PIZ Recruiting GmbH

What PIZ Recruiting GmbH does

PIZ Recruiting GmbH is a privately held boutique recruitment firm founded in 2021 and headquartered at Wassergasse 50 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The company operates exclusively in the Eastern Switzerland (Ostschweiz) region, with stated service coverage extending into adjacent cantons including Zürich, Thurgau, Graubünden, and Chur. It is led by founder and CEO Verena Erismann and employs approximately 10 staff organized into five vertical practices: Human Resources, Finance & Controlling, Industry & Sales, Healthcare, and general Sales. The firm places specialists and leadership candidates into mid-market and enterprise clients, with a visible client base spanning healthcare institutions (Forel Klinik, Regionales Alterszentrum Tannzapfenland, Vitrea Schweiz), industrial manufacturers (Kronospan, Lignum Technologies, Finstone, eftec, Blåkläder), professional services (Creditreform Egeli, Moore Zürich), and municipal government (Gemeinde Teufen).

The company's service portfolio comprises two principal offerings: non-exclusive contingency recruitment and a higher-touch exclusive mandate ('Exklusive Suche') structured around a defined 7-step methodology covering job-profile definition, market exhaustion, candidate presentation, interview support, decision-making, and post-placement aftercare. Supporting capabilities include active sourcing of passive candidates across LinkedIn and Xing, salary benchmarking, CV analysis for job seekers, and confidential/anonymous executive search. Pricing is not publicly disclosed but follows the industry-standard transaction-fee model, with fees charged to hiring companies on successful placement and Sonderkonditionen (special conditions) available for exclusive mandates. Candidates receive services free of charge.

PIZ has no proprietary technology platform; its underlying 'stack' is a conventional consultancy toolkit — personal recruiter expertise, standard CRM-adjacent processes, LinkedIn/Xing sourcing, email and phone outreach, and a public website featuring both a job listings portal (Stellenangebote) and thought-leadership blog content. The firm monetizes purely through placement fees, acquires clients through personal networks, referrals, and content-driven inbound demand generation, and is wholly founder-owned with no external funding or parent entity on record.

Name

PIZ Recruiting GmbH

Legal name

PIZ Recruiting GmbH

Website

https://pizrecruiting.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

PIZ Recruiting GmbH is a St. Gallen-based boutique recruitment firm, founded in 2021, that places specialists and leaders across HR, Finance, Industry, Sales, and Healthcare verticals for companies primarily in Eastern Switzerland, monetizing via contingency and exclusive mandate placement fees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Recruitment Services

NAICS

Employment Placement Agencies (561311), Executive Search Services (561312), Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services (56131)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

General Permanent Placement (Multi-Industry) (BPACAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Recruitment Marketing & Employer Branding for RPO (BPACABAL), Sales, Marketing & Customer Success Direct Hire (BPACAFAD), Executive & Leadership Direct Hire (BPACAFAB), Healthcare & Life Sciences Leadership Search (BPACAAAE)

Keywords

• Executive search services
• Recruitment consulting
• Talent acquisition
• Active sourcing
• Headhunting services

Headquarters

HQ city

St. Gallen

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Contingency Recruitment Services: PIZ Recruiting places candidates for client companies on a non-exclusive (and optionally exclusive) retained basis. Revenue is earned upon successful placement of a candidate. The firm also serves candidates for free (cost-free service for job seekers), monetizing through fees charged exclusively to hiring companies. The pricing structure includes special conditions for exclusive mandates, with services spanning active sourcing, candidate presentation, interview coordination, salary advice, and post-placement aftercare.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

PIZ Recruiting GmbH is a boutique recruitment consultancy based in St. Gallen that places specialists and leadership candidates with companies across the Eastern Switzerland (Ostschweiz) region. The firm offers contingency and exclusive recruitment mandates organized around five domain practices (HR, Finance & Controlling, Industry & Sales, Healthcare, and Sales), combining active sourcing of passive candidates, salary benchmarking, candidate preparation, and post-placement aftercare as part of a defined 7-step process.

Product overview

PIZ Recruiting GmbH is a boutique recruitment consultancy based in St. Gallen, Switzerland, serving the Eastern Switzerland (Ostschweiz) region. The company operates as a single integrated service rather than a modular software platform. Its core offering comprises recruitment consulting services for both employers (companies seeking talent) and job-seeking individuals (candidates), supported by specialized offerings including Active Sourcing, Executive Search, Exclusive Mandates, a curated Candidate Pool, and Salary Advisory. These services are delivered through personalized human consultation across five industry verticals: Human Resources, Finance, Industry, Sales, and Healthcare. A public Job Listings Portal complements the service portfolio, allowing candidates to browse and apply for open positions directly.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Recruitment Consulting for Companies Full-service recruitment support for employers in Eastern Switzerland, covering active sourcing, presentation of pre-screened candidates, salary benchmarking, and full-process management to fill specialist and leadership positions across HR, Finance & Controlling, Industry & Sales, Healthcare, and Sales sectors.
• Recruitment Consulting for Individuals Career advisory and placement services for job seekers, including CV analysis, interview preparation, access to the hidden job market, salary negotiation guidance, and end-to-end application support across the firm's sector practices. Service is provided free of charge to candidates.
• Executive Search Specialized recruitment offering targeting outstanding executives, senior managers, and key experts for leadership and key expert positions, emphasizing precise cultural and strategic alignment between candidate and client.
• Exclusive Search Mandate Dedicated full-process recruitment engagement in which PIZ Recruiting handles all pre-selection activities under an exclusive mandate. Includes a 7-step process from job profile definition through aftercare, with preferential Sonderkonditionen (special conditions) and the option of confidential or anonymous candidate search.
• Job Listings Portal Public-facing online job board on the PIZ Recruiting website that showcases current vacancies across Finance & Controlling, Human Resources, Industry, Healthcare, and Sales categories, allowing candidates to browse and apply for open positions.
• Salary Advisory Add-on consulting service providing market salary intelligence and benchmarking across the firm's sector practices to support both client companies in offer structuring and candidates in compensation negotiations.

Named customers12 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Michael Page Switzerland: Michael Page is a global permanent placement and executive search firm with a large Swiss office network. It competes with PIZ for multi-sector professional placements in Eastern Switzerland and offers a far broader sector catalogue, but lacks PIZ's localized boutique positioning.
• Robert Half Switzerland: Robert Half is a global staffing firm with strong Swiss presence in finance/accounting, technology, and administrative placement. It overlaps heavily with PIZ's Finance & Controlling and Industry practice areas and represents a scaled benchmark for PIZ's eventual ambitions.
• Egon Zehnder Switzerland: Egon Zehnder is a global executive search firm with a Zürich office, focused on senior leadership and board-level appointments. It competes directly with PIZ for high-stakes executive mandates in healthcare, finance, and industry — though at a substantially higher price point and global reach.
• Adecco Switzerland: Adecco is the world's largest staffing company, headquartered in Switzerland. While dominated by temporary staffing, it operates a permanent placement division across all five of PIZ's verticals and represents the deepest competitive threat given national reach and employer brand.
• Hays Switzerland: Hays is a UK-listed recruitment specialist with deep Swiss operations across finance, healthcare, engineering, and HR — directly overlapping four of PIZ's five practice areas. It competes on permanent and contract placements in the same Eastern Swiss employer base but at a larger scale.

Regional players

• SIGMA Sourcing (Sigmatoch): SIGMA is a well-established Swiss permanent placement and executive search firm focused on the DACH region, serving many of the same enterprise and mid-market clients in finance, HR, and operations. Comparable in boutique positioning but with broader geographic coverage than PIZ.
• Universal Job AG: Universal Job is a Swiss personnel services company combining job board, permanent placement, and temporary staffing across all major Swiss regions. It overlaps with PIZ on placement services and competes for the same SMB and mid-market employer base in Ostschweiz.

Emerging players

• CareerTeam AG: CareerTeam is a Swiss boutique recruiter operating across IT, finance, and sales verticals with a regional service model comparable to PIZ. It targets similar mid-market employer clients and demonstrates the niche boutique format that PIZ occupies.

Direct peers

• Robert Walters Switzerland: Robert Walters is a mid-sized international recruiter specializing in professional permanent placement across finance, HR, sales, and technical roles — the same verticals PIZ targets. Operates a Zürich office and competes for many of the same Swiss enterprise clients, but with a broader pan-European reach.

Others

• LHH (Adecco Group Switzerland): LHH is the Adecco Group's career transition and talent development arm, often involved as a sourcing or outplacement partner. It is comparable to PIZ not as a direct competitor but as an adjacent talent-solutions provider that Swiss employers may use alongside or instead of boutique recruiters.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/piz-recruiting-gmbh
• Instagraminstagram.com/pizrecruiting

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 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 PIZ Recruiting GmbH