SQS Switzerland

	We can only grow with more staff, and in that sense Harvey Nash has made a major contribution to our 200% increase in revenue over the past year. Its staff were very experienced and enormously driven to find good people. It has proved to be a very positive relationship
	Reto Zust, managing director, SQS Switzerland

High quality high volume

As a growth-hungry start-up in the competitive IT sector, SQS faced considerable challenges when it set up a new business in Zurich in 2003. The IT consultancy already had a considerable presence and reputation around Europe, with 450 employees, but Switzerland was uncharted territory. The Swiss start-up was led by a Swiss managing director, Reto Zust, supported by three consultants from Germany, but it needed to grow quickly and lacked the in-house resources and external networks to build the team itself.

Over the past 18 months Harvey Nash’s Zurich office has helped it recruit 17 permanent employees and three contractors, and is in the process of recruiting a further ten consultants this year. The recruitment drive has helped SQS grow revenue by over 200% during the past year – an achievement all the more remarkable given the dearth of suitably qualified and experienced candidates.

Market volume was falling due to the growth in IT outsourcing and offshoring, and SQS was competing with other consultancies and in-house IT departments not just for clients, but also for experienced staff. Its specialisation in quality assurance and quality management, along with its desire to move into even more specialist areas, meant it needed to extend its search into other European countries, notably Germany.

SQS was so pleased with the quality of the first three recruits Harvey Nash brought into the firm, that it established a framework contract with the recruitment consultancy, making it an exclusive supplier. “SQS have relied on us very heavily,” says consultant Danica Ravelli. “We work closely with Reto Zust and established a very high level of mutual trust from the outset.

As well as helping them recruit consultants, we provided information on the market, advised on salary ranges, helped define roles and requirements and helped them train people up, where necessary. It has been a true consultancy arrangement.