Mr Ernst, we have gained the impression that fluctuating capacity is a major challenge in the construction industry. To what extent would you agree with that?
Yes, it is the case throughout the construction industry that utilisation fluctuates a great deal, often also depending on other trades or on the authorities, because permission does not come through as you had planned.
I see. What options do you have for offsetting these fluctuating capacities?
Either topping up with temporary staff or - which we much prefer to do - borrowing staff from other carpentry firms. If a carpentry firm has slightly less work, you can borrow employees from them.
Interesting - where do the advantages lie compared with temporary staff?
They are usually the better people, better qualified, and they deliver better quality of work. On the temporary market, where very few people are available, it is then mostly the weaker people who are around. If you do get a good temporary worker, you usually take them on permanently straight away.
Have you had negative experiences with temporary staff?
Yes, precisely in the form of the quality of work not being good.
I see. And when you borrow employees from other firms, how should we picture that, how does it work, how are you organised?
It is similar to temporary staff. It works by telephone, so you call each other and ask whether the other has capacity. Then the people come to work and afterwards you send the invoice.
So you are simply different firms that know each other, privately, and then you call each other directly?
Yes, exactly. You know each other anyway from the association or from events, and then you can simply ask how things look.
Of course. And you said the payment works through mutual invoicing?
That is right, you agree an hourly rate and then whoever is lending the staff can issue an invoice based on the hourly rate and the hours worked. Just as with temporary staff, in fact, so on an hourly basis.
And are there any legal matters you have to bear in mind regarding tax, insurance and such things?
No, that all continues as before, so the employees remain employed by their company, the employer simply lends the staff out, but everything else continues, so social security deductions, insurance and so on.
And regarding the number of hours, do you then take over the hours the person would work at the other company?
No, simply the ones they actually work. So if they work nine hours with us, nine hours are recorded and nine hours are also charged.
Understood. You mentioned earlier as an advantage of borrowing staff that the work is better in quality, but are there also disadvantages to this model?
No, actually so far we have not had any.
That is good too. Roughly how many firms do you know that you work with?
It must be about three or four firms that we work with.
And how does it work if you need an employee with particular skills - can you ask for them? Or are you assigned whoever currently has less work at the other business, or how does that fit together?
Normally they are all trained carpenters and then you simply ask for a carpenter. And if you need a foreman, then you explicitly ask for a foreman, but that is rather rarer. As a rule you simply need carpenters, that is, manpower.
Roughly how often does it happen that you borrow employees from other firms?
Last year we had some almost the whole year through and at the moment we again have temporary staff working for us, because I cannot find anyone from other firms. But there can also be years when we have none, it varies a great deal. It also depends somewhat on utilisation.
More in summer than in winter, I assume?
Well, for us that is no longer much of a difference, building simply carries on. Only that it is a bit colder in January, but at the moment we again have temporary staff and it is still January. It is no longer as it used to be, when people said winter is quieter; it is mostly hectic all year round.
Understood, that was very interesting, many thanks for the interview!
So while with temporary staff external HR service providers, which do not themselves run a production or service business, act as intermediaries, occasional staff leasing is based on a short-term and not specially planned «lending» of workers between construction companies that know each other. Since with occasional staff leasing - unlike temporary or agency work - lending staff is not part of the employer's standard offering and there is therefore no regularity to the lending, it does not require a licence either. Construction businesses can thus lend employees to companies they know, or borrow from them, and in this way support one another during capacity bottlenecks.
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