A year ago, Bank J.Van Breda & C° registered for Talent Tap. We interviewed Eleen Wouters, recruitment and selection specialist, and asked about her experience with this new method of talent attraction.
- As a Talent Tap user, you know better than anyone else how this proactive and innovative way of talent attraction works. Can you briefly explain this to our readers?
At Talent Tap you look at the profiles that suit the company, while the traditional way of working focuses on the vacancy that needs to be filled. You really look for the match with the company, even if there is no specific vacancy. Because you initially mainly match on competencies and company culture, you can look much broader at the labor market. You are our only partner who works this way. It is a different way of thinking that we really like because we also attach great importance to the company culture fit.
The influx we receive through Talent Tap also achieves a higher success rate than the traditional way of recruiting. Especially for our IT department, your service is very welcome because we always need a lot of IT people. With every IT match we receive, we can then quickly see where we can deploy this person within the organization in function of his technical skills.
- What reasons did/do you have for taking a more proactive approach to recruiting?
Because you convinced us of the added value of your way of working (laughs). That’s why we wanted to give it a chance. Now we see that it works effectively. We have no reason to go back to the old way of working. We see that the profiles you send us always match our company culture, which implies a higher chance of being hired.
- What do you love most about Talent Tap? What do you think are the advantages of Talent Tap (compared to the traditional way of recruiting)?
You will only be offered candidates that fit within your company culture. If you work per vacancy, the pool of candidates in which you have to fish at that moment can be very small, so that you may have to make unintentional compromises. Now you can fish much wider and you can wait to take out the ones that really suit you. You have much more choice in the small labor market.
- To what extent does a forwarded candidate’s myCareerCompass report help in your hiring decision process?
It is a good first step to get a picture of a candidate. We always do an assessment anyway, which is the decisive factor. The report says much more than a dry summary resume. It’s a good start and it helps us in our first stage of talent attraction. The report also allows us to better distinguish candidates from others. You get a much clearer picture of what the person is looking for, why someone matches with our company, and what their standards or values are.
- What extra tip can you give the readers to get a more proactive way of recruiting in the organization?
Give proactive working methods a chance and see if it works within your organization! That is how we started with Talent Tap from myCareerCompanion. Now we see that this approach pays off. I can understand that not every company is immediately convinced because it is a completely different approach, but nevertheless, it is worth trying it out.
A company culture match seems to become increasingly important in the future. During the corona crisis, many people started looking at “how did my employer handle it”. Some people are extra satisfied, others are not. They have started to think about whether they are still in the right working place. Working from home has become essential in these times. You are alone more often, which makes your job content and company culture more important, even after the crisis. In the past, you could satisfy people with a car, but now the company culture is also decisive. By using proactive ways of recruitment, you can respond much better to this, resulting in a large pool of candidates and a larger success ratio.