Qualified, ready to work and willing to travel – these are the qualities that desired personnel for service and sales need to have. On the other hand, there are absences lasting several days, low predictability and short-term assignments.
The event on employee recruitment in Service & Sales at the host company Plarad / Wagner Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG in Much on March 12, 2024 began with a tour of the company, which gave the participants a direct insight into the company’s processes and technologies.
Peter Thomin, an expert in service and project management at the VDMA, gave a presentation entitled “Recruiting and retaining personnel for service and sales” in which he introduced the challenges faced by HR managers when recruiting this professional group. He presented the practical experiences of companies, gave tips on travel regulations, work permits and taxation and referred to the VDMA Customer Service Benchmark, which provides data from the service sector.
Dr. Marcus Stuhlert, Managing Director of Wagner Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, presented the ways in which his company recruits personnel in his application example. He highlighted the importance of a suitable HR strategy, particularly in a rural region. He also explained the challenges of recruiting sales staff and the procedure for attracting, onboarding and retaining employees.
Lars Zimmerman, recruiting expert at kommunikationsoptimierer.de, and Ulrich Kosanke, senior recruiting expert at SRD Sycson GmbH, then presented an innovative best practice method for recruiting employees in service and sales based on the targeted use of the BfA database. They presented methods on how filters and settings can be optimally used to efficiently identify qualified candidates.
The event ended with an open discussion round
Organizer
The event was organized by ProduktionNRW. ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is organized by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW sees itself as a platform for networking, informing and marketing companies, institutions and networks with each other and along the value chain. Significant parts of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.