The Teamleader Titans - Episode 2: Eva

Four in total. I started as an international recruiter. Then I became HR Officer, then HR Business Partner and since March this year, I took on the role of Strategic Program Manager.

When I started, I had just left school and had little practical experience apart from my internships. Kicking off my career as an International Recruiter was tremendously exciting. It was my responsibility to recruit a large number of foreign colleagues.

After that, my role expanded. I also started taking on salary negotiation, onboarding and termination interviews. Thus came the link to payroll, making me an HR Officer.

As an HR Business Partner, I had total responsibility for everything related to People for a number of departments, including, for example, performance reviews and learning & development. Over the years, the teams which we were responsible for changed a couple of times.

In my current role as Strategic Program Manager I assist Jeroen, our CEO, in implementing various cross-departmental programs. That support can take different forms, from very specific to very broad. In some cases, I‘m responsible for internal communication and alignment only. In other cases, I'm the project manager from start to finish.

It's a fairly recent one, namely the celebration of Teamleader’s 10th anniversary earlier this year (Ed. June 2022).

For me, it showed that everyone has fond memories of their time at Teamleader. Bringing together both current and former colleagues was amazing. Those who couldn't attend told me that they suffered from FOMO. It shows that everyone keeps a close connection with Teamleader, even after they stop working for us. Of course, there was also the performance of the Teamleader band: proof that if you present some people at Teamleader with a crazy idea, they come back with an impeccable execution. Finally, there was Jeroen's speech, along with Duco. I saw a lot of nodding heads, which - to me - shows that it's a story that everyone believed and still believes in.

To me, the whole event reflected perfectly what kind of company we are and what we stand for. Moreover, there was also the video with the full retrospective of the past 10 years at Teamleader. That included all the great moments, so, that way, I don't really have to pick one (laughs).

1. The 10 million funding back in November 2016. I had been working for Teamleader for just one month then. It was overwhelming. I remember the confetti in the auditorium. I didn't really know what it all meant. On top of everything, in the same fold-up, tickets were raffled off for the Web Summit in Lisbon. They drew my name so I got to go too.

2. The big 2017 "Battle against the Time" campaign (in Dutch: de Tijdstrijd). Not that I was part of the Marketing team, but it just brought this catchy vibe into the office with it. We put up stickers everywhere and we also had these gigantic billboards in the street scene. I remember we had this giant wall at de Meir in Antwerp. Being able to say "I work for the company that does this" was very cool.

3. Winning the Deloitte Fast 50 award in 2017. It was a nice recognition that we were the fastest-growing company in Belgium. To me, it meant more than the other awards we'd won before. It felt more prestigious because now we could suddenly compete with the big fish. I think for a lot of people this was a switch in mindset: "Yes, we belong", "we're making our mark". Of course, there was also a legendary party to celebrate.

Back in the day, you used to really know everyone in the company. Not just professionally, but also on a more personal level. Compared to before, I am no longer here every Friday night. I still know everyone's name, role and the department they work in. But I don't necessarily know what that person is doing outside work anymore. Of course, that has to do with the size of the company.

This is precisely why I loved the 10-year Teamleader celebration. It's proof that growth doesn't come at the expense of our company culture. Anyone working for Teamleader automatically has a bond, because you experience so much together. That's still true today. At the same time, I was moved by all the former colleagues who were there. It felt great to see that they still have that special connection with Teamleader and look back with a smile on their time here.

Think more about the fantastic things you have achieved and how lucky you are to have such an amazing job in such a great company. The past six years have flown by and I have enjoyed every second of them. At the same time, it feels like sometimes I'm in a hurry to go back to business as usual. I think I could have taken more time to reflect on everything we accomplished and to really enjoy those accomplishments, like the strong culture we’ve built, the great people we have and the many targets and company milestones we’ve reached.

It may sound a bit strange, but I started here right after I graduated. So I had no business knowledge whatsoever, certainly not in SaaS and IT. I went on a great journey together with Teamleader. I was able to grow a lot, learn from peers as well as discover things myself.

I think that today, I can say that I consider myself a professional. All thanks to the interesting and diverse path I followed at Teamleader. Not too many people stay at their first job this long. I’m proud that I was able to grow all these years in my different roles, where I was constantly being challenged. I’m confident about the experience and knowledge I have accumulated over the years and, who knows, I might successfully apply it in another professional context someday.

I haven't been in my new role very long, so I'm very curious to see how it will evolve and what new projects it will bring. In any case, I see a lot of potential now that we are part of the Visma group: it offers a lot of learning opportunities and a huge network to make use of. I am very curious to see what this new chapter will bring for Teamleader and myself. But as was the case with previous major changes like, for example, the acquisition of Yadera (now Teamleader Orbit) in 2019, I’m sure it will create a lot of new opportunities.