Weathering the financial crisis and beyond

“Exellys offers a special way to attract young IT Talent as a springboard to a career at Belfius Insurance.”

Interview with Mr. Leo Schoovaerts, Executive Manager IT; Deputy CIO at Belfius Insurance

How did you get to know Exellys?

I already knew Raf Seymus as a trusted service provider with his previous employer, and we continued this good business relationship at Exellys.

Which specific challenges did your organisation face concerning IT Talent?

As from the financial crisis in 2008 and the following years, our sector (banking & insurance) and company (rebranding to Belfius) in particular was facing some major challenges. In IT we had to cope with a hiring-stop and cost reduction; moreover, the average age in our team exceeded 45 years.

What value did you get from Exellys in helping your organisation to solve this challenge?

We got an extra reach through their channels to match high-quality, pre-screened candidates.

Attracting young graduates via Exellys guarantees that both candidates and our company can really get to know each other, without the potential downsides one may experience with a traditional recruitment model.

With Exellys, young graduates make a thoughtful choice by starting their career with a two-year exploration and learning programme, with the ultimate aim of joining our team. Besides the technical training, the richness and completeness of the programme are things we could not offer.

Also, we have enrolled four young graduates to the Grow Smart programme, an extra two-year leadership development programme. So we are creating future leaders with the help of Exellys.

How would you quantify the potential (business) impact of partnering with Exellys?

What we experience is that the process is a strong loyalty driver. Our high retention of team members joining via the Exellys framework with its training and coaching is a good indicator for success.