Dieter Scheiff grew up on a virtual corner of internationalism, coming of age in the German city of Aachen, Charlemagne’s winter capital, which sits next to the modern Germany’s national borders with Belgium and the Netherlands.

Now an international, even global, perspective is essential for Scheiff as the chief executive of the world’s largest staffing company, Adecco. Two and a half years into the role, he smiles at the irony of advice pressed upon him by his mother before he joined the world of work.

“When I started my career, my mother told me, ‘You must go to work in a large German company and you will have a career for life’,” he recalls. “This paradigm has changed a lot — we all have to accept it. Careers do not take place in one company, and someone will work as a temp or part-time, in different areas of the world or country, in different professional environments; there will be much more movement in the future.” That’s where the recruitment industry comes in. “You need somebody who guides and helps people, gives them direction and works like an agent for them. Companies like ours will become this type of lifetime career companion or supporter — whatever you want to call it,” he says.

It is the day after Adecco has posted its global financial results for the full year and the fourth quarter of 2008. Group revenues had dropped by 5% over 2007, from €21.1bn (£19.5bn) to €20bn. In the UK and Ireland, Q4 revenues dropped by 19% in constant currency. At the EBITA level, the UK and Ireland reported a loss of €8m in what the company has called “unsatisfactory results”. Scheiff has flown in from Adecco’s head office in Zurich to spend a blustery, rainy day in London to meet with the investment community and Recruiter — albeit in separate meetings.

While Adecco’s performance in the UK and Ireland is clearly below par, Scheiff emphasises that this particular territory forms just one part of the global picture. He points out that the gross margin improved on an underlying basis by 30 base points to 18.1%. Cash flow remained strong, with 2008’s €1.054m “on par” with 2007. The proposed dividend of SFr1.50 (94p) per share was equal to the dividend paid for 2007.

“It’s a difficult environment,” Scheiff says. “But our organisation has achieved a solid result. I think we’re showing that we’re controlling our costs; we’re financially a sound company and are investing in our future.”

However, he acknowledges that the company’s performance in the UK and Ireland continues to falter. Last summer, former UK & Ireland CEO Rene Schuster stepped down in advance of the announcement of clearly troubling results. Schuster, who had not previously worked in recruitment, was subsequently succeeded in August by Catherine King, an industry veteran who had previously held senior executive roles at Kelly Services and US niche staffing agency Creative Assets, as well as at Adecco. “We have had some operational issues which led to disappointing results in the UK,” Scheiff says. “We have lacked some sales focus; the sales focus was not really there.”

To combat the problems in the UK along with King, Scheiff reveals, the former managing director of Adecco subsidiary Office Angels, Paul Jacobs, has returned to Adecco after two years of working elsewhere. “He has a very good track record. I appreciate Paul very much. I am very optimistic he will help Catherine bring the company back to a more salesorientated focus. I trust Catherine and her team,” says Scheiff.

Also working with King to bolster the renewed emphasis on sales is Christian De Conti, former sales and business development director for Adecco Italy and has held senior management roles with Adecco in North America and Venezuela. De Conti succeeded Steven Kirkpatrick, who resigned last October from his role as head of Adecco general staffing and Jonathan Wren. “I think this new management team will sort out the issues in this country — probably not in the short run, you know; it’s not an easy situation for us, but in the long term I am convinced,” Scheiff says.

Given the professional backgrounds of his top three players in the UK & Ireland business, it seems clear that a weighty track record in recruitment is now considered de rigueur for senior roles at Adecco here. Or is it? “Every situation is different,” Scheiff says. “In France, the most important country to the Adecco Group in terms of size, and in the US, I have people who have not come from this industry, but they have
management experience in running large organisations. I can tell you, in both countries, I’m very happy with these additions to our management team. They are contributing very positively, and both countries enjoy a good situation.

“So it’s not an ‘either/or’ decision,” he adds. “You have to find the right people for the right place at the right time.”

In addition to the high-level management changes in the UK, Adecco also made news last autumn by courting, unsuccessfully, Michael Page International to join its stable. Scheiff says that by UK law, he cannot discuss the Michael Page episode. And he refuses to confirm or deny marketplace rumours that Adecco is now eyeing SThree as a potential acquisition.

“I’m always interested in rumours because then I know what the market is talking about,” he says with a laugh. “A rumour may or may not be true. I never confirm or deny any rumours, because rumours are rumours and I do not speculate.” [SThree also declined to comment.] He does, however, explain that the company favours organic growth generally but that it makes more sense to acquire, instead of grow, businesses operating in the professional/qualified sectors because they are more difficult to grow. And Adecco wants to readdress the company’s balance of sales across professional and general staffing. Currently, 82% of Adecco’s sales are in general staffing, with 18% on the professional side.
Geographically, he says, “we are interested in professional staffing businesses maybe in Europe, the US or also in Japan”.

“And I’m not so much interested in ‘filling a hole’ in a certain country,” he emphasises. “I’m more interested in strategic acquisitions. That means a company whichhas certain positions in professional staffing, meaning in one country or even better, a global base or a regional base — a situation which I would very much value.” Acquisitions are just one item of interest on Scheiff’s agenda. He is also keenly interested in reshaping the relationship between consultants, agencies and temp workers so that it becomes a long-term engagement instead of a one-off placement. “In the temping industry, everybody has made a big mistake,” he says. “You have a person, you have a job; you bring them together, then you tend to forget about it. You should not do this.”

But doing so would require consultants to take a longterm approach to recruitment as a genuine profession and not a stop-gap role, it is suggested. The short-term approach to recruitment is “specific to the Anglo-Saxon world”, Scheiff says. “The turnover is high. If I go to other countries, like France for instance, it’s much lower. There I can find branch managers with 25 years in the same area.”

Walk to a village centre with such a recruiter, Scheiff says, and they can point out people for whom they found their first jobs and even know their families. “This is the kind of relationship I want our organisation to build,” he says.

Then perhaps UK recruiters might learn something from their continental counterparts? “They can learn if they want,” Scheiff says archly. “Learning is always a voluntary thing. But I want more consecutive assignments; I want our people to stay longer with Adecco Group and have their own careers at Adecco.”

Scheiff started his own career as an apprentice in the Aachen offices of the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli. Today, the sweet life continues for him as Adecco’s CEO. His home in Switzerland overlooks a Lindt & Sprüngli Chocoladefabriken factory. “So there is a kind of circle,” Scheiff says. “And I like chocolate.”

DIETER SCHEIFF: A SNAPSHOT
Born Koblenz, Germany
Raised in Aachen, Germany
Studied at University of Applied Sciences, Aachen
Career highlights include:
- 3M, 18 years in various sales and marketing roles
- Johnson and Johnson Cordis, joined in 1998 and became vice president for Europe in 2001
- DIS Deutscher Industrie Service, leading German professional staffing services company, joined as head of sales and marketing in 2001
- promoted to DIS CEO in 2002
- DIS acquired by Adecco in 2006
- appointed Adecco CEO in August 2006