Once compliance becomes the norm, staffing and recruitment agencies set themselves apart on three things, according to Joram Timmerman of Byner. Data quality and reactivating their own candidate database, candidate engagement across the whole candidate journey, and being a good employer. Agencies that get that foundation right are also the ones that get real value out of AI.
Joram Timmerman is co-founder of Byner and leads its commercial side. Byner started eight years ago as an operating system for companies in the staffing business, from secondment and recruitment agencies to brokers of freelancers and suppliers, and now serves more than 120 clients in five countries. A year after his first visit he joins Stefan van Duin again in Selection Talks to look at the market and the clients Byner and Selection Lab share, from AXS Logistiek and Calco to Team Rockstars IT.
Q: What does Byner do and what is Joram Timmerman's role?
A: Joram Timmerman is co-founder of Byner and commercially responsible for everything the company does. Byner started exactly eight years ago and was built as an operating system for companies in the staffing business. That means secondment firms, recruitment agencies and companies that broker freelancers or suppliers, which Timmerman calls brokering. For those organisations Byner is the core system where all data comes together, from the commercial side to delivery and back office. Byner now works for more than 120 clients in five countries and is growing fast. Timmerman was a guest in the podcast a year earlier too, which he says makes him unique.
Q: How is the staffing market dealing with new labour regulation?
A: Regulation is this year's hot topic according to Joram Timmerman, and it will stay that way for a while. In March Byner organised meet-ups for its client community, bringing secondment clients together with experts. Many of them struggled to translate the requirements into practice, because it is often still vague what exactly will happen and how you should handle it. Putting clients who were further along next to market experts created cross-pollination about what is coming and how to interpret it. Byner supplies the technology side, but according to Timmerman you still need the process and the people in your organisation to get it done. That message has landed better by now, and more agencies have things sufficiently in order to enter 2027 with peace of mind. Others are still pulling last-minute actions.
Q: Does compliance remain a competitive advantage for staffing agencies?
A: No, and Joram Timmerman and Stefan van Duin agree on that. Agencies that can move fast and know how to handle the regulation use it as an edge right now, in a market that both describe as far from great. But soon everyone will have it in order and then compliance is no longer a competitive advantage. As with commodities, it becomes part of your basic requirements. Compliance is then the norm and you simply meet it. After that you have to rely on other factors again. Because Byner and Selection Lab share quite a few clients, they see three topics that keep coming back at the agencies that do manage to stand out in the market.
Q: Which three themes set staffing agencies apart according to Joram Timmerman?
A: Data quality, candidate experience and being a good employer. The first is about keeping your data up to date and enriching it. The second is about the experience of a candidate who applies somewhere, in other words candidate engagement across the entire candidate journey. The third is about good employership, so putting the professional at the centre and developing them. Timmerman and Van Duin see these three themes return in the cases Byner and Selection Lab share, such as AXS Logistiek, Calco and Team Rockstars IT. Agencies that deploy technology well on these three points can stand out in a market where regulation and economic conditions are working against them.
Q: Why is data quality the central theme in the staffing market?
A: Because AI only works on good data, says Joram Timmerman. Byner wants to be the operating system and the backbone of its clients' services, which means it sits on all the data that comes in through their own processes or through partners. AI helps on one side to get quality data into your system and on the other side to do something with that data. Agencies that focus on data quality more than others and raise it to a higher level now will get more out of AI. That is Byner's general message. According to Timmerman, Selection Lab returns a valuable amount of data to the platform that a secondment firm, recruitment agency or broker can act on. In practice you can also improve data quality by working with partners that use external sources, for instance by taking the latest LinkedIn profile as the basis to update a professional's profile in your database. The same applies to client data.
Q: How do you reactivate an existing candidate database?
A: By simply asking existing candidates whether they are still available. When you recruit for a role you get several applicants, most of whom are rejected, even though you already have warm contact with them and they may fit another role well. Stefan van Duin names AXS Logistiek as an example, which reuses its whole data pool for new roles every time. There it turned out that five percent of the people who received a WhatsApp message asking whether they were available for a role booked a new meeting with the recruiter. Carry that through the funnel and, according to Van Duin, you get a number of extra placements out of it. Normally you have to switch your marketing channels back on to bring candidates in, while too little attention goes to the data already in the system. You can run expensive campaigns on that, says Timmerman, or start an automation like the one Selection Lab offers in combination with Byner.
Q: Who should own data quality inside a staffing organisation?
A: Someone who works on it continuously, says Joram Timmerman. Data quality does not come from tooling alone, it also affects your organisation. Successful organisations assign the management of data quality to a role, and that does not have to be a data quality officer. It can be combined with another role, as long as someone guards the definitions, keeps the focus and keeps the business sharp on what is happening in the data and whether to adjust. This year Byner released dashboards that measure the data quality of your database, very simply. How many candidates are missing an email address, how many a mobile number. With numbers like that you can steer actions that raise data quality. Anyone who wants to embed AI properly needs that foundation in order, according to Timmerman, and can make a plan tomorrow to update the database, preferably automatically.
Q: What goes wrong in the candidate journey at many agencies?
A: Many agencies have been lulled to sleep a bit, according to Joram Timmerman. When he asks clients when they last went through their own application process themselves, it is usually a while ago. Byner mainly works with clients in scarce profiles, in finance, engineering and IT, a candidate-driven market where you want to give someone a quality experience. Plenty of tooling is available, but few agencies implement it properly in their organisation and keep measuring it. Regulation and pressure on rates often get higher priority, while this is the foundation. Stefan van Duin cites recent Selection Lab research into ghosting. Ghosting by candidates largely stems from earlier experiences with organisations. If candidates do not get a response within 24 hours, they quickly tend to stop responding themselves. Agencies that follow up candidates fast therefore get better engagement in return. Timmerman advises every secondment firm, agency or broker to do a critical recheck tomorrow and to take inspiration from cases in the market.
Q: What does a smooth candidate experience look like at Calco?
A: Calco has worked with Selection Lab for more than three years and started with the skill test to map the potential of candidates. Conversational AI was added to that. Candidates who apply immediately receive a message with a few questions and can ask questions themselves. They then flow smoothly into the skill assessment, and those who fit can book a slot straight away. According to Stefan van Duin, candidate drop-offs fell by 27 percent as a result and no-shows at meetings by 67 percent, because people are far more engaged in the selection flow. Some applicants may drop out along the way, but those are usually the candidates who were not seriously interested anyway. Joram Timmerman is pleased to hear it, because Byner's vision is that AI should contribute to more valuable conversations. Fewer no-shows means a recruiter only talks to candidates with a potential fit for the role. Calco has been a loyal Byner client for years, with the platform as the backbone of its business across sales, delivery and back office.
Q: How does Byner use assessment and screening data further?
A: By enriching the candidate profile with it and automating the next steps. When the profile inside Byner is enriched with all the data from Selection Lab, an agent can carry out steps in the background, such as creating a personal CV for the candidate that presents them properly to clients. Byner uses all the data that lands on the profile for this, so the assessment data, the CV and the conversations held with the recruiter. That complete profile is the basis for the next steps towards end clients, in a uniform way. Many agencies store that data and automate a few things on it, but how to use it further is, according to Timmerman, the next step he wants to take with a client like Calco. Stefan van Duin adds that as a secondment firm you also show that you pay attention to someone's development and skills, and that you are not just there for the quick match but for a lasting relationship with client and professional.
Q: What does being a good employer mean according to Joram Timmerman?
A: More than putting the employee at the centre on paper. Byner has three types of clients and good employership is most present in secondment. The successful companies in that client base always have an above-average focus on it. It is a catch-all term, often covered in a thick layer of marketing, but some agencies cut through that and really organise it. That brings in new candidates, because you become a magnet and get people referred to you. The biggest advantage is that continued development brings people to a higher level and keeps engaging them with new assignments at your clients, so you can grow together. Timmerman sees clients that are now extremely busy training AI skills in their professionals, so they deliver more impact at their clients. Whether you work in finance, IT or engineering, AI skills in the mix make the difference. He names Team Rockstars IT as an agency that does this well. They built a brand with enormous pull, but the rockstars method goes far beyond marketing and is about the whole path afterwards, with the professional at the centre. Stefan van Duin adds that Team Rockstars IT first worked with many loose tools, an IQ test here and a small selection test there, and that together it was turned into one streamlined process that maps a candidate's skills upfront.
Q: What makes the partnership between Byner and Selection Lab strong?
A: That it goes beyond a loose API connection. According to Joram Timmerman the partnership facilitates better matches, because every piece of extra data Selection Lab delivers on the profile can be used to match better against demand in the market. Both companies focus on the same target group, work in an innovative way and look at the market the same way. That is the basic requirement, but it goes deeper. If you claim together that you facilitate better matches, you have to think about how the data infrastructure and the platforms integrate properly, so AI can work on the enriched data. The integration started as a standard connection and has been extended a bit further for every client, which in turn appealed to other clients. You set up an integration once, but that is where it starts. Byner works the same way with its clients, with a release every six weeks full of features that come from the client community's input. The integration is now at level B and needs to go to C and D, with far more AI in it. And the point is not just telling it but proving it.
Q: What does Joram Timmerman see in the German staffing market?
A: That you need a long breath. Internationalisation beyond the Benelux is part of Byner's growth strategy and the company has been active in Germany for several years. Based on the clients and partnerships there, Byner is now taking the steps to grow further. A year ago Byner signed the contract with a German colleague responsible for the German market, who has now been up to speed for nine months. That helps enormously with local engagement, because in Germany you have to speak the local language. The long breath comes from two things. Sales cycles are long and go through several layers, and the technology Byner delivers is relatively new. AI is still a thing there. Two weeks before the recording Timmerman visited Zukunft Personal in Cologne, where he saw that the Netherlands is ahead on innovation. But you have to recalibrate to the German market. The way we talk about AI in the Netherlands and already apply it is not by definition the reality for a German company. The conversation ends with an agreement to make this an annual review of the partnership.
