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2 top talents in 2 weeks: Stronger foundation for strong buildings through tailor-made search with Riverstate.
Those who build houses want to create something lasting. In a world where everything is transient, this is a bet against Mother Nature, because from the moment the first spade is broken, a race against time begins. Buildings are constantly exposed to environmental pollution, and industrial pollutants also affect them. Some threats, such as heat or flooding, could be accurately assessed hundreds of years ago through common sense and experience. However, builders of the past often had little knowledge of other risks hidden in the subsoil. The result was faulty foundations and building damage caused by soil conditions or water levels in the earth. Today, it’s clear: anyone who wants to build future-proof buildings must eliminate all surprises long before the groundbreaking ceremony. This and more is the mission of the Karlsruhe-based engineering firm for geo- and environmental engineering GHJ . “We advise our clients on all aspects of subsoil and contaminants,” explains Managing Director Andreas Lindenthal. “This includes geotechnical investigations and consulting for all building and civil engineering projects, environmental investigations of subsoil and interior spaces, and the preparation of hydrogeological reports.” Because building land is becoming increasingly scarce and issues of health and environmental protection, which in the past often received little attention, are becoming increasingly important, business is booming. “We’ve grown steadily in recent years and plan to regularly strengthen our office with new talent in the future,” says Lindenthal. “The order book is so good that the work is at the upper limit of what we can handle with our current team. That’s why we’ve enlisted support from Riverstate.”
To date, the three GHJ managing directors have used their own contacts as alumni of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in addition to traditional advertisements in the local press, to recruit new employees. This approach continues to be successful in some of the company’s key areas, such as environmental technology. In other areas, however, the success rate has plummeted to near zero.
“The number of engineering students has been declining for a long time, and specializations in geotechnical engineering and hydrogeology are rare,” explains Andreas Lindenthal. “Furthermore, as a consulting firm, we are in constant competition with industry, i.e., with contractors. There is fierce competition for the few people on the market, and it is particularly difficult for medium-sized companies to keep up with the larger ones.”
Concern about not being able to compete with the industry giants also ruled out other recruitment methods for the managing directors. “We also looked at online portals like Stepstone, but quickly realized that as a medium-sized company, we would be lost there anyway. So, contacting Riverstate came at exactly the right moment.”
Andreas Lindenthal calls GHJ’s decision to turn to a recruitment consultancy for the first time in the company’s history a “combination of skill and coincidence.” It was coincidence because the managing director had just ruled out online portals when a promising alternative landed in his mailbox – an email from Riverstate. It was skill because this email hit the mark: “Riverstate introduced itself directly to us with a video message, which I found really appealing. So I immediately picked up the phone, and then things actually happened quite quickly.”
It was really fast – especially by industry standards: After just two weeks, GHJ was able to fill a long-vacant position with a hydrogeologist. “The search was almost a little too fast for us,” jokes the managing director. “We didn’t expect the speed with which we selected and interviewed candidates. Thanks to Riverstate’s streamlined organization and the tireless efforts of Riverstate recruiter Daniel Dercho, we were able to fill a position in just 14 days.”
But it wasn’t just the speed that impressed them. The selection of candidates, who presented themselves to GHJ in quick succession, also exceeded the engineering firm’s expectations: “In two days, we interviewed three candidates, all of whom were a great fit for us,” says Andreas Lindenthal. “We would have hired any of them. Ultimately, we chose the applicant with the most professional experience – but with Riverstate, we truly had a choice of several top talents.”
To compile this high-quality selection, recruiter Daniel Dercho first visited the GHJ team on-site on setup day. Andreas Lindenthal considers this visit crucial because it not only resulted in a precise candidate profile but also highlighted the character of the company and its employees.
“It was really helpful to have someone directly in-house,” says the managing director. “On setup day, our Riverstate recruiter, Daniel Dercho, was able to get a sense of the kind of people who work at GHJ, what we do, and what our job profile looks like. This was reflected in the candidates we were presented with.”
The candidates presented were so compatible with GHJ that Andreas Lindenthal and his team additionally drew on the previously presented pool of applicants when a position in environmental technology became available at short notice: “One of the candidates we had previously had to reject in favor of the more experienced applicant was so compatible with our company that we were able to recruit him for the other area.”
With two newly filled positions, including in areas that are difficult to fill, Andreas Lindenthal is even more confident about the future of the steadily growing company: “Because we have more orders than we can handle, the new team members are joining at exactly the right time,” says the Managing Director. “Thanks to Riverstate, we’ve regained the courage to take on new orders, especially in hydrogeology.”
And because there are more orders than applicants in the long run, he’s already holding out the prospect of working together again: “At Riverstate, the quality of the candidates is our top priority. We would therefore be happy to work with Riverstate again in the future, especially for positions that are difficult to fill.”
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