One recruitment approach for dozens of employer brands at Yellow Hive

About Yellow Hive

Yellow Hive is a dynamic group of financial services providers that’s growing fast, mainly through acquisitions. It supports individuals, entrepreneurs, and companies in achieving a financially worry-free future. With more than 1,250 colleagues, the organization delivers solutions for insurance, mortgages, pensions, and financial advice through over 40 brands.

The challenge

Organizing recruitment in a fast-growing multi-brand organization

A personal approach to clients, an active acquisition strategy, and strong growth ambitions form the foundation of Yellow Hive’s success. In just a few years, the organization grew into one of the larger intermediaries in the Netherlands: by 2024, it ranked number four. Today, more than forty companies operate under the Yellow Hive umbrella.

The shared service center at Yellow Hive supports the companies in various areas, including HR. “For recruitment, we work with around eighty hiring managers. That means switching daily between different organizations, locations, and profiles. As a recruiter, you’re basically a relationship manager,” says Renée Wendrich, Teamlead Corporate Recruitment.

No central recruitment system

When Renée started at Yellow Hive in early 2025, there was no recruitment system in place. Applications coming in through the website or job platforms landed straight in hiring managers’ inboxes. On top of that, there were ongoing processes with external recruitment and selection agencies. HR tracked all recruitment info in Excel, but it wasn’t always complete or up to date. “It was mostly just getting things done. We had no real overview of volumes, timelines, or candidates who had applied before. Because hiring managers had little insight into the process, we got a lot of questions.”

The rapid growth and acquisitions increased complexity and fragmentation. “With acquisitions, you can never nail down everything in advance,” Renée explains. “We simply don’t know which organizations will join next. A central ATS doesn’t change that. But what it does do is make new candidates immediately visible centrally as soon as an organization becomes part of Yellow Hive. That brings calm and clarity in a constantly changing environment.”

The solution

One system with room for growth and multi-branding

Together with Digital HR Consultant Chellie Collé from worldofwork™, Yellow Hive set out to find the right recruitment system. “We first mapped out the current situation,” Chellie says. “What do the processes look like now? And where does Yellow Hive want to go?” A key requirement in the selection was the multi-brand structure. “That was the toughest demand,” Renée notes. “Brands needed to keep their identity toward candidates and have their own ‘join us’ page.”

On top of that, digital workflows had to deliver control and overview. “No matter how fast your organization grows, you want recruiters and hiring managers to see at any moment where candidates are and what the next step is,” Renée says. “That builds trust.” The candidate experience also played a big role: one fast, recognizable recruitment process with fixed phases across all brands.

A choice that fits the growth and complexity

Yellow Hive chose Teamtailor. The system met all the functional requirements and was flexible, scalable, and secure. That makes it a good fit for an organization that’s constantly evolving through acquisitions and reorganizations, while still having high standards for security and compliance. Renée: “Think data storage or regulations like DORA, which we have to comply with as an insurance-related company.”

The approach

First selection, then also implementation

Initially, worldofwork™ was only brought in for the ATS selection. But the collaboration with Chellie went so well that she was also asked to guide the implementation. At that point, Renée had just started at Yellow Hive. “For me, it was great that Chellie was already involved in the system selection. That made onboarding easy—I could jump right in.”

Setting it up based on daily practice

During implementation, the focus was always on what actually works in practice. “Technically, you can do all kinds of things,” Renée says, “but it has to be workable.” Chellie kept bringing in the day-to-day recruitment perspective. “For example, how do you make sure hiring managers fill in information properly and can’t work around the system? But she also sat in the candidate’s chair, like adding an extra message when the process takes a bit longer. Since Chellie used to be a recruiter herself, she really gets how things work.”

The implementation happened while recruitment kept running as usual. That required clear choices and coordination, with Chellie keeping the overview and guarding the process. Other disciplines were involved too, like marketing, especially for setting up the brand-specific join-us pages. “We did that together,” Renée says, “because every brand has its own identity.”

The result

One overview for recruiters and hiring managers

The go-live of the recruitment system was a great moment. “It felt like a celebration,” Renée says. “We even got congratulations from the hiring managers.”

For the first time, there’s one central place for vacancies and candidates. Recruiters and hiring managers look at the same information and have insight into progress. “Where managers used to call me for updates, now they can just check themselves,” Renée explains. “Everyone sees the same thing. And if someone on the team is out sick, the work keeps moving.”

Information is no longer scattered across inboxes and Excel files. “People don’t have to take my word for it anymore,” Renée says. “They can see what’s happening themselves.”

Vacancies are now automatically posted in multiple places. They appear right away on the relevant brand’s join-us page, LinkedIn, and Indeed. Candidates go through a clear and consistent process. “We’ve made a big professionalization step,” Renée concludes, “not just for ourselves, but also toward candidates and hiring managers.”

With the central ATS in place, recruitment at Yellow Hive is now digitally supported and future-proof, with central insight into candidate history and consistent handling of existing agreements on privacy and data processing.

What’s next

Building further on a solid foundation

The go-live sets the base, but for Yellow Hive, this isn’t the finish line. Renée: “In the coming period, we’re working on building talent pools, further rolling out the brand-specific join-us pages, and getting better insight into our collaboration with external agencies. We’re also running surveys with candidates and hiring managers. Their feedback helps us improve the process step by step. The foundation is there now, that brings calm and room to keep building.”