Riverstate has once again been ranked among the test winners among personnel service providers by Wirtschaftswoche and Markt und Mittelstand. What exactly this means, what purpose such seals serve, the methodology behind them, and how Riverstate achieved this.
With a little help from my friends
Recruiting is no walk in the park, especially in times of ever-increasing specialization, constantly new global challenges and transformations, and a growing shortage of skilled workers. Good employees are the lifeblood of a company. And this is where a vicious circle begins for SMEs. With limited resources, it is often no longer possible to manage the time-consuming search for good staff. The in-house HR department – if it even exists – often has enough to do and cannot afford to spend weeks and months searching through the jungle of platforms and profiles for suitable candidates. In addition, many really good people are not actively looking for new positions at all and therefore want to be approached specifically. This completely exceeds internal capacities.
Fortunately, support is available. And it’s readily available. “According to a new study by SAP Fieldglass in collaboration with Oxford Economics, around 42 percent of personnel expenses are spent on external staff. Every second manager admits that their company would not be competitive without external workers” (Markt und Mittelstand, 5/2023, p. 52). And this often applies to staffing agencies. But how do medium-sized companies find the right partners for this difficult challenge? Again, a research task that requires a lot of time and resources. This is the primary purpose of such seals and awards, such as those presented by Wirtschaftswoche and Markt & Mittelstand: They provide interested companies with an overview and save a lot of time and effort.
But on what basis is the assessment actually made here?
The methods
Markt und Mittelstand commissioned a large market research firm, Service Value, to conduct a large-scale survey collecting 39,000 opinions from small and medium-sized businesses and ranking them in each category. The survey asked: “Overall, based on your own experience or information from colleagues, how do you rate the following providers?” The rating was based on a grading system from 1 (excellent) to 5 (poor), or “I cannot rate.”
This resulted in an unweighted average for each service provider. If this average was higher than the overall average for the respective industry, it was rated “high satisfaction.” A further average was then calculated from the pool of these award-winning companies. If a company also achieved this rating, it received the rating “very high satisfaction,” which Riverstate also received. (Markt und Mittelstand. 5/2023, p. 52)
Wirtschaftswoche took a similar approach. Its assessment was based on the evaluation of 541 service providers from 42 B2B industries and considered an online survey of over 16,000 executives, buyers, and service users, as well as a total of more than 36,000 customer reviews. Service providers whose overall index was above the industry average received the “Top Rank” rating – Riverstate was also among the best here. ( https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/mittelstand/beste-mittelstandsdienstleister-welche-b2b-dienstleister-der-mittelstand-bevorzugt-und-welche-nicht/29025278.html – last accessed: November 28, 2023 )
The Riverstate Story
Success always has a story, and in most cases, it’s more like a marathon than a sprint. In 2023, Riverstate Recruitment Consulting already looks back on a ten-year history. A lot has happened during this time.
In the early days, starting in 2013, the company had a rather broad portfolio. Staffing was sought and recruited for a wide variety of industries. Over the years, it became increasingly clear that Riverstate wasn’t just another recruitment consultancy, but that its greatest successes were achieved in the engineering and construction sectors. This realization ultimately led to the rebranding and a focus on construction and engineering.
The reasons for this decision and the resulting success certainly have nothing to do with the severe shortage of skilled workers in the relevant industries, but at least as much with a growing network and ever-increasing industry knowledge. Riverstate’s expertise in industry-specific topics is particularly valued by clients and candidates. Riverstate knows what’s happening in the construction industry, understands the trends as well as the challenges, and is thus far more than a simple personnel service provider – it is a reliable partner on equal terms who not only supports the necessary transformation of the construction industry but actively helps shape it. This leads to shorter filling times and higher customer satisfaction. Both of these factors are ultimately reflected in the recurring awards.
Florian Kugel
Editor and Quality Manager
The author
Florian began his professional journey in the skilled trades and eventually returned to it through writing. After training as a systems electronics technician at Deutsche Telekom AG, he worked as a freelance contributor to the Rhein-Zeitung and studied philosophy and German in Trier and Valencia. He began writing literary texts while still a student. After completing his master’s degree, he moved to Berlin, where he initially worked as a social worker in a refugee shelter and as a primary school teacher. This was followed by a period as a freelance author and editor, for publications including Spiegel-Online, Tagesspiegel, KaDeWe, and the Leibniz Institute for Spatial Research. Since the beginning of 2023, he has been an editor and quality manager at Riverstate Personalberatung.
