“The new [German] regulations that limit the temporary staffing maximum assignment duration at 18 months became effective in October of 2018. It meant that associates with a tenure longer than 18 months either need to be hired by the client directly or redeployed to other clients,” said Hans Ploos van Amstel, CFO of The Adecco Group, in an earnings call with analysts last week. “As a result, we’re seeing a high level of conversion to permanent employees and our customers. This is more than we had anticipated. We also see that redeployment is lower because of a mismatch in both skills and salary levels.” Van Amstel was discussing a regulation in Germany. For more on the regulation, see SIA’s report “Europe Legal Update Q4 2016”.