They are often full time employees and responisble to fill vacant positions in their company only. The recruiter is the first person who screens job applications and he is an important gate keeper. He decides if your application passes this first gate or if you receive an automatic rejection e-mail. Recruiter need to manage a high volume of applications every day. Therefore they decide very quickly if your application passes or not. This takes only 10 seconds up to one minute. Thus job seekers better ensure to provide excellent application documents which meet both formal as well as „cultural“ requirements. Here are some bullet points which will be helpful in order to improve your success rate when you apply for jobs in Germany.
Well, it is a fact that many cool jobs in Germany are offered by companies which are operating on a global level. Most of these jobs are offered by SME (small medium enterprise) firms which are hidden champions in their niche market. Excellent English language skills are therefore often a must have. Many expats are able to fulfil this requirement easily. But English is just a basic requirement to be honest and it may not be enough to succeed in the application process. It is also important to learn German although the working language may be English. But why do even global players prefer to hire candidates who are able to speak the local language as well? The reason for this requirement might not be obvious at first sight. But let me tell you about something I have experienced: I had been working as a corporate recruiter at a small subsidiary of a giant multinational corporation. This subsidiary was based in a small city in the south of Germany and we were seeking software engineers to develop cutting edge clinical healthcare applications. Since the team was multicultural the working language was of course English. Theoretically, it would be good enough to hire candidates who solely spoke English. Practically though, it would have been not good enough for us. We had made bad experiences in the past hiring candidates who did not speak German at all. The reason for that was quite obvisous: many of these excellent but not German speaking employees have left the subsidiary after a few years. This was of course a big loss for the company because they left when the know how transfer had just ended and their job proficiency had reached its peak. The exit interviews unveiled though that these employees did not quit because they were unhappy with the job or the working environment. They quit for private reasons. They and their family had been unhappy living in this small city. Everyday life was difficult for them because only a few of their neighbours spoke English. There simply was no significant community of their culture they could socialize with. From a social point of view, many employees were isolated outside their work environment. The main reason for them quitting was to move to a bigger city with a bigger multicultural community where it was much easier to get around speaking English only.
Most of the jobs offered in Germany are offered by SME firms. Most of them are not based in big cities but on the country side. Most of these companies rely on employees to stay as long as possible in order to ensure that the hire delivers return on investment. These companies know from practical experience that employee satisfaction and therefore retention is not influenced by working environment only. They have learned that employees feel much more comfortable when they are able to socialize in life and the German language is an important prerequisite to do so. But many candidates do not really see the lack of being able to speak German and thus socializing being an issue in the first place. Unfortunately, it takes one or two years until they actually find out that it indeed is. But this short amount of employment is not enough for companies though. Many companies offer German language courses for expats to address this issue. But if candidates want to increase their chances in the recruiting process they should not wait until an employer offers this to them. Start learning German as soon as possible, as good as possible, and as fast as possible. Then you will be able to convince the hiring manager easier that you will be a long lasting value add for him or her. This is important for you in order to address another cultural aspect which is quite typical for Germany:
Recently, I have read a valuable interview with an MBA graduate from India who described some lessons she learned when applying for a permanent job in Germany (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27./28. Juni 2015, page C3). It took her one year to find a job while her German fellow graduates found a job after only one or two months. She said that she simply was not aware of some specifics of the German way of hiring. If someone would have told her before, or if the university would have trained her, she would have had found a job quicker, she said. The importance of the German language was one lesson learned. The other one was more of a cultural thing. She said that at the beginning of her application process she applied the “Indian” way: She was looking for a job in the area of customer service. She did not mind though in what industry segment. Looking back, she said, her German fellows on the other hand, knew very well in what industry segment they wanted to work in (banking, automotive or consulting for example). In countries like India or the USA it might be business as usual to switch jobs or to move from one industry to another. In Germany, however, it is not that common.
Many companies in Germany look for spot on candidates. Ideally, they seek candidates who have done the job before and in the same industry. They prefer candidates who practically already proved on the job that they can do it. They look for spot on candidates because they want to minimize the risk of failure. I have rarely experienced hiring managers saying, let’s give him/her a try even though the candidate is not spot on. One reason for that is that it is much more difficult to fire an employee in Germany because of poor performance than it is in other countries. Actually labour law makes it almost impossible to fire employees because of performance reasons. In these cases other reasons must be put forward instead. On the plus side there is no such thing as a “hire and fire” culture in Germany compared to maybe other countries. But the legal aspect is not the only factor. No one will deny that German products are heading for perfection. Perfection is somehow the nature of the German working ethos. “Made in Germany” is a brand of its own certifying this perfection. You need to be creative and innovative thinking outside the box when you target to develop game changing products. Game changers are often developed in the USA (Amazon changed the retail industry, Google changed the advertisement industry, Tesla tries to change the automotive industry). Maybe this is the reason why countries like the USA and India are more flexible when it comes to hiring candidates who are not spot on coming from another industry. They might in fact add another view, bring in new ideas. There are not that many game changing products which have been developed by German companies though. Germany is predominantly known for perfection. German companies often do not target to develop game changing products but to develop best of breed products. In order to target perfection you need highly specialized subject matter experts who are not satisfied with a good product but who want to develop the very best car on the market. These experts need to stay in the company for a long time since perfection can only be achieved over a longer period of time. When German companies make a hiring decision their mind set is often focused on making a sustainable decision. The new hire shall stay with the company for a long time.
At this point it makes sense to come back to the MBA graduate’s experience quoted earlier. Her German fellow graduates found a job quicker than she did. Not only did they know what kind of job they liked to do (like her), but they also knew exactly in what industry segment they wanted to work in (unlike her). Why can this make a difference in the application process? Let’s assume that I am a recruiter in an automotive company in Germany. My performance is measured amongst others on the retention of new hires. One candidate tells me that he likes the job in customer service for the reason x. The other candidate tells me the same but in addition he tells me that he is excited about cars, speed, and design and that our brand was always his dream brand. As a recruiter I must consider that the first candidate might get bored after some time in customer services or even worse he may find out that automotive industry in general is not quite his cup of tea. The other candidate however is highly attracted by the automotive industry in general and our brand specifically could be placed in another department if customer service should turn out not to be up his street. Thus the latter is spot on whereas the first candidate is more of a risk, because he has not shown clear interest. The first one is attracted by the job and the latter one by the job AND the company AND the product. A candidate who might be perceived in the USA as being fearless, open minded and willing to learn might be perceived in Germany as being indecisive or even immature. Both interpretations are reasonable because they represent different business models: one is focused to develop game changing products the other one is focused to develop best of breed products. One is marketing focused the other one is engineering focused. You should better consider this difference if you want to succeed in Germany.
I assume that the German fellow graduates had as little support in preparing for their applications as the graduate from India because they graduated from the same German university. The mind set though was different for cultural reasons I believe. The German candidates seemed to know exactly what they wanted and for the right hiring company they seemed to be spot on. While the candidate from India might had been perceived as kind of indecisive or even immature. Expat candidates can therefore increase their success rate in Germany if they put more thought in selecting the right job opportunities before they actually send a job application. I recommend thinking about the right job but also thinking more about the right industry and even the right company to apply to. Do not waste time applying for jobs in companies you actually know little about. At first, make yourself familiar with them, with their products and services before you apply for a job. The companies and the people working there (hiring manager, recruiters) are very proud of the products they develop and successfully sell to the world. They expect candidates to show passion for them as well. That’s why employees at BMW would never buy an Audi. Employees at Mercedes would never show up at the company parking with a Ford. Hiring managers and recruiters expect this kind of passion from candidates, too. This is why every candidate is asked the same question in the interview: “what do you know about us?” Thus you better had done some good research before you answer this question. Otherwise you will not be able to convince them. I recommend to invest time in research and you will profit in putting together outstanding application documents. They should meet some formal requirements, in order to increase your chance to succeed.
The next issue of this miniseries for expats and foreign graduates will explain how to compile application documents the Germany way.
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Cheers, Myron
Bisher erschienen:
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.1: Einführung in die Reihe
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.2: Englische Fachbegriffe kurz erläutert
Recruiting White Paper Vol.3: Personalbedarfsplanung
Recruiting White Paper Vol.4: Die Requisition
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.1: Weshalb sich oft die „falschen“ Kandidaten bewerben – Phrasen in Stellenanzeigen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.2: Talent Pools – die Fata Morgana der proaktiven Personalbeschaffung?
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.3 – Wie man es schafft, 30% aller Stellen durch Mitarbeiterempfehlungsprogramme zu besetzen
Recruiting White Paper Vol.5.4: 4 Tips, wie man Personalberatungskosten senkt ohne die Qualität zu mindern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6: Warum Corporate Recruiter keine Headhunter sind – aber sein müssen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 6.1: Warum passive Kandidaten selten zu Bewerbern werden.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.1: Wann Hiring Manager mit der Leistung von Recruitern zufrieden sind – Die Bewerber Shortlist
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 7.2: Wie Fehlentscheidungen der der Bewerberauswahl vermieden werden – Effektive Auswahlmethoden
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 8: Warum gerade hervorragende Bewerber ein Angebot auch mal ablehnen – Effektives Closing für Recruiter
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 9: Warum die richtigen IT Systeme Einfluss auf die Leistung der Recruiting Funktion haben
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10: Zwei Bedingungen, damit die Recruiting Funktion tatsächlich Gehör (Geld) im Unternehmen findet.
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.1: Was zeichnet gut Recruiter wirklich aus?
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.10.2: Was unterscheidet durchschnittliche von sehr guten Recruiting Abteilungen
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.1: Umfragebasierte KPI im Corporate Recruitment
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.2: Manuelle und systemgenerierte KPI
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol.11.3 – 5 KPI Best Practices: den Erfolg nicht nur messen, sondern steuern
Recruiting Whitepaper Vol. 12: Warum Recruiting der aufregendste Job im Unternehmen ist.
Jobsuche ist wie Partnersuche – Traum oder Alptraum? Gedanken zum Jobportal „Talents Connect“
Bewerbungsratgeber richtig verwenden – 5 Tipps für das Vorstellungsgespräch.
Active Sourcing in Sozialen Netzwerken: Zwei Anwendungsbeispiele für die Personalbeschaffung
Recruiter als Recruitment Business Partner im Rahmen des Ulrich HR Modells
Demnächst/next:
How to compile application documents the German way.
Über ttr-net: http://bit.ly/ttrnet
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