Consultancy.nl – Five questions for Consultday founders Pim van den Brule and Ton Groot

Jeroen Methorst

Marketeer

October 8, 2024

This article has been published before (in Dutch) by Consultancy.nl on October 7, 2024.

Since its founding in early 2016, Consultday has grown into one of our country’s better-known specialized HR consultancies. We asked founders Pim van den Brule and Ton Groot five questions about the highlights so far, the agency’s new mission, and its ambitions for the coming years. 

Let’s start at the beginning. What moved you to found Consultday? 

Pim: “We know each other from KPN, where I was employed, and Ton was active as an external project manager. Together, we supervised the largest HR BPO transformation in the Netherlands up to that point and that left us wanting more – both the collaboration and this kind of project. I knew that couldn’t happen at KPN, because you don’t go through such a transformation every year. That’s how Ton and I started talking.” 

Ton: “Because we worked together on a big project, we knew we could work well together. By having conversations, you quickly notice that visions and ideas were aligned as well. The idea that that kind of implementation could be easier, both in terms of approach and process. When you know what you’re talking about and what the project is about, it’s not all that complicated and it doesn’t have to be.” 

Can you name a few defining moments from the past nine years? 

Pim: “There are many highlights, milestones, and moments that led to the new Consultday. Not only every (former) colleague and their individual experience, knowledge and personality, but also every assignment that we have had the opportunity to work on: we have learned from that ourselves. We were able to share that knowledge with that particular client as well as with others afterwards. And so, we have optimized many processes – including our own.” 

“We have built so many strong relationships with clients.” 

Ton: “If I make it a little more concrete, I think of the monthly knowledge sessions where we update each other on (internal) issues and partners come over to give demos as well. There is also the annual workation which is all about team building, bonding, ánd knowledge sharing.”  

“And we have built so many strong relationships with clients. We are repeatedly asked back for a follow-up assignment and many of our new clients knock on our door because of a recommendation from a satisfied client also. Our consultants enjoy enormous trust, and we are proud of that.” 

How has Consultday developed since its founding? 

Ton: “We still guide large HR BPO transitions, but we do so much more as Consultday nowadays. This is partly due to the surge in automation, which makes it easier to standardize operations and processes.”  

“Our portfolio of services is also different from the earlier years, more extensive. We are still business consultants who do market consulting and help choose a vendor and work with models and scans, but we also offer implementation management in all its facets, have a brand-new suite of data and insight capabilities, and fulfill roles on an interim basis.” 

To market this refinement more clearly, Consultday refreshed its mission recently. Can you talk more about that? 

Pim: “Our mission is to support our customers in optimizing their HR processes by providing innovative HR tech solutions based on our extensive expertise.”  

“Smartly automating and standardizing processes is a key part of our proposition – having repetitive processes performed by robots, by software, wherever possible. This allows HR teams to focus on the more challenging and one-of-a-kind aspects of their work.”  

 “With our assignments, we always keep an eye on people. Our approach includes an eye for human and process, the human and the robot. Through maximum digitization and optimal user experience, we enable organizations to increase the contribution of their HR activities to the overall success of the company.”  

“We are full of plans for the coming years, both for ourselves and for our clients.”  

Ton: “This mission stems from the refinement of processes and the advent of automation. What we do today is an evolution of what we once started with. The level of automation that characterizes our approach has been honed and improved, our services have expanded, and we offer a full package, so we are seeing changes at all levels.” 

Finally, what are your ambitions for the coming years? 

Pim: “We are full of plans for the coming years, both for ourselves and for our clients. For example, we want to become the thought leader for HR IT & Services within the Netherlands and are also going to apply this practically during our transformations.”  

“We also continue to grow. We are aiming for a team of 45 to 50 employees in full-fledged teams. These teams know each other, feel connected, and exchange knowledge.”  

Ton: “We also want to continue to take steps around deploying practical tools, such as AI functionalities, for our customers and their specific issues. Thereby shifting the focus of our work to optimization projects on components, for example HR-IT, services or process automation.”  

“This is how we continue to develop, but at our core we are still the same Consultday: both inside and outside our own organization we are known for our way of working and our Consultday-DNA with its four core values: ownership, simplicity, knowledge sharing, and focus.”  


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