In the Nyenrode Incubator in the heart of Amsterdam, three Nyenrode alumni and founder Karim Akhlal run the company Recrout, which has developed matching and selection technology. David Hoek, Wisse Roelofs, and Martijn Spek discuss the creation of Recrout and the role Nyenrode played—and continues to play—in the process.
Hoek: “In 2015, Karim Akhlal founded Recrout. As a recruiter, he noticed that candidates who seemed like a good match based on their CVs and the vacancy criteria often turned out not to be a good fit in terms of personality and organizational culture during interviews. Moreover, personality and talent prove to be far more decisive for work success.”
Roelofs: “Karim reversed the approach: starting with soft skills such as personality, talent, and competencies, of course supplemented by hard skills.” Recrout then developed the technology for a young talent platform. “Applicants take a talent assessment that measures their competencies. This generates an assessment report, which is then matched with various talent and personality traits.”
Based on the desired talent, personality traits, and hard skills, the recruiter creates an ideal profile, and the algorithm then searches for candidates who meet those criteria. With the press of a button, the recruiter receives a ranked list of suitable candidates. “Our goal of matching on soft skills is to ensure that candidates end up in the right role, allowing them to excel in what they do best,” says Spek. “We want to prevent talent from going to waste. By selecting better upfront—matching employers and employees more effectively—employees are also more likely to stay with the company longer.”
A year and a half ago, Roelofs and Hoek joined Recrout as partners and later met Spek through Nyenrode. His experience in Business IT and talent development proved very valuable. “Since we are in the scaling phase, we do a lot together, but we do have a clear division of responsibilities,” says Roelofs. Spek adds, “I have a commercial role and am the outward-facing representative. David handles business development, Wisse oversees operations and finance, and Karim is CEO and manages much of the IT.”
Milestones
“Our first milestone was finalizing the technology for the young talent platform. That took some time because it’s very complex,” says Hoek. “The second milestone was partnering with InHolland University of Applied Sciences. Furthermore, we decided to launch a third offering: a B2B proposition. We decoupled the matching engine—the core of the platform—and enhanced it so that a company can easily integrate it into their own career page without major changes to their existing IT infrastructure. The first client is already connected. Our future milestones are to have 10,000 people on the platform and five additional clients for the employer proposition by the end of this year.” Spek adds, “We also want to add another educational institution, because students are the employees of tomorrow.”
Major Role of Nyenrode
“During my BBA studies, I learned all the fundamental elements of entrepreneurship, which I now use extensively in business development,” says Hoek. “I have a good understanding of how all the elements are connected. For example, a decision in the commercial area impacts finance and operations. I mainly apply commercial skills in practice, but also my overall understanding of entrepreneurship.” Roelofs studied for an MSc in Management. “I brought along skills in taking responsibility and managing multiple things at once, as well as contributing to and maintaining a network.” Spek adds, “I have extensive practical experience, which helps us avoid beginner mistakes in many cases. My Executive MBA in Business & IT and an executive doctorate program at Nyenrode are particularly useful because of the intersection between IT and business.”
“Several fellow Nyenrode alumni have made valuable contributions to Recrout. They are eager to support and encourage us,” says Roelofs about the contact with alumni. “In addition, guys from my year club are helping us with IT and finance.” But the connection with Nyenrode goes even further: Recrout is based in the Nyenrode Incubator. Hoek explains, “During my studies, I had a class with one of the Incubator managers. That’s how we got involved. It’s ideal for young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs. We are among seven start-ups and scale-ups led by Nyenrode alumni.” Roelofs adds, “The location is excellent and offers great facilities. It’s an inspiring environment that stimulates our creativity. People motivate and help each other. We can also promote Recrout through, for example, workshops at Nyenrode.”
