At Whitehall Recruitment, we have a global presence managing UK, European and International assignments from our offices in the UK and the Netherlands, representing a broad range of clients from international organisations to SME’s.
For some of our clients looking to expand into new regions such as Europe, it comes with a recruitment challenge, which is when they turn to Whitehall Recruitment to help find the quality of candidate they are looking for. We have developed an extensive network of candidates within Europe, and during my time at Whitehall Recruitment, it has allowed me to become Whitehall’s dedicated consultant for European roles, along with our Dutch consultant.
From my experience recruiting into the European chemical sector, that candidates are often looking for technical roles, and with my expertise in the sector, I can discuss the roles with candidates in depth, answering all their questions which arise allowing us to build strong working relationships with each European candidate and continually growing our network.
Hiring in Europe also means adapting salary and benefits packages to fit the market norms, as these often greatly differ from the UK. Salaries in Europe are on average 10-30% higher than those offered in the UK, with this differing between countries and often exceeding that estimation.
The number of public holidays also varies throughout Europe, with the UK having 8 days across the year, whereas, for example Italy, have approximately 11 though this can also vary year on year. Germany also has more public holidays than the UK, which differs depending on the region, making packages align more challenging. It is worth having these conversations regarding salary and holiday entitlement with candidates early in the recruitment process so both parties are aware of expectations and flexibility. It is important to offer benefits in-line with the general market of the country to successfully attract skilled candidates.
As well as public holidays, there are also variations on annual leave, with some candidates in Europe having more holiday allowance than their UK equivalent, which again can be challenging when aligning company policies across countries. One example was where we were instrumental in the negotiations of a German candidate accepting a position with a UK company, though the annual leave differed. We suggested increasing the salary for the German candidate, allowing them to buy back holiday when needed throughout the year, and therefore providing continuity for annual leave across both countries.
Other differences between candidates in the UK and Europe comes from the content of their CVs. In the UK, we see in-depth information about each job role and responsibilities, whereas, for European CVs, they tend to remain brief, providing an introduction to the candidate with not much more information than the job title, employer and dates employed. In this case, it seems more popular to submit a covering letter with a CV which provides further detail, and it is of course part of my role to tease these additional details from the candidate during the initial discussion.
The number of roles we have been working on in Europe has increased this year, owing to our growing presence in Central Europe, and has resulted in successfully placing two Sales Managers in Germany, one for an adhesives distributor and the other for a supplier of raw materials into the rotational moulding industry.
With our international presence growing, we have further two open opportunities in Europe; a Regional Sales Manager (Poland) and a R&D Commercial Manager (Germany, France or Italy) both with companies specialising in polymers for plastic moulding. You can find more information on these roles by visiting our Vacancies page.
Alternatively, if you are looking to recruit chemical industry professionals within Europe and beyond, please do reach out by contacting info@whitehall.uk.com where we can arrange to discuss the role and requirements in more detail.