careers

Spending your entire career with one employer is increasingly rare. Yet that’s exactly what Lianne van Zanten, Talent Manager in Team Management Support & Performance, is doing. She’s been with Belsimpel | Gomibo for 11 years: “I really grew up here.”

Lianne started at Belsimpel during her Dutch Studies at the University of Groningen and quickly realised she enjoyed working more than studying. “I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted yet. When I completed my bachelor’s, I spoke with Jeroen Doorenbos and Jeroen Elkhuizen, the founders of Belsimpel, and started working in recruitment. Initially, I focused on hiring part-timers, but it grew into leading an entire recruitment team handling 5,000 applications per year. The growth and development of Belsimpel as a company has had a huge impact on me as a professional and on the scope of my role.”

Today, Lianne’s role as Talent Manager focuses mainly on supporting more experienced colleagues. “I’m involved in the support and development of Belsimpel’s full-timers: Are they still sufficiently challenged? What support do they need?”

Sharpening Your Vision by Broadening Your Perspective

Engaging with other HR professionals and learning from their approaches is invaluable. This plays a significant role in Lianne’s perspective on HR: “What works here doesn’t necessarily work at other companies. Culture is crucial. For example, the average age of full-time colleagues at Belsimpel is thirty, and nearly everyone is highly educated. It’s a type of colleague seeking challenge, autonomy, and room to grow. My role is therefore perfectly suited to job crafting. I look at each person’s talents and potential pitfalls, allowing us to offer roles that truly fit each colleague and are also valuable for Belsimpel. You can’t always fit a colleague into a rigid job profile, but you can adjust the role to bring out the best in them.”

A Different Phase for the Company

The company’s current phase also influences Lianne’s approach. “In my early years, Belsimpel was growing tremendously—from 50 colleagues when I started to over 650 now. Recently, we’ve entered a less volatile growth phase. That requires a shift from quantity to quality, focusing on optimisation, including within the team. This shift means investing more in our existing colleagues, with a focus on employee satisfaction and development.”

“There’s now more room for people to refine their work. In a start-up, the focus is on trying new things and growing quickly. We’ve always worked hard, keeping up with rapid growth. Now we’re pausing more to assess what’s needed,” says Lianne. “That’s a skill I wish for all my colleagues, because I believe stepping back can reveal a lot—about future directions but also about putting your current position in perspective. It’s not always about moving faster.”

One recent initiative at Belsimpel has been implementing team goals. These goals stem from overall company and group objectives and are set for each team quarterly. “Initially, there was some resistance and frustration,” says Lianne. “But we persisted and made it a priority across the organisation, and now we’re seeing the benefits. Colleagues look back on their team’s quarterly accomplishments with pride.”

Consciously Choosing Your Role

Lianne sees it as an advantage to know her workplace so well: “I’ve really grown up at Belsimpel, experiencing everything from opening the first store to the huge increase in colleagues and the development of the company culture.”

Does she sometimes feel like she’s missing out by staying with the same employer? “What matters to me is doing work I enjoy,” Lianne says. “I started at Belsimpel without considering other companies, but now I make that choice consciously. For example, I look at other job openings, talk to others, and ask myself what I might still be missing in my work. I’m lucky that Belsimpel is a flat organisation with flexible roles. I have so many opportunities to do the things I really enjoy. How great is that?”