Challenge

Building a Consulting Brand That Attracts and Retains Top Talent

Vibe Group, a renowned IT recruitment firm operating across the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, was ready to expand its impact. Having built its reputation as a successful sales partner in recruitment, the company set its sights on a bold new chapter: launching its own IT consulting firm. This move would allow Vibe to shift from being a talent broker to becoming a long-term knowledge partner, delivering expertise through an employed consultant base rather than freelancers.

This strategic pivot raised a critical challenge: how to become a preferred employer in an intensely competitive market. The IT consulting sector in Belgium – and more broadly the IT industry itself – is characterized by high turnover, fierce competition, and limited employee loyalty. Firms often market themselves with similar promises: professional development, tight-knit culture, and space for intrapreneurship. But in practice, the distance from headquarters, the short project cycles, and the market-first focus often lead to weak engagement and stagnating internal mobility.

Moreover, Vibe was entering a talent landscape marked by chronic scarcity and abundant opportunity. Their target group – highly skilled IT professionals – could easily command top-tier compensation packages elsewhere. In this context, salary was a commodity, not a differentiator. Competing on financial incentives alone would be unsustainable.

Solution

Democratized Coaching as a Strategic Differentiator

Faced with the question – why would top talent choose us, and keep choosing us? – Vibe Group made a bold and early move: they committed to democratized coaching as a foundational element of their consulting business.

From the outset, Vibe decided that every employee would work with a professional coach, not as a perk or a performance remedy, but as a strategic investment in long-term development. Each consultant engaged in bi-monthly coaching sessions, forming a confidential partnership designed to support both personal and professional growth over time.

These sessions went beyond one-off conversations. Coaches and consultants worked together on:
🎯 Defining long-term career ambitions
🎯 Reflecting on real-time workplace experiences and challenges
🎯 Gaining perspective on interpersonal and professional dilemmas
🎯 Co-creating development plans that translated into clear, actionable steps

The coaching wasn’t siloed – it was deeply embedded in Vibe’s operational and cultural architecture:
• Development plans were activated through direct access to e-learning platforms like Pluralsight and Udemy, as well as personal L&D budgets for books, conferences, or classroom training.
• Coaches referenced these tools in-session, ensuring every learning investment was targeted and relevant.
• Coaching data fed directly into performance management. Instead of relying on traditional once-a-year reviews, Vibe introduced multiple check-ins per year, supported by aggregated, anonymized coaching insights.

Through carefully designed surveys, the company gathered actionable data on:
• The topics most frequently addressed in coaching
• Goal attainment and application of learning in day-to-day work
• Perceived impact of coaching on performance, engagement, and well-being
• Satisfaction with coaches and the coaching experience

Results

From Transactional Employment to True Belonging

The impact of Vibe Group’s coaching-first approach was not just visible in KPIs – it was felt across the organization. Consultants began to speak of Vibe not simply as an employer, but as a place where they were seen, supported, and challenged to grow. People didn’t just join for the next project; they stayed for the journey.

Coaching provided more than guidance – it created momentum. As consultants grew in clarity and confidence, so did their contribution to the business. Performance conversations shifted from compliance checks to collaborative discussions. Development goals became visible, actionable, and aligned with the broader strategic direction of the company.

The leadership team began to experience something rare in the consulting sector: a culture where individual ambition and organizational vision moved in sync. Engagement deepened. Internal identity strengthened. And retention improved not through incentives, but through real investment in people.

What began as a bold idea – democratized coaching – became the cornerstone of Vibe Group’s reputation as a distinctive and desirable employer in a saturated market. It set a new standard internally, but also signaled externally that this was a company doing things differently.

Vibe Group didn’t just build a consulting business. It built a place where people could build themselves.

If numbers speak louder than words, here’s what they had to say:
✅ Recorded Employee Retention rates 35% above industry standards while maintaining an average annual team growth of 236%
✅ Reached NPS (Net Promoter Score) of 62+ average over a three-year period
✅ Business outcomes included reaching break-even in Year 3, with a profit margin of 26%

By embedding democratized coaching into its company culture, Vibe Group successfully created an environment where employees felt valued, supported, and motivated to grow professionally and reach business outcomes.