How Pro Contact and Bulsink deliver on strong growth ambitions together

What has the partnership between Pro Contact and Bulsink achieved? Despite the tighter labour market and a shortage of construction professionals, the number of employees doubled within eighteen months. So recruitment in the construction sector really is doable, with the right expertise.

General contractor Bulsink has realised its growth ambitions partly thanks to its partnership with RPO agency Pro Contact. The main contractor is known for its construction projects in retail, hospitality, leisure, care and offices. Due to the current tightness of the labour market, Bulsink faces the challenge of filling its vacancies. Recruitment in construction isn't always easy, after all.

Bulsink is mainly looking for project engineers and project managers.

To serve its growing number of clients and new foreign markets even better, Bulsink is mainly looking for project engineers and project managers, preferably with a construction background. With Pro Contact's help, a strategic recruitment plan was drawn up, setting out how the ideal candidates could be reached online and how Bulsink's visibility could be increased. Within eighteen months, this contributed to more than doubling the number of employees from 43 to 90.

Bulsink as an attractive employer

For Bulsink, RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) meant, among other things, an online job marketing campaign and an online employer branding campaign. Profiling Bulsink as an attractive employer in many different places led to more followers on LinkedIn, more traffic to the website and ultimately more responses to the vacancies. As a result, more candidates were hired directly through its own recruitment, and the cost per hire fell sharply.

More candidates were hired directly through its own recruitment, and the cost per hire fell sharply.

To attract as many new employees as possible, the general contractor offers in-house training and, where needed, coaching for career switchers. A smart addition to recruitment in the construction sector, where hiring isn't always easy or quick. Besides its focus on recruitment, Bulsink also invests a lot of time in good onboarding and development programmes. The aim is to let new employees land ‘gently’ in the organisation, but above all to engage, inspire and retain them.

Online visibility

Kim Matheeuwsen, HR manager at Bulsink: ‘In Pro Contact we've found the ideal partner to help us increase our online visibility, with the aim of attracting new colleagues. At the heart of our success, and firmly in first place, are the intensive communication and contact. They understand our challenge and put a lot of time into it.’

‘At the heart of our success, and firmly in first place, are the intensive communication and contact.’

‘They also have the right knowledge and expertise in-house to translate Bulsink's DNA and core values into successful job marketing and employer branding campaigns. They also helped us set up the careers site, which went live this month. I'm very happy with our partnership and I'm looking forward to what the future brings.’

Creative thinking by Pro Contact and Bulsink

Noud Baijens, founder and director of Pro Contact: ‘It makes me proud that we've played an important role in helping build Bulsink's growth ambitions. The online job marketing campaign and the employer branding campaign have paid off.’

‘The online job marketing campaign and the employer branding campaign have paid off.’

‘In today's labour market it's important to think creatively, and Pro Contact and Bulsink do that by, for example, also looking for career switchers and offering them tailor-made training. That makes the pond you can fish in much bigger. The next step, of course, is retaining your new employees, but Bulsink has thought of that too.’