Recruitment agency as a reliable sparring partner

Professional and personal extension of candidates and companies

From his attic room in Veldhoven, Willem Tieben has been providing recruitment and selection of professionals within the interior, ship and yacht building industry under the name Tieben SeleQtions since 2022. With an involved, personal approach and honest advice, candidates join a company without an intermediary or seconding party. "I don't like the pushy recruiter image. I come to bring something, not get anything."

Typically, account managers are required to call at least 10 companies before noon. They are expected to visit as many potential new clients each week and match them directly with job seekers. "In fact, I was a hidden hours factory," Tieben says of the days when he matched large yacht builders with job seekers at home and abroad. "Wonderful work, but with ever-higher targets you also start calling candidates who don't fit, just to meet your quota." 

This cold acquisition bothered him. If he no longer wanted to have to haphazardly sell anything and everything, he had to start his own business, he decided. A bull's-eye. After a year and a half, Tieben SeleQtions is a valued, supportive consulting firm. "A long-term relationship should always be the goal," he says. "As fast as possible, making as much money as possible is not my thing."

Tieben regularly goes to companies for coffee to give sound advice. "I assess what the atmosphere is and what culture there is. Is it a small infomercial family business, or just a large automated concern? And who works there? As a reliable sparring partner, I need to know exactly where I am sending which person. Only in this way can both parties ultimately establish a long-term and sustainable relationship with each other."

To get a complete picture of a candidate, Tieben schedules one or more introductory interviews. If possible, live. "I want to get to know a person. What are someone's ambitions, what machines and programs does he or she want to work with, what's in his or her backpack in terms of education and work experience, and, not unimportantly: does this person fit with one of my clients? I always want to give honest advice. When in doubt, I never send people on. When I suggest someone, both parties can assume that this person really fits there."

Tieben SeleQtions also engages with people who are out of place within a company. "Sometimes a client calls asking to help an employee, or that person contacts me himself. It's not necessarily wrong to leave a company. Sometimes a program they are working with doesn't match, someone is looking for more of a challenge, or other work is desired. Then I explore with them what does fit. Even if I have to have coffee with someone six times or visit companies, I do it with a lot of love and pleasure."

"I regularly hear that I give people insights they hadn't thought of themselves. Companies now know that and call me when they are looking for someone. They say, 'This guy speaks to a lot of people and knows exactly what they want. That is exactly the intention; I want to be a platform with an extensive supply and demand. That may well be from my attic for a while yet. I have no ambition to become the biggest. The role of a small-scale partner providing reliable advice suits me just fine."