COMPANY PROFILE
2013
DAV
Invest in human capital
CompANY PROFILE
Invest in human capital Editorial: Christian Jordan Production: Phil Bird What started as a recruitment firm with one desk, one phone and a phone book, recruiting for the German business community nearly 40 years ago, has now grown into Africa’s number one permanent recruitment company. IndustrySA speaks to DAV Professional Placement Group to understand how the company has managed to come so far…
The business of recruitment presents a complex web of issues requiring successful navigation in order to ensure optimum success for companies along with career satisfaction and growth for candidates. Recruitment experts know how to match culture, personality, skills, ambitions and values - they combine art with science and a finely honed understanding of both client and candidate. One such company of recruitment experts, in the industry since 1975, has an accomplished track record of partnering with businesses on their staffing needs and individuals on their career development. Testament to this is the fact that 95% of the companies that started out with them as clients back in 1975 remain with the company today. That company is DAV Professional Placement Group and Kathrin Trümpelmann, Executive Manager: Africa, Emerging Markets and Engineering, tells IndustrySA that
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although the company is now the continents industry leader, its beginnings were humble. “The company started over 38 years ago as a one-woman company,” she says. “With time, vision, passion, heart and determination the company grew – we now employ close to 170 people with national representation in South Africa and clients across the African continent and form a fundamental part of the Adcorp Group, Africa’s biggest human capital group.” Despite their success and growth, DAV has never set out to be number one in terms of size. Their focus has always been and will remain; to be the best in terms of quality. Their objectives have also remained constant over time; to give their clients the competitive edge by ensuring they acquire the right talent; and to help candidates make the best career move so they remain with the company long-term. DAV recruits in seven specialist areas across a range
DAV Professional Placement Group
of sectors, servicing each with expert knowledge and an unwavering focus on service excellence. “We offer recruitment services for any type of position,” says Kathrin. “Our Office Professionals division sources admin and support staff, we have a Financial Markets division, an Executive Search division for commercial executive placements, our engineering division recruits any technical staff from artisan to MD. Our German division not only has the strongest network of German speaking professionals and clients in South Africa, but caters for any specialist language requirement; if, for example, an Italian client requires an Italianspeaking secretary we have the network that delivers. We have an IT division for IT and telecoms professionals and our latest edition the African Emerging Markets division which we created in response to the requirements of our clients and the industry.”
LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIPS Recruitment is all about people and when dealing with people, a long-standing relationship is a sure sign of trust and confidence. These are the type of relationships that DAV fosters. “Our business is defined by our people, both inside and outside of DAV,” says Kathrin. “That means our staff as well as our clients and candidates – the people we serve. We place people first, and with the value of people in mind we have built relationships that span decades.” “It’s our biggest strength, really” she says. “The depth of our partnership with clients and the relationships we build. Long-standing relationships are what DAV is about. We have clients that have been with us for over 38 years and candidates that trust us with their entire career path. I’ve been here for 14 years and am enormously gratified by how both clients and candidates stick with us. Whether it’s a
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CompANY PROFILE candidate we’ve placed who moves into a management position and then uses us to recruit or a company for whom we have recruited, they keep coming back because of the strength of our relationships and the results, our knowledge, network and service produce.” The relationship between DAV and the client is so close-knit that DAV essentially becomes an external part of the client’s business assisting with both recruitment and other areas such as strategy development. “We become an extension of a company’s human capital division. Companies consult with us on plans for the future, expansion and projects in the pipeline. We are always very aware of where our clients are going. This allows us to plan so when vacancies open up we already have the right people in the pipeline,” says Kathrin. DAV benchmarks against the best in the world, and international business partners and trainers commend them on their service delivery. They define themselves as a ‘learning organisation driven by values’ - versatile and open to change and improvement.
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ONGOING EXPANSION This flexibility is evident in the way DAV nimbly responded to its clients’ need for their services into Africa and the emerging markets - the company developed a dedicated specialist team to service these markets. With economic growth in the rest of Africa continuing at a rate which surpasses that of most developed countries, international as well as local business leaders and investors have identified the African continent as a window of opportunity for business growth. Africa also provides new career opportunities for individual employees considering a career move. “Where we have grown aggressively and where we predict future growth is in the African and emerging markets,” says Kathrin. “We’ve been recruiting into these markets on an adhoc basis over the last 15 years but our clients have a strong need for local people so we established a specialist division devoted to their needs.” Countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia are all experiencing good levels of growth, even during tough global economic times, and South African companies are looking to their southern African neighbours to open up new opportunities. Obviously, this
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CompANY PROFILE
means new positions that have to be filled but Kathrin suggests that although a range of industries are experiencing growth, it is the business of mining that still drives a lot of the growth. “The main industry is mining; mining really keeps this continent going. Also, supply to the mining industry, whether its earth moving equipment, housing, piping, water treatment, anything that supplies into a mine and keeps it going works well in Africa,” she says. “However, whether mining or energy or construction or rail or roads or sales or technical, growth is coming through in all areas.” DAV now has 162 recruitment specialists in its Cape Town and Johannesburg offices and with further growth on the horizon, Kathrin says it’s all about identifying the correct opportunities. “Wherever there are new opportunities that will benefit the business and benefit our clients we will pursue them,” she says. “Our growth is about business ventures driven by client requirements. This attitude saw the birth of our dedicated Africa and Emerging Markets team. “It also prompted us to enter the MSP (Managed Service Provider) space as well as into various JV’s with our sister companies within the Adcorp Group in order to provide an even more complete service to our clients – and to further strengthen the Group. DAV’s focus and area of expertise is primarily permanent recruitment. However, we are also expanding into the Contracting field in order to provide specialist services to our clients who need contract staff for various projects. We look forward to seeing what additional opportunities the future will bring.” In addition to their nimble responsiveness to the changing needs of clients and markets, DAV is positioned as a technology driven firm. They constantly search the globe for the latest technologies that will enable them to remain at the forefront of technology and in yet another way provide a superior service to clients and candidates.
DIFFERENTIATED SERVICE OFFERING Economic difficulties often highlight the importance of effective recruitment and whilst you may think that after the global financial slowdown people will spend less money on external services, in some cases it has leveraged those previously mentioned long-standing relationships and allowed DAV to offer clients a real competitive advantage. What puts DAV’s service on a different level? Well, apart from the numerous awards that the company has picked up over the years of its existence (see figure 1), Kathrin says that it is DAV’s ability to adapt that sets them apart from the crowd. “If a client says ‘my business is changing,’ we are extremely
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flexible and adaptable at DAV. We can adapt our products or systems or processes to suit our client’s needs. “We work to very high standards and everyone is trained to those standards so if I’m not here someone else can easily pick up my work. That has huge benefit to clients and candidates. “We are Africa’s number one permanent recruitment company and we’ve held that title for a few years now,” she says. “We are the industry leaders, we are very strong financially, we’ve never had to lay anyone off and the reason for that is our ability to change, adapt and be flexible to the needs of the market and the client. In addition, we represent the top 20% of clients and candidates in the market, we employ the top echelon of people internally and we drive growth and development. We are driven by our values and believe in what the Japanese call KAIZEN – continuous improvement.” This type of service offering goes a long way towards the DAV ethic of ‘striving to ensure each aspect of the business reflects world-class standards in search and recruitment’ and while there is competition for the company in certain areas, Kathrin is confident there is not another company who can offer the ‘all-encompassing’ service of DAV. “We have competition in certain areas for example, in
“Where we are growing aggressively and where we would like to see the business develop is in the African and emerging markets” the IT or engineering areas there are smaller companies competing with us however there is not another large company like ours that can compete with us on all levels; and our industry knowledge in each sector we operate in is substantial.” Certainly their approach is substantial. Their passion, enthusiasm and dedication is evident and they work relentlessly and systematically to exhaust every avenue in bringing their clients the best available talent, even in a skills short market. A 500,000+ strong database, an unparalleled referral network, headhunting, on and offline advertising – they almost literally leave no stone unturned in the search for the right candidate. And they are as well known for sourcing rare skills as they are for uncovering the best available talent, including talent not openly on the market. DAV’s offering is succinctly summed up on the company’s website: “We know that effective recruitment requires experience and instinct, competence and resolve and we are
DAV Professional Placement Group
DAV Professional Placement Group is highly decorated. Here is a selection of the awards won by the company over the years:
Highest rated company in SA for Human Capital Solutions PMR Diamond Arrow Award July 2013
Finalist “Employer of the Year” Award National Business Awards July 2012
Recruitment Agency of the Year Large Companies Career Junction Awards September 2011
Best Training Programme in South Africa medium sized companies. Achiever Awards February 2010
Recruiter of the Year Permanent Positions. Career Junction Survey August 2009
Best Working Environment ADCORP April 2008
Positive Newsmaker of the Year Top Women Awards August 2007
Winners of the Best Company to Work For 2006 Deloitte and Financial Mail Survey October 2006
Excellent Service Award Office Support Recruitment Survey July 2005
Best Recruitment Consultancy in South Africa PMR Survey July 2004
passionate about sourcing vital skills for companies to enable them to excel in their area of business. “DAV is a company that fulfils the promise of its unequalled reputation through offering you truly outstanding commitment and reliability. We offer you everything we have learned, over 38 years and from all over the world, about furthering careers and delivering world-class service.” So, perhaps the complex web of issues that is recruitment
need not be such a challenge. Any type of business can benefit from the responsible, ethical and deadline-driven service offered by DAV. If you are looking to create a competitive advantage then you need to talk to the right people, after all, people form the cornerstone of any business. Job seekers and businesses alike; perhaps it’s time you get in touch with DAV, Africa’s number one permanent professional placement company.
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+27 11 217 0000 www.dav.co.za
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