Hi Chrissy, can you tell us a bit more about your background? .
"Of course! My journey started at university, where I studied International Business Communication and Organizational & Personnel Psychology. Through my studies, I quickly developed an interest in HR. After graduating, I began working in recruitment in the staffing industry, where I learned a lot about commerce and job placement.
This process was quite transactional: you fill a vacancy, move on, and go to the next one. I missed building relationships with candidates and clients and discussing the elements that influence hiring, selection, and retention. I started wondering whether I was truly solving companies' problems. I saw that filling a single vacancy was often not enough to make a real impact.
That led me to switch to corporate recruitment. I quickly discovered it was a completely different field, and I learned on the job—young and ambitious as I was. I gained a lot from this experience. My focus shifted from a reactive to a strategic approach, and I learned about aspects such as ATS, employer branding, salary and job classification systems, referral programs, talent pooling, campus recruitment, and social media strategies.
Later, I moved into RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), where I gained experience with global RPO programs for large multinationals, working on implementation, execution, and transition processes. This also taught me about the differences between large international corporations with established systems, processes, and organizational politics versus startups with nothing set up yet. Through this, I gained experience in leadership, project management, and business intelligence.
I had always wanted to start my own business, so my next step was freelancing as a Recruitment Business Partner while also launching a company where I developed an online competency test."
How did you meet Dorus Swinkels during your career? .
"The recruitment world is small—when you're a senior recruitment professional, you often come across the same names. I had come across Dorus a few times before, and when I was freelancing, he hired me for an assignment in his European recruitment team. I immediately noticed we were like-minded and had a great connection. We shared the vision that Talent Management and Talent Acquisition are inextricably linked. However, up to that point, we had never worked together before."
How did this lead to a partnership and eventually to co-leading Successr? .
"Not long after my assignment at Dorus' former employer ended, he also decided to start his own business. He invited me a few times to discuss Successr and his plans. At first, I didn’t fully grasp the concept. I noticed he was still searching for the right proposition. He had a vision and wanted to build Successr, but he was caught up in an interim assignment that came up just as he was starting the company, leaving little time to develop the business and its proposition.
Eventually, he secured a freelance assignment under the Successr name that really appealed to me. He asked if I wanted to take it on for him temporarily. Through that, we got to know each other better while working together, and a clear proposition started to take shape—one that I really believed in. The process felt very natural. After that, we began expanding the team, with Maaike van den Heuvel - Heesbeen and Juliëtte van Kraaij being the first to join us. In 2023, I officially became a partner at Successr."
Why do you work so well together? .
"We both come from the field and are deeply passionate about it. We share the same vision of what the industry should look like. But that doesn’t mean we’re very similar—in fact, we complement each other really well. Dorus is a visionary; he always thinks five steps ahead and on a big scale, while I’m good at translating strategy into practical execution and assessing risks. This combination works incredibly well. I like bringing structure to things and ensuring the team can follow our vision.
We don’t always agree, but that keeps us balanced. Successr wouldn’t be as successful as it is today with just one of us alone."
After a few years, how would you describe the growth you've contributed to at Successr? .
"Together, we laid the first building blocks—setting up the internal organization and establishing the foundation for the quality of our projects. I personally worked hands-on with the team on some of our first clients and turned pilot projects into long-term partnerships.
We quickly realized we needed more capacity. We strongly believe in the division between Talent Sourcing and Recruitment. In high-pressure projects that require rapid scaling, Talent Sourcers are essential because recruiters often don’t have time for sourcing or are simply better suited to managing recruitment processes. Recruiters and Talent Sourcers have completely different skill sets. Finding the right people was a challenge.
That’s why I focused on setting up our Talent Acquisition Traineeship—recruiting, training, and developing our consultants. We select people based on potential and passion and train them ourselves. Initially, the idea was for all trainees to gradually become recruiters, but we later discovered that developing Senior Talent Sourcers was also highly valuable and, in some cases, a better fit. That’s why we now have two training tracks, allowing trainees to specialize. We’re currently developing a similar program for Talent Management.
We also quickly defined our work processes and instructions in detail, allowing new hires to be smoothly onboarded and trained. This enabled us to scale rapidly, especially during COVID, when we had to create a culture with a brand-new remote team. That was a challenge, but we managed it exceptionally well. The team is close-knit, highly attuned to each other, and actively contributes to growing the company.
Now, we’ve reached the next level of maturity, where we’re focusing on strategy and positioning—further professionalizing, strengthening the foundation for our next growth phase, and marketing a future-proof service model."
What is your vision for the future of Successr? .
"As far as I’m concerned, we’re just at the beginning of our journey! I love thinking about where the market is heading and where our added value lies. A lot is happening right now—geopolitical shifts, labor shortages, the rise of new technologies, and more. What does this mean for the traditional HR system and job market?
I believe the value is shifting toward the human factor. Not everything we do can be automated. This is an important question: What exactly is the human factor, and how will this shift look in practice? What consequences should companies prepare for, and how should they adapt? We want to help organizations embrace this change. That’s why we’re deeply exploring what the next generation of HR professionals should look like. What kind of professionals does this new era require? What skills will they need to be successful? How can we develop and master these competencies to better support our clients? These are fascinating topics that we discuss extensively in think tanks and with our partner network.
Our Talent Management Consultant, Dennis Spier, and I are actively shaping this vision for ‘the next-gen HR,’ aiming for concrete results and training the next generation to be the best they can be. Want to know what we’ve discovered so far? Listen to our podcast, where Dennis discusses these insights with our CEO, Dorus Swinkels, and our colleague, Juliëtte van Kraaij."
Does your organization need an HR boost? Feel free to reach out to me at chrissy.broeders@successr.nl.