Growth and Pushing bounderies
Recap, Best Practices, and Inspiration on Innovation, Digitalization, and Internationalization
Each year, Byner hosts an inspiring Community Event specifically for agencies in Staffing, Freelance Mediation, Recruitment & Selection, and Executive Search. This year, industry experts and peers gathered around the theme of Growing and Pushing Boundaries. Innovative clients like YER, Nomilk2day, and Team Rockstars IT shared their knowledge, vision, and experiences in the fields of innovation, digitalization, and internationalization.
In this article, we share the highlights with you.
Growing with Byner
“None of us is as smart as all of us.” This credo is one of the pillars of the Byner Community. Growth is best achieved together. Ralph Brasker, CEO of Byner, kicked off the event by discussing the various forms of growth: collaboration, continuous improvement, innovation, transformation, and pushing boundaries.
All contribute to the growth of ourselves, our clients, and our partners. Naturally, they also inspired the program of the Byner Community Event. When thinking about innovation, Artificial Intelligence comes to mind. Hence, the day’s scoop: the launch of the Byner AI Assistant, currently in Closed Beta testing and expected to be available to all our clients after the summer.
How Nomilk2day Benefits from Artificial Intelligence in the Interview Process
Nomilk2day, an Executive Search specialist active in the agri & food sector, is also testing AI. In an industry where knowing the right professionals and maintaining relationships is crucial, speed and effective action are essential to make the right match. They use Byner, smart automations, and Artificial Intelligence. Recently, Nomilk2day started a trial with In2Dialog with promising results. In2Dialog provides advanced technology to take the interview process to the next level using the latest AI techniques.
The tool records interviews, summarizes conversations, highlights key candidate features, and automatically stores everything in the right places in Byner. It then generates reports, improvement tips, and candidate introduction texts for clients. Herman Schonewille, Managing Consultant at Nomilk2day
Herman Schonewille, Managing Consultant at Nomilk2day, gave the audience a glimpse into this pilot. “The tool saves our consultants a lot of time while simultaneously improving the quality of our service,” he said enthusiastically. “Because we link In2Dialog to Byner, all data comes together in one environment, giving us a wealth of insights, such as who our star players are and why, where improvement points lie, and how we can increase our conversion.”
YER: Faster Onboarding and Achieving More with Smart Automations and AI
YER is growing rapidly with high ambitions, not only in the Netherlands but also internationally. It’s crucial for them to work more data-driven and continuously strengthen their consultants.
They faced several challenges, including time-consuming recruitment processes, inefficient use of LinkedIn, a database that wasn’t always up-to-date, and a need for more differentiation.
Niels Valks, project manager at YER, and Rob Boersma from Jobrock shared insights from their pilot. Through email and LinkedIn automations, significant results were achieved. Candidates enriched their profiles on a large scale in YER’s database, and a pilot with automatic video and WhatsApp messages via LinkedIn achieved a high conversion rate for connections and actual appointments.
YER currently focuses on generating job pitches, conducting effective interviews, and automatically generating candidate presentations for clients using all available information with the AI Assistant. The Assistant uses all available info, providing great suggestions like conversation starters, icebreakers, obstacles, fun facts, and interview question tips.
The results are promising, and recruiters are enthusiastic. It saves them a lot of time, improves their work, and makes it more enjoyable, allowing new YERians to get up to speed much faster with this new technology.
The Rockstars Method: Radically Putting Employees First
Since this year, Team Rockstars IT has been using the Byner platform for their recruitment, with great success. Recruiting IT professionals is challenging, and retaining them is even harder. Team Rockstars IT faced this issue in an overheated market for IT professionals, where unwanted turnover and reduced motivation are always risks. They radically changed their approach, no longer putting the client first as all marketing books suggest, but instead putting employees first.
Team Rockstars IT developed a unique approach and, along with Raymond de Looze, wrote a book about it. Their new approach focuses on fully supporting and maximizing the success of their IT professionals, like a talent manager dedicated to their ‘Rockstar.’ Raymond and co-founder and owner Tijs Luijbregts shared the choices, dilemmas, and successes of this turnaround.
An inspiring story about core values, leadership, and creating and maintaining a unique culture even during rapid growth. Tijs emphasized, “Don’t think our method is a checklist you can simply tick off. It’s all about personal attention, setting a vision, feeling it deeply, and implementing it down to the smallest details.”
Employers interested in the ins and outs of the Rockstars Method are encouraged to order the book and benefit from it.
YER: Pushing Boundaries in Practice
In the final segment, Michel Elsenga, CFO of YER, and Byner’s Joram Timmerman discussed another form of growth seen in some organizations: Pushing Boundaries literally. This involves acquisitions and internationalization, successfully implemented by YER. Elsenga shared YER’s experiences and future vision, offering tips for organizations considering expanding abroad. “Learn the market well, understand the culture and regulations, and support yourself with good technology. Cheap solutions are expensive in the long run.
When you grow, everything is magnified. Lesser quality only gets worse, but with good technology, you get better and better,” Elsenga said. This led to an animated discussion with the audience, including contributions from Pascal van der Hart of Circle8 and Patrick Wamelink of Randstad Group. All agreed that in acquisitions, money isn’t the key factor. A long-term success requires a match in DNA and a willingness to adapt to each other to create a strong, shared culture.