Katrien Wakana and Anne-Julie André-Duchateau

The initial challenge

Katrien

At the time, we had a single colleague who worked for the entire headquarters, as well as certain functions for the plant. And this colleague sometimes had to manage up to 30 open positions at the same time. Just when we thought we were making efficiency and cost savings, we realized that we couldn't handle all these recruitments in parallel. We couldn't manage to find the right candidate within a reasonable timeframe. Sometimes, we would look for a candidate for four or five weeks, and then realize that it wasn't possible. So we'd call in an external agency, but on a "one shot" basis, which meant fairly high billing rates. We realized that we'd lost everything: time, because we'd delayed the launch with the agency, but also money, because we were paying full price.

The aim of this function was also to provide managers with more support in integrating new employees, but the recruitment workload didn't allow us to provide tactical and strategic support. We didn't have time to think about our recruitment channels, for example. Strategic thinking often took a back seat to the urgency of recruitment.

In fact, we needed to create a relationship of trust with managers on the recruitment aspects. We needed to reduce our costs. We needed to be faster on time-to-hire, which was extremely long. We also needed to free up our colleague for other HR projects.

What solution has been implemented?

Katrien

I'd already had the opportunity to collaborate with Profile Group when I was working at John Cockerill. I knew that if I called on Profile Group, together we could design the most appropriate solution for the situation we were facing.

So we presented the situation to Profile Group. And we quickly decided together to implement an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing). I was already familiar with this solution, and it quickly became obvious.

We had to find colleagues at Profile Group who would fit in with our corporate culture. Olivier arrived very quickly and Camille a little later, as well as Jean-Clair. This solution was perfect for us, because we could increase capacity when we were recruiting a lot, but also reduce it when we were recruiting less. We are a company where the volume of recruitment is variable, with hiring freezes. Being able to modulate the size of the team according to needs was one of the facilities we were looking for.

What are the key results of this solution?

Katrien

Freeing up the HR department from an operational workload and therefore having a more standardized approach to recruitment, particularly in terms of processes. We took the time to think about our recruitment channels and job offers.

The cost went down and it was a neutral equation for the HR department. Although recruitment was still billed internally, the cost was lower than what we were used to, with one-shot outsourced recruitment.

We were able to build up a relationship of trust. It obviously took a little time for everyone to get used to new faces. But we were able to build up a relationship of trust with all the hiring managers, who challenged us more and more, for example with VIE contracts. It was the first time we had done this. And the advantage of working with Profile Group is that neither Camille nor Olivier are afraid of taking on a new challenge.

I think the RPO really created added value for the HR team, who felt relieved of some of the recruitment work, but also for the hiring managers and candidates, who benefited from a standardized and professionalized approach.

I can safely say that Camille and Olivier are part of the team.

Anne-Julie

Katrien was responsible for thinking up the solution and implementing it. I'm more of a customer myself, and I can see the results of the RPO.

I can see that there has been real reflection on time-to-hire, on how to conduct intakes with the various managers, on how to involve other business leads than just department members in the selection of critical roles or senior leadership roles.

As the RPO was implemented at our company, Camille, Olivier and Jean-Clair really got to grips with the culture and the way we operate, always with a view to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.

And we've also been able to take our thinking on the candidate experience further, to secure our recruitment, but also on the employee experience and internal mobility.

My experience with Profile Group has been extremely positive. The fact that they are external partners allows us to put the right distance between ourselves and bring in a different perspective. When we benchmark and discuss with Profile Group, there are always ideas that come out. It's interesting to keep this neutral viewpoint with regard to the organization.

I also hear very positive things from business leaders. There are some very specific, niche profiles for which it can be more complicated, and for which we have to call in specialist headhunters. But beyond that, Camille and Olivier have made a major contribution to the creation of a Talent Acquisition community within the organization. They are the driving force behind this project. They are the ones who keep the information flowing, through various actions.

And even now, with a drop in the number of recruitments, the system remains effective. I have no doubt about that.

Personnally, I don't see Profile Group. I see Olivier, Camille and Jean-Clair. These are the people who make the difference. They try to understand needs and make improvements. They're people I really want to continue working with in this or any other life. With complete confidence, and my eyes closed, I sign! I don't see a commercial accent, I just see people who are undoubtedly very well recruited by Profile Group. And the result is there.