Transparent payment model for financial planning To retain this expertise at WATA and attract top IT specialists from Germany to Andalusia in the long term,…
Through targeted recruitment of a site manager in 2 months: Full steam ahead for the infrastructure construction of tomorrow.
Heat for heating, water for showering, gas for cooking: Everyday life in German households is daily proof of our mastery over the elements. Quite casually, we conjure up miracles at the stove or in the bathtub that would have astonished our ancestors. Of course, this isn’t magic: We rely on good engineering—and an entire network of invisible veins that stretches beneath our homes. Rohrleitungsbau Münster builds, maintains, and modernizes this network. Founded in 2004, the company supplies homes and properties with water, gas, district heating, and electricity lines, and even plans overarching networks for entire cities. The company is also heavily involved in broadband expansion. “We build infrastructure,” summarizes Managing Director Markus Warmuth. The medium-sized company, with around 250 employees, is not only continuously expanding its range of services for its customers, but has also established new branches in Dortmund, Aachen, Herford, Hanover, and Essen in recent years. At the six locations, the signs continue to point to growth, as the order situation is healthy. “In contrast to mechanical engineering, where job cuts and radical reductions will be the norm, we are well positioned for the future in infrastructure construction,” explains Markus Warmuth. “There’s a lot of work on the market, and we’re busy. Our biggest challenge is finding suitable applicants.”
Despite the difficult situation, Markus Warmuth and his team continue to succeed in attracting talented individuals to the company. This is primarily due to Rohrleitungsbau Münster’s good reputation, explains the managing director: “We benefit greatly from word-of-mouth advertising, and in the commercial sector, people even approach us directly. Nevertheless, it’s incredibly difficult to find people, especially in traditional business. And the higher the positions, the more difficult it becomes.”
The search for a new site manager in Essen proved particularly difficult. Therefore, the company decided to seek external support. “We simply don’t have the resources to conduct a focused search. That’s why it was important to us to specifically target people with Riverstate who would be a good fit for our company.”
The decision to entrust this search to Riverstate also began with word of mouth. After the initial contact, Markus Warmuth checked the Riverstate website for references in the industry and promptly discovered a pipe construction company he knew. “I called their managing director, who really praised Riverstate,” says Markus Warmuth. “He thought the timeframe and the outcome of the search were absolutely fantastic, so he gave it a clear recommendation. So we thought: OK, let’s give it a try.”
After the offer, everything happened very quickly. Although the managing director had expected a process of up to six months, the new manager signed their employment contract just two months later. The path to this point was not only short but, above all, expedient: “I found Riverstate’s approach incredibly innovative and refreshingly proactive, and I never would have expected this speed,” says Markus Warmuth. “We had the first interviews after just three and a half weeks. The process was absolutely top-notch.”
The fact that things moved so quickly was due, on the one hand, to the Riverstate-typical preparatory work on the setup day, and, on the other, to the excellent networking and determination of lead recruiter Michaela Rütten. Markus Warmuth found the former to be an essential foundation for a candidate profile tailored to the company’s character. Michaela Rütten spent half a day on-site and got a close-up look at Rohrleitungsbau Münster’s dynamic work environment.
“On Riverstate’s setup day, we were able to talk much more openly than would have been possible over the phone,” explains Markus Warmuth. “It makes a huge difference that the recruiters also know what makes the company tick. Without this foundation, we would never have found a candidate who so precisely matched our requirements.”
Armed with these wishes, the lead recruiter began her search. Markus Warmuth appreciated the great flexibility and determination that characterized the process from the very beginning. “If someone isn’t 100% committed, a search like this can quickly become boring,” the managing director recalls of past experiences. “Not so at Riverstate: Recruiter Michaela Rütten was full of energy and ambition, always focused on good people, not quantity.”
The recruiter kept up the pressure while she used direct searches and her network to identify suitable talents for Rohrleitungsbau Münster’s candidate profile. Once promising candidates were in sight, she didn’t let anything slip. “The appointments were scheduled at short notice, and the ability to schedule initial and follow-up interviews at short notice also suited our busy schedule,” says Markus Warmuth.
In just a few weeks, Riverstate organized five interviews, during which one candidate particularly impressed the decision-makers and secured the open position. Thanks to the high-quality selection, the company didn’t have to make any compromises.
“We certainly would never have found the candidates Riverstate introduced to us through our limited resources,” says Markus Warmuth. “Our new employee brings exactly what was so important to us: curiosity, ambition, and intellect. He broadens our horizons and has everything we need to make it big in our company. We owe this discovery to Riverstate.”
Looking back on the rapid success the company achieved with Riverstate, Markus Wamuth is certain: Using professional recruiting was the right decision. Compared to an internal search, this required a financial investment, but from the managing director’s perspective, it paid off completely. Using the traditional approach, Rohrleitungsbau Münster had pumped a lot of money into the candidate search, which experience has shown just seeps into the groundwater.
“Our search for employees through newspaper ads was a complete waste of money and completely ineffective,” says Markus Warmuth. “Added to that are personnel costs and the considerable effort required for even unpromising interviews. While it’s only one-third as expensive as professional recruiting, the success rate is zero – for that reason alone, searching through Riverstate is also financially worthwhile.”
For these reasons, the managing director also considers a renewed collaboration likely. Some employees at the company’s facilities are slowly approaching retirement age, and Riverstate’s professional recruiting has proven particularly successful for senior positions.
“I was deeply impressed by Riverstate’s innovative approach and dynamic approach,” says Markus Warmuth. “That’s why we would like to repeat this success in the future.”
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