Staffing Beyond Borders

European Business: Ideal Work likes to position itself as “your partner at work.” How do you support your clients in this regard?

Barbara Kurzweil: At its core, our company connects people who want to work in Germany with companies that are seeking both skilled and unskilled labor. Ideal Work handles the entire organizational process – from arranging transportation to Germany to securing accommodation there. In the end, the employee benefits from finding a reliable employer, while our client gains a capable and motivated new team member.

European Business: Which industries do you primarily focus on?

Barbara Kurzweil: We primarily focus on production and logistics, which includes a broad range of sectors – from automotive to agriculture, where we place seasonal workers for fruit processing, although that tends to be shorter-term business. Fundamentally, we operate wherever human labor is essential – whether for entry-level roles or experienced specialists.

European Business: Germany has been grappling with a shortage of skilled labor for years. How has Ideal Work experienced this challenge?

Barbara Kurzweil: Most staffing agencies serve similar clients under comparable working conditions. Ideal Work largely stands out in the crowd as a result of the quality of our service – starting with recruitment. We constantly ask ourselves: How do we engage with candidates? How much attention do we pay to the interview process? Do candidates feel supported from the first conversation through onboarding and beyond? Do they have suitable accommodation and a positive start in their new role? To ensure this consistently, we deploy a large number of on-site coordinators in Germany. We maintain ongoing contact with our candidates – who later become employees of our clients’ organizations – and even operate a dedicated hotline so they can reach us at any time. If issues arise, we address them as quickly as possible.

European Business: Germany’s economy has cooled noticeably in recent years. How is Ideal Work experiencing this phase?

Barbara Kurzweil: The German economy is clearly slowing down. We work with some of the country’s largest logistics providers, where parcel volumes have declined significantly, for example – simply because consumers are ordering less, even during peak seasons like Christmas and Easter. This directly impacts suppliers like us. When demand drops, competition among staffing agencies intensifies.

European Business: How is Ideal Work responding?

Barbara Kurzweil: If our core clients require fewer workers, we need to broaden our customer base to stabilize our business. That’s why we have opened ourselves to smaller clients as well – companies with as few as five open positions, which might not have been attractive to us in the past. Today, we see this as an opportunity to prove ourselves in new markets and build relationships that can grow over time – much like we have done historically.

European Business: How is Ideal Work preparing for the future?

Barbara Kurzweil: Going forward, we want to focus more on recruiting specialists, where our experience and expertise truly add value. Hiring welders, painters, or other skilled professionals requires in-depth knowledge of each role – knowing the right questions to ask and understanding the working conditions in detail. We have made significant progress in this area in recent years. At the same time, we plan to expand our local recruitment efforts within Germany, hiring workers directly on the ground—not only German nationals, but also foreign residents already living in the country.

European Business: Digitization has long been a priority for Ideal Work.

Barbara Kurzweil: Our CEO has driven that agenda very consistently. We have a strong in-house IT team and are closely affiliated with two other companies that specialize in digital solutions as a core part of their service portfolio. We benefit directly from that expertise – whether in the digitization of our documentation or in the continuous enhancement of our CRM systems. We also collaborate with dedicated SEO partners for both the German and Polish markets. These are after all essential steps to build visibility and remain competitive.

European Business: You are also entering the outsourcing space as a new line of business.

Barbara Kurzweil: Yes, we want to move closer to our clients and relieve them of operational complexity. For our customers, staffing is ultimately a means to an end – they need people to carry out production and logistics tasks. But their true objective is the finished product, not the individual steps along the way. In some sectors, we have already implemented models where we take over entire production processes with our own workforce and charge based on output rather than hours worked – for example, per pallet of books produced in a printing facility. We have been asked about such solutions for years, and we are excited to expand them across more industries.

European Business: How open is the market today to temporary staffing models?

Barbara Kurzweil: Increasingly open – although some outdated misconceptions still persist. Considering that our clients can outsource the entire recruitment process, along with the associated costs and risks – including workforce reductions at the end of an employee life cycle – the hourly rates we charge are quickly put into perspective. In many cases, temporary staffing proves to be the more efficient and flexible solution.