Everyone has a dream, whether it is work related or not. This is the philosophy of Balans, an expert in recruitment for employees in laboratories and process technology. Balans is always looking for long lasting matches between candidates and clients. That requires genuine interest, beyond someone’s resume.
‘We believe that for happiness, one needs to take care of your ambitions and dreams in both work and personal life. Then you will perform much better at your job. That is the idea behind our slogan Balans makes dreams work’, says Lianne Vedder, manager at Balans. A candidate at Balans not only has an interview with one of the career specialists, but also takes an assessment. ‘Using those tests we get an impression of someone’s motives. A job description may be more or less the same for two positions, but someone can be a much better fit for one of the two organisations. So with the help of the assessment we map out which positions and which companies suit you best. In this way we try to make the best match’, explains Vedder. ‘Moreover, we compare the answers with a benchmark. This shows us where you are compared to the average lab technician.’ The insights from such an assessment helps the career specialist to elaborate on motivation and wishes during the intake interview. ‘We then compare the results with job profiles that we have defined with our clients.’
Your bucket list
Although Vedder considers this approach already quite unique, at Balans they go one step further to realise the dreams of their candidates. ‘We do much more than just finding the right job.’ Already during intake, career specialists of Balans ask candidates the important question: “What is on your bucket list?”. Vedder explains ‘Asking people questions about personal development or what they would like to learn or achieve, helps them think about what they really want. Sometimes they may dream of a specific job, study or training. Our career specialists have a budget for these dreams to help realise them.’ However, Vedder admits that candidates do not always express their dreams in the first interview. She notes, ‘They are too focused on getting a job, but we stay in touch when they have been placed. It is often only later that they tell us about their dreams. Candidates are sometimes surprised because they do not expect a recruitment agency to help realise their dreams, especially when they are not directly work related.’
A dream budget
When asked to give an example of a special dream that Balans helped realising, she does not have to think for a long time. ‘A few years ago we had an enthusiastic hobby baker working for us. She was in the running for the Dutch television bake-off “Heel Holland Bakt”. She really wished to attend a course from the famous pastry chef Robèrt van Bekhoven, one of the jury members of the TV programme. We agreed with her manager to give her time off for the contest and course. Balans then paid for the course from the dream budget.’ In other cases, the dream budget can help someone to continue their job, as Vedder explains; ‘A young woman had to work in shifts for the client she was placed with. In the evening she could only get there by car, but she suffered from driving anxiety. We helped her with a driving course to increase her confidence on the road, so that she could continue to do her job at that company.’ According to Vedder it is never impossible to work on your dreams. ‘Sometimes a dream may be too big to realise at once, but at Balans we always try to find a way to contribute to the realisation of the dream.’
Published in 2020 on BCF Career.
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