Specializing in specialists
Carl Camden, CEO of Kelly Services, talks to WBJ about the company's plans in Poland
Michał Pakulniewicz: You are present in more than 30 countries around the world, but have just recently entered the Polish market. Why did you come to Poland so late?
Carl Camden: We were looking for the right partner for the last three years. It took us a while to find a good partner. Secondly, we only really picked up speed on our international expansion in the last three to four years. In the first quarter of this year we have already had three foreign acquisitions. Our strategy is now pushing for foreign expansion, so once we found a good partner we entered the Polish market.
Why did you decide to come into Poland? What's so interesting about this market?
The talent shortages are greater here than in other countries of Central Europe, therefore the need for specialist recruiting is very high here. It is higher than in the surrounding countries with a surplus of specialist workers. Our services are in great demand here. Also many of our large global customers have been developing a presence in Poland over the last two to three years and want to get a hold of specialist workers.
Polish specialized workers from different sectors of the economy are in great demand in many Western countries. Do you plan to recruit Poles for jobs abroad in addition to recruiting them for jobs here in Poland?
Cross-boarder recruitment is a specialty business in Europe. We provide our customers with talent from one country to another. There are IT shortages in Europe, and there are engineering shortages here in Poland in particular. We are ready to bring in specialists from abroad to Poland as well as find jobs outside of the country in fields where there are surpluses in the Polish market.
Talents Technology, which you have acquired, deals with recruiting specialists from the IT and science sectors. Kelly Services has a broader scope. Do you plan to expand your activities in Poland?
Apart from IT and science specialists, we at Kelly Services also provide services for finance specialists and engineers. We are slowly looking to expand these into Talents' territory. When that could happen, we do not yet know, because a lot depends on Talents Technology's management and their expansion strategy, not only regarding the services provided but also the territorial expansion to cities other than Warsaw. We are leaving them a lot of freedom. We are providing them with know-how about operating in areas other than those they have worked in. We are also giving them access to our global customer base. And we have the front-office and back-office IT to support their expansion.
How much do you plan to invest in expansion in Poland?
We don't know yet because we haven't discussed any concrete expansion strategy on the part of Talents Technology. They plan to expand geographically, but in terms of being in so many cities by a certain date, we do not have any concrete plans yet.
Do you plan to rebrand Talents Technology or will it continue operating under the same name?
I'm here to introduce the Kelly brand. [There will be] a dual-name transition period, but the company will rebrand to Kelly IT Resources and Kelly Scientific Resources during the course of this year.
