Éléna BRUSSELMANS: an inspiring career with Alphéa Conseil Brussels

Eléna Brusselmans started out as a consultant in recruitment at the firm Alphéa Conseil from Brussels in February 2022. A year later, she becomes the firm's Branch Manager. She shares her career, her experience and reveals her recruitment strategy in this interview.

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From consultant to Branch Manager at Alphéa Conseil Bruxelles

I'm commercial by training. I worked as a sales representative in ready-to-wear. Then as Key account manager at Pierre Marcolini. With covid, there was a restructuring. I took advantage of the end of my contract to question myself and think about what I wanted to do. I met David Boon, the Managing Partner of Alphéa Conseil in Belgium and in Luxembourg, in order to find a job... in sales at first. David was precisely looking to complete his team of consultants. The human has always been an important value for me. We met several times. And I agreed to join him. It made sense to me.

"What motivated you to take up the reins of the Brussels practice?"

My goal was clear from the start when I arrived at Alphéa Conseil : I wanted to be able to one day recruit and manage my team. We had agreed with David on a series of objectives to achieve in order to progress towards the position of Branch Manager of the firm. Throughout the year, I enjoyed the job and the position. I've achieved my objectives. There's also a good understanding with David. We're in tune with our opinions and our functions. This made it easier to take over the direction of the cabinet.

"What do you like most about this role?"

The team management, managing the human. I'm very much into listening, understanding people and I wanted to put that into practice on a daily basis : help the other person realize who they really are, help them to go further, to evolve in the job to get the role he wants.

" And in the recruitment business? "

My role is to listen to the customer's needs, identify their personality in order to understand what they're looking for, who they want to be surrounded by and which personality suits them as candidate.

The challenge is to get behind the candidate and put everything in place so that the two people are a good fit. It gets exciting when you've met a candidate and you find therightmatch. That's not always the case. Sometimes we're dealing with an emotional elevator. But being there for both people and doing everything to make sure they're satisfied with their accompaniment is what's most rewarding on a daily basis.

Brussels among a network of agencies established internationally

"What are companies' current needs in Belgium?"

This year, the market for recruitment has become more complicated. We experienced end-of-year inflation at the end of 2022 and the very sharp rise in salary indexation in January 2023 (by 11.3%). All employees benefited from a salary increase without promotion.

So, companies are more reticent to recruit and are increasingly demanding. But so are the candidates! They want a good salary, extra-legal benefits, flexibility, freedom... They want it all!

Some even want to work exclusively from home, in telecommuting 5 days out of 7. It's become a big budget to hire and recruit. And recruiting takes time. Our clients therefore need to be reassureds, well accompaniedés in order to find the right person, the right job.

"What is your strategy for meeting the needs of businesses? "

First, we explain why they need us: alones, they can't find the right candidate. They don't have enough time to search and find. They just post an ad and evaluate the applications received. Yet those who respond to job offers aren't always the right people matching the expectations of our client.

We hunt, we will search for the right person using tools, databases and our networks.

Then we take care of all the follow-up from A to Z. We'll do a complete screening of the people, carry out personality tests. We meet the candidates in face to face, assess their skills, their experience, their values, their way of expressing themselves, their professional projects. We take references. Our objective is to be able to present 2 to 3 candidates meeting the expectations of our client.

Strong values at the service of consultants

"What is Alphéa Conseil's added value?"

It's the proximity. We're very present for both customers and candidates. Trust and transparency are also very important.

For our extra soul, our willingness to go beyond our customers' expectations. We're a small firm, which allows us to be more human, very attentive. Our raison d'être is to go above and beyond for our customers, so that everyone finds their place and is fulfilled!