What Piening GmbH does

Piening GmbH is a privately held German personnel service provider founded in 1979 and headquartered at Altmühlstraße 30 in Bielefeld. The company operates under the consumer-facing brand Piening Personal as a licensed Zeitarbeit (temporary employment / Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) firm and Personalvermittlung (permanent placement) recruiter, holding two regulated legal entities — one in Bielefeld (HRB 30987) licensed on 12 April 1979 and a second in Berlin-Charlottenburg (HRB 28390) licensed on 21 April 1988 — both authorised to commercially lease employees under Germany's Temporary Employment Act (AÜG). It serves German companies across manufacturing-adjacent industries (metalworking, logistics, chemistry, automotive, food, plastics, electrical) plus office, commercial, and technical segments via 80+ physical branch locations and a multi-channel digital presence.

The company's core technology is a distributed branch-based service model supplemented by Piening Connect, a proprietary employee mobile app that gives temporary workers digital access to schedules, documents, and communication with the company. Additional in-house product surfaces include the Piening Academy training and education platform with personal education budgets, an Internal Job Entry mobility program, and an International Recruiting service for cross-border candidate sourcing. There is no public disclosure of AI/ML models, APIs, or proprietary matching engines in the supplied material; the app is described functionally rather than as an AI system.

Piening's revenue model is a transaction-based / unit-pricing structure: temporary-employment revenue is earned through a markup on hourly bill rates for supplied workers (with disclosed wage bands of EUR 14.96–EUR 29.30 per hour depending on role and skills), while permanent-placement revenue is earned as a recruitment fee of 10–28% of the placed candidate's annual gross salary depending on placement timing. The go-to-market is dual-sided — the company markets to both job seekers (through its job board, social channels, and branch walk-ins) and to hiring companies (through its branch-based direct sales force and online channels) — making its distribution network simultaneously its candidate-acquisition and customer-acquisition infrastructure.

Name

Piening GmbH

Legal name

Piening GmbH

Website

https://piening-personal.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Piening GmbH is a privately held German personnel service provider founded in 1979, operating 80+ branches and supplying temporary workers (Zeitarbeit) and permanent placement (Personalvermittlung) services to industrial and commercial customers across Germany.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Staffing Services

NAICS

Retail Bakeries (311811)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

Warehousing, Distribution & Material Handling Staffing (BPACAEAD)

Keywords

• Temporary employment services
• Permanent staffing recruitment
• Personnel services provider
• Workforce solutions
• International recruiting

Headquarters

HQ city

Bielefeld

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Temporary Employment (Zeitarbeit): Piening supplies temporary workers to client companies on a contractual basis, earning revenue through markup on worker wages. The company handles payroll, compliance, and administration for temporary staff.
2. Staffing Recruitment (Personalvermittlung): Direct placement of candidates with client companies. Piening earns a recruitment fee (typically a percentage of the placed candidate's annual gross salary) when a company hires a presented candidate.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Piening GmbH operates a personnel services business supplying temporary workers (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) and permanent placement candidates (Personalvermittlung) to companies across Germany. Through 80+ branch offices, it connects job seekers with employers in industries such as automotive, metalworking, logistics, chemical, food, plastics, and electrical, while supporting workers with a proprietary employee app (Piening Connect) and training programs (Piening Academy).

Product overview

Piening GmbH operates under the Piening Personal brand as a German recruitment agency offering temporary employment (Zeitarbeit/Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) and direct staffing recruitment (Personalvermittlung) services. The company provides these core services through a network of approximately 80 locations nationwide, supported by the Piening Connect digital employee app for worker management and communications. Additional offerings include the Piening Academy for internal training, International Recruiting for cross-border staffing needs, and Benefits & Advanced Training programs for employee development. The company primarily serves industrial, commercial, and technical sectors across Germany.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Piening Connect: Employee app for Piening workers providing digital access to work-related information and services
• Piening Academy

Products and services

• Temporary Employment (Zeitarbeit) Supply of temporary workers (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) to client companies under commercial leasing arrangements, with Piening handling payroll, compliance, and administration. Tariff-based pay rates range from 14.96 to 29.30 EUR/hour depending on position.
• Staffing Recruitment (Personalvermittlung)

Quantifiable outcome

• 5,000+ workers placed and managed

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Hays Germany: German arm of Hays plc, specializing in temporary and contract placement of skilled professionals, particularly in technical and engineering roles. Overlaps with Piening in skilled-trades and technical staffing.
• Persona Service: One of Germany's largest publicly listed personnel services providers, with a similar mix of temporary employment (Zeitarbeit) and permanent placement. Direct competitor with a comparable multi-branch German footprint and blue-collar industrial focus.
• Tempton Personaldienstleistungen: Mid-sized German staffing company offering temporary employment and permanent placement, with a similar multi-branch structure and focus on industrial and commercial sectors. Direct domestic competitor to Piening.
• Adecco Germany: German arm of Adecco Group, offering temporary staffing, permanent placement, and workforce solutions. Competes directly with Piening in industrial, logistics, and commercial temp placement across Germany.
• Robert Half Germany: German subsidiary of Robert Half International, providing temporary and permanent placement in finance, accounting, and administrative roles. Comparable in business model (temp + perm) though skewed toward office/professional rather than blue-collar.
• DIS AG: German staffing and recruitment firm focused on commercial, technical, and industrial placements. Provides both temporary staffing and direct recruitment, overlapping significantly with Piening's service offering and customer base.
• ManpowerGroup Germany: German operations of global staffing firm ManpowerGroup, providing temporary employment, recruitment, and career-development services. Direct competitor in the same blue-collar and commercial temp-staffing market.
• Randstad Germany: German subsidiary of the global staffing leader Randstad N.V., providing temporary employment, permanent placement, and HR solutions across the same industrial and commercial verticals Piening serves. Direct head-to-head competitor in blue-collar and skilled-trades staffing in Germany.

Broad incumbents

• Akka Technologies (now Akkodis): European engineering and technology consulting firm with substantial temporary staffing and project-based workforce solutions in Germany. Comparable in serving technical/industrial clients, though with a stronger engineering-consulting focus.

Emerging players

• Jobbörse.de / StepStone Germany: Major German online job board and recruitment platform, including an active temp-staffing marketplace. Represents the digital-channel alternative to Piening's branch-led model and a partial substitute for lower-skill placements.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@piening_personal
• Facebookfacebook.com/PieningPersonal
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/piening-personal
• Instagraminstagram.com/pieningpersonal
• TikToktiktok.com/@piening.personal

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Piening GmbH