Job Talk: Corporate Recruiter Agaath Elema
She is a recruiter, HR professional, point of contact, source of information and a warm welcome all in one. Agaath Elema is the first to speak to applicants at Bakker Goedhart — and the one who really makes them feel welcome.
One point of contact
In her role, she mainly recruits for the service office and MT positions at the bakeries, and monitors the personal approach that suits Bakker Goedhart. “We are an organization with a people-oriented approach. Applying is a journey with us. You get in, I'll ride along. Together, we get off at different stations.” And once you've found your place within our organization, Agaath will make sure you can get started. “I'll make sure you have all the information. Contract, terms and conditions, stuff — arranged. After that, I hand people over to HR, but I won't let go of them. I'm still looking for contact regularly. Just to know if someone has found their place.”
Personal and professional
Agaath works nationally, for all Goedhart bakeries and service offices. She does this largely independently: “Recruitment is me on my own. But I work a lot with HR, I have a total of 9 HR colleagues.” With twelve years of experience in employment placement behind her, she consciously made the switch to Goedhart as HR Advisor. Working on more substantive HR issues seemed fun to her, but she's in her blood. So, after 3.5 years of HR advice, she has now been back in the place that suits best for 1.5 years; searching and matching potential new colleagues. Her field of work is broad, including ICT, HR, Quality, Operations, Logistics, Finance, Commerce and Procurement. “We are a very social organization, not too hierarchical. When I need help with the content, colleagues are always ready to passionately tell me what they actually do and what makes it so much fun. I can take a look in the kitchen anywhere.”
A sense of the profession
The number of open vacancies varies by period, but it is actually always busy. “We are growing rapidly, I have more than 100 vacancies to fill per year. In addition, I support bakeries if they need larger numbers from a certain group, but in general, they can do it themselves.” Recruitment at Goedhart is and remains manual work. No automated systems that review resumes. “I don't believe in that. For us, it's about people. To feel. After all these years and hundreds of conversations, you know what to rely on.”
Working Smarter
Agaath is currently working on the new websites and also the implementation of a new recruitment system. “We had our own system, now we're switching to a professional ATS. Applicants don't notice much about it — they simply upload their resumes. But internally, it will soon save a lot of emailing and calling.” With the new system, she can also analyse more data and switch faster. “Hopefully, there will be some space for projects soon. Because I like that too. Recruitment involves more marketing and commerce, you also need to know how to sell jobs.”
Take a look at your future job
One of these projects is the Baanpraat section itself. “I was there when the idea came up. At first, we thought of a “day of watching”, but that turned out to be difficult to arrange. Now, with these stories, we provide an insight into the work. And it really works — I share them with candidates on a regular basis. That's how they get a feel for the job and about us.” By the way, she also just approaches those candidates herself: “When I speak to someone via LinkedIn, for example, have a good conversation and they get excited... that gives me energy.”
Bread with butter and sprinkles
Agaath also gets energy from keeping a lot of balls in the air, a lot of dynamism. And when people are happy, they enthusiastically choose us. In between all the interviews, calls and onboarding, she likes to enjoy freshly baked bread. “In Hedel, I always hope there is still hot bread. White sourdough, that's my favorite. And then with butter and sprinkles. Otherwise, I'll roast it. But hot from the bakery is the best.”
And finally, Agaath has another call: “Let me know if you have a question about a vacancy or about our company. Calling, texting, emailing are all good, I'd love to tell you more about it.”