Interview with Roeland van Laer

Hi Roeland, can you introduce yourself?

My name is Roeland van Laer, and I help organisations with the design and implementation of HR-strategies and -solutions. I also wrote a book about this topic: ‘Het einde van HRM’ (=’The end of HRM’), which is about an integral approach of the workforce.

In recent years I have held various HR positions, dealing with inflow and outflow, mobility, recruitment marketing: you name it. I have worked for, among others, Alliander, ING and Tata Steel.

I do it a little differently than most people: I started my career in the corporate world, after which I started doing consultancy. Now I work as a freelancer. Currently I am employed at Laborredimo and I work with Successr. I enjoy working for various clients, and especially to take on more consultancy and advisory assignments

You are currently doing an assignment at HTM: could you tell us a little more about the company?

HTM arranges the tram and bus transport in The Hague. They are therefore linked to the municipality. They have many different roles to fill, such as transport, maintenance, project organization, malfunctions and maintenance. They have a strong family culture, are friendly, open and helpful. Everyone knows each other within the organization and that creates a nice atmosphere.

Sounds like a great organization! How did you get in touch with them and what was the question they had?

Via Successr I ended up at HTM. The question they had was: create a recruitment vision and approach for us. The company had grown rapidly, and there was a lot of recruiting business they were already doing. What was missing is a central (implementation) plan to professionalize it in order to compete on the labor market. So in short: becoming a future-proof organization!

Interesting challenge! Can you tell something about your approach?

I started by looking at the full Candidate Journey: what’s already there and what does it take to take it to the next level? I have done this in many different ways: from conducting interviews, to looking at the labor market and collecting data and bottlenecks. I also put my own approach into practice.

This revealed, among other things, that recruitment was divided into the organization, which meant that there was a need for a certain centralization and management. Components such as an ATS, recruitment marketing and branding had to be expanded.

After this, the Business case was set up: the business plan was substantiated, a SWOT and environmental analysis was performed. I have also mapped out what would happen if there would be no investment, such as the Quality of Hire that would go down without change. I started working on this, together with the Senior Recruiter. Such as, among other things, looking at what the wishes are for the purchase of an ATS and what the new recruitment process could entail.

It seems well thought out! And what next?

This is where we are at the moment and now we are going into the implementation phase until the summer!

Do you want to know how Roeland’s assignment ends? Stay tuned for part 2!