The title of this blogpost puts us right at the heart of the battlefield that the Belgian labor market has become – if we give credence to what the press and social media are telling us, at least. Cries of distress from employers, moving heaven and earth in their search for new talent, resound almost everywhere these days.
How does a company succeed in standing out from the crowd in the eyes both young as well as experienced employees looking for an entertaining challenge? When it comes to compensation, even if you include all the extra-legal benefits out there, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish oneself. Cafeteria plans are helpful and attractive, but they also have their limits.
No, it is a matter of positioning your company as an attractive place to work. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science. Building a good reputation is a long-term undertaking, and even the most trivial slip-up can immediately undo years of hard work. You know what they say: trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” solution. Each situation requires its own custom-made approach. Here’s how you start: determine how your company is currently perceived, define how you want to be seen, and devise a roadmap to take you from the starting point to the desired outcome.
That’s what we attempt to do every day at akkanto. And – although we certainly do not rest on our laurels – our attempts have been quite successful. A few weeks ago we’ve welcomed two young promising forces into our team: Thomas Debrock and Robbe Vanden Driessche. Let’s hear them out about their choice to start working at akkanto.
“I am genuinely thrilled to join akkanto, and to learn from its experienced communication specialists and their extensive and diverse sets of expertise,” says Thomas Debrock. He comes on board as an assistant consultant. He studied Linguistics and Literature at Ghent University, supplemented with a degree in General Management from Vlerick Business School. He brings to the table previous work experiences at a PR & communications agency and at a Belgian tech company.
“I’ve always been keenly interested in how companies, organizations and political institutions enter into dialogue, both with each other as well as with society,” says Thomas. “akkanto offers me the chance to get unique insights into those mechanisms. I look forward to broadening and deepening my knowledge set of how companies in different sectors operate, and of how I can help them make their voices heard among all possible stakeholders and the general public.”
We’re picking up a similar noise from Robbe. “At akkanto, I found everything I was looking for,” he says. “I was particularly attracted to the enormous variety of projects and to the expertise of the colleagues.” This attraction had already persuaded Robbe to do an internship at akkanto, as part of his Advanced Master’s degree in Multilingual Business Communication – a supplement to his studies in Communication Sciences at Ghent University.
Although that internship inevitably took place in a Covid-induced working-from-home setting, Robbe felt right away that he had made the right choice. “I enjoyed the variation in the work, as well as the fact that akkanto’s consultants work with so many different companies and organisations in all sectors you can imagine”, says Robbe. “For that reason, I’m very happy to have found my first job here, at a place where I can gain a lot of experience in all aspects of communication, in a team full of enthusiastic colleagues.”
It should be clear from Robbe’s case that it is definitely worthwhile to consider akkanto for an internship. A free tip (and an act of shameless self-promotion): on our website you can not only apply for a job, but for an internship as well. If these two testimonials are enough to get you excited: go here!
Oh and by the way: companies that would like to harness our expertise and experience to their advantage can always contact us.
