EDI Staffbuilders Turns 27
by Paul Catiang

On September 6, 2006, EDI Staffbuilders, the fully-owned John Clements subsidiary dedicated to international recruitment, celebrated its 27 th anniversary. Clients, colleagues and friends gathered at Red, one of the prestigious restaurants of the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, to partake in the celebration and enjoy yet another year of working with the much-awarded international recruitment organization.

Finding the right kind of talent is also another challenge in the field of recruitment. The requirements of Al-Rashid Abetong, a Riyadh-based pre-cast and ready-mixed concrete company, are such an example. “We've been working with EDI for around three months. Our requirements are for engineers. Our pre-cast construction business usually has clients among the oil and gas companies in Saudi Arabia . EDI meets our requirements, and the people we need can be hard to find. We still need to recruit from other countries, because it seems we have vacuum-cleaned the Philippines of this kind of engineer. The pre-cast industry in the Philippines is not so big, and we do need engineers experienced in this kind of work,” says Hakan Johnson, who came to the country to conduct final interviews with his EDI's candidates, and of course to join in the celebration.

While Mr. Johnson and his company have only been clients for three months, the Al-Futtaim Group has been recruiting through EDI Staffbuilders for almost 20 years. Moshen al-Gaaki shows exactly how diverse their recruitment needs are. “We are one of the biggest organizations in the Gulf, so we need all kinds of professionals. EDI is our approved recruitment agent in Manila . We take architects, IT people, accountants, engineers, mechanics, security staff, all kinds of professionals from the rank-and-file up to specialists.”

Staying for almost two decades with the company is a testament to the Al-Futtaim Group's relationship with EDI's President and CEO. “Cesar is a professional man, and our relationship with him is very clear. Whenever we require any service, he provides it,” Mr. Al-Gaaki concludes.

Not all of EDI Staffbuilders' business involves direct recruitment; MacLeod Associates helps with the legal side of emigrating to New Zealand . Richard MacLeod gives a more in-depth look at their association: “EDI and my company are working together to send Filipinos to New Zealand . We're immigration lawyers and we help people migrate to New Zealand and build a new life there. We're talking about a certain class of skilled migrant: nurses, IT specialists, and a few others. At the moment, Filipinos account for around 15 percent of all the migrants to go to New Zealand . It's doubling almost every year. There are reasons for this: one, Filipinos are highly skilled; two, English language training is usually taken for granted; and three, I think Filipinos have a good reputation for community building and family building. You look at other countries where Filipinos migrate, and you'll see them building communities where they are.”

One of the oldest destinations for Overseas Filipino Workers has been Saudi Arabia , and the National Commercial Bank employs quite a lot of Filipinos. Mr. Bambi Cerdeña, who oversees consumer banking for the financial institution, shares his experiences in recruiting through EDI Staffbuilders. “I deal personally with EDI, because they were keen on hiring Filipinos. NCB has a lot of Filipinos and they like having Filipinos among their people,” he begins. He also says how his needs as a client were met by EDI, saying, “I was a tough customer for EDI, and kept them on their toes a lot. We ended up requiring them to go to Malaysia and meet us there, because it would have been too much for us to go to the Philippines when the majority of the candidates were in Malaysia . They attended to us, and they were very professional about it. What I like about EDI is the quality of the candidates they endorse to us. They stake their name and reputation on each candidate, so they really have to test the candidates first.”

Mauro Cervantes of Bluescope Steel echoes these observations through his own experiences. “It has been at least three or four years since we began dealing with EDI. We have manpower requirements in China , Vietnam and even in Thailand ,” he begins. ““The management in Asia are very happy with the quality of people EDI is sending to their operations. I heard it personally from the president of the Thailand and Vietnam operations.”

In some cases, some clients are actually encouraged to start operations in the Philippines . Paul Symes, Chairman of 4D Steel, is one such example. “My working relationship with EDI is very good. When we were starting out with EDI we were having problems with the POEA, and they were very helpful with sorting things out with the agency. We've recently decided to open a branch here in Manila , and EDI is our recruitment partner.”

As of now, 4D Steel's timetable has been updated. Mr. Symes says, “Our Manila office is basically an extension of our New Zealand office. It's part of a long-term plan that includes operating here in the Philippines , which will be twice the size of our New Zealand operations. Our five-year plan is now looking like a three-year plan.”

For 27 years, EDI Staffbuilders has stood by its reputation as a recruiter with integrity, high standards, and unfailing dedication to both clients and candidates. The efforts of EDI Staffbuilders have been recognized by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and we have received several awards from the government agency over the years.

One of our crowning achievements, however, came in 2005, when EDI Staffbuilders, amongst all other Philippine recruiters, had the honor of representing the country to the International Labour Organization's Policy Dialogue on the Agents of International Labour Migration . Our time-tested recruitment practices were chosen to be the benchmark in the field, and are now included in the ILO's 2006 publication, Merchants of Labour .

And now, EDI Staffbuilders is ready to serve yet more clients and candidates with the same brand of service it has perfected over the years.