A relatively-recent entrant to the wind market, Mensys is a recruiter of note that is set to double its turnover in the next 12 months. We spoke to Lars Poslednik, Country General Manager, Germany.
PES: Welcome to PES. Would you like to take the opportunity to bring us up to speed with the history of the company and outline your involvement in the wind industry?
Lars Poslednik: We as a company have been working in the wind industry since 2009, but my colleague and I have more than 15 years of experience in providing qualified personnel to the industry.
Our focus is to provide skilled workers: foremen, technicians and engineers with mechanical or electronic backgrounds. All of our staff have the required HSE certificates, and we have a portfolio of case studies in service, maintenance, erection and commissioning. We have also placed some personnel in positions such as area manager, deputy site manager and some top management positions in the wind business.
PES: When did the company start targeting the wind sector? Has it met with your expectations?
LP: We have targeted the wind industry from day one but the market did not meet our expectations in the early days. However, since 2014 it has become better and better and we have established the wind energy sector / energy utilities as a key area in our international company strategy. We are serving these businesses in five locations all over Europe.
PES: What defining factor sets Mensys apart from the competition?
LP: Every employee we place has the same level of education or at least five years’ experience in a similar position. For us, the extra mile means that our candidate profile fits a little bit better, looks better, comes faster and the candidate is really willing to take the job.
We go into more details with the customer and the candidate to get the best match and our fill rate, in combination with our satisfactory performance / replacement rate, informs us that we are on the right track.
PES: And what’s your biggest challenge?
LP: We have a lack of candidates with electronics backgrounds, the “EEG” could change rapidly, investors are struggling and the industry is not able to make accurate long time plans. There is also no cooperation between the manufacturers to be more efficient when it comes to O&M.
PES: How easy is it for you to recruit candidates of the required calibre right now?
LP: It’s not always easy to get the right candidate at the right time (especially not electronic engineers), but because of our good network, a long list of customers, good cooperation with vocational and educational training-schools, we are lucky to receive good candidates via referrals.
We recruit through several channels including direct search, adverts, speeches and of course we have a big team of employees under assignment to be flexible, quick and well prepared. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about temporary or permanent needs from the market.
PES: And which part of the sector is showing the most promise for you? Engineering? Supply chain? Project management?
LP: We think each sector is in subordination to the other but I think project management will be one of the most important sectors in the next two to three years. The supply chain will come in the next phase.
PES: Do you feel positive about the next generation of recruits for the wind industry?
LP: I think it’s like in other industries – only specialisation brings us to the next level of good recruits. The vocational and advanced training is becoming more important in Germany and Europe, but there is not really an international standard in the case of education, training and HSE rules for the wind business. That makes our life not easier. For now.
PES: Is there a sufficient amount of training available?
LP: You can get a BOSIET, BOSS, OPITO, HUET (or however they are called individually), but as I mentioned in the question before there is no international standard implemented.
GWO is chosen by the most and gives us a direction but we definitely have to fix a DIN or detailed Norm for education and HSE. BZEE, Elbcampus, City Academy, Deutsche Windguard, Falk Nutec, BfW, OffTec etc. are just a couple of training companies we work with to get our people trained.
PES: How important is your expertise and knowledge of the wind industry for your clients?
LP: That is a question you have to ask our clients, but from my perspective and from the feedback I receive it is necessary and of course it is important for health and safety reasons to know what we are talking about.
PES: We see that you have a defined set of company values. Can you tell us a little about these?
LP: Extra mile recruiting is not just a phrase, it’s our mission statement. That means expertise for hiring experts is where we bring value to the market and to the candidates. We are combining four important things: precision, quality, knowledge of the local market and the experience of our consultants. These four elements give our customer and clients the guarantee that we offer them the very best solution on the market.
PES: Tell us about your company’s involvement in a recent wind project…
LP: We have provided service technicians with mechanical and electronic education to a big wind park in the North Sea for commissioning and service activities. We are dealing with nearly every manufacturer and the biggest independent service companies in Germany and Poland.
PES: We note that you’ve recently opened a Warsaw office. Where in Europe are you doing business? Do you have plans for further expansion?
LP: We have five branches in three different countries. The Europe headquarters is based in Gland (Switzerland) in Poland we are in Warsaw and Krakow. The German branch is based in Hamburg. The future development planes are to open a branch in the east or south of Germany and of course providing more services at the existing locations like Interim Management, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Neutral Vendor Management (NVM) to meet our clients’ needs.
PES: Finally, what are your thoughts about the coming 12 months? Is 2015 looking as positive for you as 2014?
LP: We are pretty certain of doubling our numbers by the end of 2015. 2014 will be an onshore year because of the EEG and from the second quarter of 2015 our focus is going to be on offshore wind. All in all we are expecting a very positive trend for the wind industry.
