‘Die dag het aangebreek vir my
om Suid-Afrika te verlaat en nuwe lewe in Nederland te begin.’ (Afrikaans for ‘The
day has come for me to leave South Africa for a new life in the Netherlands’)
This message was the Facebook status of one of our engineers. He was leaving
South Africa for the Netherlands, to work for one of our customers as a hardware
engineer. Our managing consultant, Roel van Rossum, reacted animatedly:
“Hey isn’t it almost like Dutch?! Yes! That’s precisely why we went
looking for engineers in South Africa! “

So
off we went. In July, colleagues Bart, Roel, Bram and Maikel travelled to South
Africa for a mass recruitment session. They had selected and interviewed 65
candidates who met the highest requirements. The idea to do this first came up
in 2017. At the time, Maikel was connecting an experienced engineer from South
Africa with a client of his. “I was very impressed by the quality he
delivered, and there was no language barrier at all. When I became an
operational manager, I designed a plan and started working on it. “

One
of the reasons for recruiting in South Africa is the language. The team had
noted that customers often prefer Dutch-speaking employees. “Although the
market is becoming increasingly limited, you have to think about how you can
best deliver to the customer. People from Cape Town often have Afrikaans as
their native language, and this is quite similar to Dutch. They pick up the
Dutch language very quickly.

“We
started straight away and selected five positions that are always in high
demand from our customers. So yes, we went to South Africa for a different kind
of Big Five, “Maikel says enthusiastically. “At Xelvin, we’re
constantly negotiating and looking out for the right employees for our
customers. The passion for finding these employees in South Africa is evident.
The whole team had worked really hard to make this idea a success, so the mood
was great” said Bart.

Cape
Town is known for its prestigious universities, and we see that the engineers
there achieve a very high technical level. They also tend to be adventurers
with a strong personality. They have to leave everything behind, so you need to
be the right sort of person to do that.”

The
team noticed during the first few days that the drive to perform was intrinsic
in the candidates they interviewed. “They were all well on time, smartly
dressed and showed a genuine interest in us. In terms of communication skills,
they were also solid. Occasionally, we would throw a Dutch sentence in and that
went great!” The candidates were also subjected to a technical assessment
per Western European standards. They all passed with flying colours. Twelve of
the 65 have already said goodbye to friends and family and left South Africa
for the Netherlands. “Of course, we will make sure that they feel at home
here in no time!”, Roel assures.

After
65 interviews in only three days, the four ‘bourgondisch’ southerners just had
to see how the beer and wine taste in Cape Town. Both get the stamp of
approval! They can also tick off the sights of the Cape of Good Hope,
Stellenbosch and Table Mountain. “We can look back on a stunning and ultimately
successful journey”. It not only drove business; it also had a positive
effect on the team. “The fact that they invited me was a true token of
appreciation for me,” Bart says. “And although we found and spotted
our Big Five, we are certainly not finished with South Africa!”