Meet our leaders: Wim Wynants

So, Wim – tell us about your background? 

I come from a rather eclectic background actually! When I was at university, I studied Psychology and moved into Criminology. Alongside my studies, I had my first own business which I sold a year after I graduated. I’d had an entrepreneurial mindset from the beginning and always knew instinctively I would favour being independent. However, after University I landed myself a role in international sales within Telecommunications. It was the height of the “telecom bubble” – I was in it, those were exciting times.

After spending five years in the Industry in various companies, I moved into Software and Software Integration. Working in a digital realm ended up becoming a passion of mine -. After an 8-year stint at Siemens, working in Africa and Qatar, I became independent again and have been in Qatar since 2012. 

What made you register an interest in CloudRPO?

I’ve known Nicholas for a while, and we’ve always kept in touch and he spoke to me about Cloud RPO. With my background in  Psychology, and passion for digital innovation, I’ve always been interested in this angle when looking at recruitment, so it seemed like a natural progression. My wife also works in HR here in Qatar so after having a few conversations I was primed and wanted to learn more about Cloud RPO.

How do you think the platform will revolutionise the recruitment landscape in Qatar?

All employers in Qatar want the best talent available, not only locally but potentially globally. Cloud RPO is revolutionising the whole recruitment industry because it allows employers to look for recruiter-vetted candidates worldwide while having uploaded vacancies automatically matched with best available talent in the global CloudRPO platform. All this while being bias- agnostic up until the point they have 4-5 closely matched profiles, without the recruiters being able to influence the process.

The impact of this is amazing since it gives employers power and transparency to find talent quickly without having to “wait for what is offered by recruiters”, but also to hire with more agility, while being in the driving seat to offer terms under which you are ok to hire. It eliminates the hassle of dealing with multiple recruiters across borders, while it protects recruiters in terms of candidate ownership while giving them access to vacancies across the entire market, even the entire globe to place their candidates. Best of all, it is free and it solves one of the key issues of our time, to provide equality and unbiased evaluation of skills and talents… I am very proud to be part of that. 

In the Middle East in general there are a lot of initiatives to help with local talent being recruited, as well as in Qatar. CloudRPO empowers local companies to not only look at talent represented by some recruiters but to see the entire pool of talent from all recruiters on the platform. This means employers will have better access to the best Qatari and ex-pat talent, regardless of whom they are represented by. 

What do you think Qatar’s recruitment industry is currently missing, and how does CloudRPO solve that problem? 

One of the things that you see in Qatar is a lot of international hiring. Qatar is a small country and within the population, there isn’t enough local talent which means they have to go international for certain roles. We give employers the power to work with recruiters that have the right candidate regardless of location. Employers do have the ability to “calibrate” their search, but at the same time, CloudRPO automatically matches candidates that tick the job description the closest, as long as they have indicated they are willing to work in the region. CloudRPO is about opening up direct access to global talent immediately. It gives equal opportunity and also a wider talent pool on a global scale.

What are your plans to evolve Cloud RPO over the next 12 months?

In a nutshell, we’re putting CloudRPO on the map in Qatar first. We’re working our way through the top 50 companies to get them familiar with the platform and understand how we can evolve. Then, further into 2021, we are going to drive the regional expansion into Oman and Kuwait, as well as  – Turkey, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, the list goes on! We aim to be in at least 5 countries by end of 2021, but hope to double that to 10 provided things go well!