Another view of recruitment
“I thought I was helping people. I was getting in their way.”
Tibo began his career confidently in the staffing industry. He believed in helping people, in connecting talent with the right place.
For seven weeks he has been working at Velde in Belgium. The difference from his previous employer? Big. But not in the way you might expect.
From sports to recruitment
Tibo studied sports management in Bruges business management with a specialization in sports. A logical choice for someone who was busy with volleyball six days out of seven, both as a player and as a certified trainer. When an injury put an end to his active career, he focused his entrepreneurial energy on something else: guiding people in their professional lives.
The staffing industry seemed like a natural match. Broad, people-oriented, commercial. He stepped in as an HR consultant and soon realized that his strength lay in the commercial: making appointments, convincing clients, field sales. He seized that opportunity, first with a software company, later back in the staffing sector, this time as office manager for senior white-collar workers.
But the more ambitious he became, the sharper he saw the shortcomings of the system.
A changing market
Work is not what it used to be. Candidates – especially higher educated profiles – know better what they want. They compare employers, ask questions about culture and development, and drop out if the match is not right. Expectations are higher, and so is the threshold for leaving.
The staffing industry has not adequately followed that shift. Many managers were raised in a labor market of 20 years ago – a market in which speed and volume did work. “They grew up with an approach that made sense back then,” Tibo says. “But the market has changed profoundly. Candidates have a whole backpack of experiences and a clear vision of what works for them.”
The result is an industry that runs on the law of large numbers: the more you do, the more you get back. Sixty phone calls a day, dozens of screenings, and ultimately a handful of calls. How good the match is hardly plays a role in that.
Tibo worked with senior clerks. Profiles for which quality is precisely essential. But there, too, the system was the same: quickly forwarding resumes to as many companies as possible, hoping something sticks. For clients, that meant a daily stream of resumes with no real match. And if someone does not show up on the first day of work, the process starts all over again.
– Tibo the Fox
Looking for something different
When Tibo decided things had to change, he had two options: a move to pure account management, or a different way of recruiting. “Not recruitment as I knew it. Really building a relationship with a client, advising, taking the time. Searching specifically for a limited number of clients – not everything for everyone.”
Through an application process for an account manager vacancy through Velde, he came in for an interview. What struck him was not a sales pitch, but recognition. “Everything I had been shouting for two years was being said here,” he said.
One concrete difference made it immediately tangible: 80 percent of placements are still successful after one year. “That number alone told me that work here is fundamentally different.”
What customers experience differently
At Velde, the conversation begins not with the job posting, but with the company. Why is this role open? Where does the organization want to go? What does someone need to be successful there – in the long run? “Those are questions no one asks. But they do determine whether someone will still be in that position two years from now.”
You can see that in how customers respond. Not with control or pressure, but with trust. Also in choices. If a candidate does not fit, it is said – even if the client is enthusiastic. “We dare to pull the plug. Because we look beyond that one vacancy.”
What is it like to work like this?
For Tibo, the difference is not only in the client relationship, but also in his own work. “I feel every week that I am learning. That I’m growing.” The combination of inside and outside sales, the knowledge sharing within the team, and working on sustainable matches make the difference.
But most importantly, “I wanted to help people. In the staffing industry, I was in their way. Here I’m doing what I wanted to do.”
In a year, he wants to see himself as a full-fledged consultant with his own client portfolio. The first steps have been taken. “My mission and Velde’s mission correspond very well. That makes it easy to go to work every day with conviction.”
What it's all about
That difference is not only in how it works, but especially in how recruitment is viewed.
As long as speed and volume are leading in recruitment, quality remains a coincidence. It seems efficient, but in practice it often means starting over – for both companies and people.
Only when you start from insight – what drives someone, what an organization needs and where it wants to go – do working relationships emerge that make sense. And that stay that way. That’s what it’s all about in the end.
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