Most agencies don’t have a sourcing problem. They have a finding problem. The candidate is already in the CRM, nobody can find them, and the search starts again on LinkedIn.

In this edition: why AI can give you the wrong candidates faster, the search firm that sends an invoice for its advice, Federgon’s new member module on the TBP Index, the Industry Report question nobody has answered yet, and the Forum one month out.

— Jeroen

Most search firms give advice away to win the mandate. Pierre Cannet, who founded Blue Search in 1999, sends an invoice for it. Consulting on HR and organisation design brings in about 20–25% of revenue, and roughly one in fifteen mandates starts as a consulting job.

It’s a big part of why Blue Search came through the dot-com crash, 2008 and Covid. It also puts him in front of the senior decision-makers who later hand out mandates.

The hiring mistake he sees most is what he calls consanguinity: hiring a near-copy of someone from a direct competitor. He’d rather find the adjacent candidate. “The value is in the bridge.”

Federgon’s new website is live, and its member module was built together with Talent Business Partners. Every member agency gets one company profile that shows on the Federgon website and on the TBP Index, managed from one central account.

Members: Ann Cattelain has sent you a personal activation link. Complete your profile before Federgon’s campaign at the end of October.

Your recruiter knows the candidate is in the CRM. They search, find nothing they trust, and start again on LinkedIn. Rob Earles, daidalo’s Head of UK, sees it constantly.

The causes are mundane. Job boards pour in noise nobody archives. LinkedIn activity never syncs back. Recruiters have more urgent things to do than housekeeping.

Fabian Heyse, daidalo’s co-founder, puts it bluntly: bolt AI onto a messy database and you just get the wrong candidates faster. The fix starts with the data you already own.

Every agency draws a line somewhere. AI might run the first sourcing pass, maybe the screening. Interviewing, presenting a candidate to a client, negotiating the contract: that’s a different matter. Nobody knows where that line actually sits across the Belgian market.

That’s one of the questions in the Talent Business Industry Report 2026, a Belgian study of how recruitment and staffing agencies use AI in practice. It also covers your tech stack, what you invest, and how ready leadership feels.

Here’s why it’s worth your time. Once the results are out, you can hold your own agency up against the market: ahead on sourcing, behind on screening, or exactly where everyone else is. That’s a conversation for your next management meeting, based on peers rather than a vendor’s deck.

Seven minutes, in Dutch, French or English. Fully confidential, results only in aggregate, no sales call afterwards. Fieldwork closes on 31 October, and the findings are revealed on stage at the Forum on 19 November, followed by a panel with Ann Cattelain and Juan Staes.

The Talent Business Forum & Gala is a month away and the programme is set: 21 speakers across two rounds of breakout sessions, from AI screening and reactivating your own database to the new business models coming for agencies and a closed-door session for founders on what your agency is really worth. The Industry Report launch opens the afternoon. The gala dinner, awards and after-party close the night.

Thursday 19 November, Steigenberger Icon Wiltcher’s, Brussels. Doors at 14:30. One ticket covers afternoon and evening. Single tickets & tables available.

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