As hard as it may be for UK recruiters to believe, not all innovation in the recruitment sector begins here in our island nation. In Europe, a business model created by The Member Company (TMC) called ‘employeneurship’ is making waves internationally from roots in the Benelux region with a new way of putting new professionals to work in highly sought-after specialisms.

This new type of innovative work model reflects the nature of fast-paced technology development seen in the lens of the increasingly complexity of processes and products plus the trend toward less fixed labour relationships. Today, building and evolving a product, a process or service demands significant, embedded expertise in probably more than a single discipline. “It’s not sustainable for our clients to have all of this expertise full-time in house,” points out TMC CEO Emmanuel Mottrie, who is also the major shareholder. “So, they partner up with a company like ours, and they hire in the expertise they need at the moment that they need it. And as such, we are operating a sort of technology centre for our clients. How we deliver that expertise depends entirely on the client.”

Currently operating in 16 countries with nearly 3,000 employeneurs of 80 nationalities, TMC offers services across technology & engineering, energy & renewables, digital & IT, life sciences and pharma. Launched in 2000, the organisation calls itself a “global high-tech consultancy firm with a team of entrepreneurial engineers, scientists, and digital experts from around the world”. TMC does not currently have an office in the UK.

For the professionals the company recruits, it provides the opportunity to combine the security of a permanent contract with their passion for entrepreneurship, based on the following ‘five pillars’:

• Long-term working relationships
• Transparency and profit sharing
• University coaching and training before a candidate enters TMC
• Business cells
• Entrepreneurial Lab.

Speaking at the recent Corporate Finance International HR Conference in Amsterdam, Mottrie explained the TMC concept: “There are top engineers graduating at the best universities all over the world, but what we see is that they are often missing entrepreneurial skills. TMC can recruit top engineers all over the world and we can help them to develop those entrepreneurial skills; this is very interesting for our clients because they are looking for entrepreneurial engineers.”

Research & development and innovation have become “mission critical for our clients”, Mottrie said. “On the other hand, we see the new generation taking a real shift from fixed labour relationships to more flexible employment solutions where the new engineers have much more ownership of their careers. Our model is a very good answer for that.”

So many company use coaches but it’s mostly for top management. We use it for all our employeneurs

Most of TMC’s clients have internal or core technology R&D teams. Then TMC supplies flexible layers of competencies and qualities through their ‘employeneurs’ to work in close collaboration with the clients’ teams. The TMC-supplied professionals are employed by TMC, and operate in expertise cells managed by themselves “as sort of ‘technology tanks’”, Mottrie said. “They invite speakers, they organise pizza sessions, impact sessions, and the individual employeneur can use the knowledge of his colleagues and bring this to the clients to solve the technological challenges that they are facing.

“Our ‘employeneurs’ are on our payroll, so they have a long-term contract and they can combine the security of a long-term contract or project with the advantages of entrepreneurship.”

As part of the operation, each employeneur knows exactly what they cost to the company. “They know what their tariffs are, what their turnover is,” Mottrie said. “So, we will calculate the operating margin on a monthly basis, and we’re going to share it with them on top of their fixed salary. So the financial aspect is important, but the transparency is much more important. Also,” he continues, “if you have several projects, they can choose which project they’re going to work on.”

Before candidates join TMC, they take several tests, including one specific test that explores their analytical skills, “at least in potential”, Mottrie said. Once candidates qualify for TMC membership, they sit for further tests that examine existing skills along with their aspirations for their future to work out an individual training and coaching programme designed to, for instance, fill in missing competencies and qualities. “They have their own coach from professional coaches, mostly psychologists from external companies, which are trained in our model. They [new members] own their own budget for coaching and training,” Mottrie said.

“So many company use coaches but it’s mostly for top management,” Mottrie said. “We use it for all our employeneurs.”

The TMC Entrepreneurial Lab is the icing on the cake. “This is sort of a Google Space environment,” Mottrie explained, referencing a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. “It’s a lab for some of our own planners to work on their own IP [intellectual property], a new service offering, or some training projects, mostly multidisciplinary and often with social impact.”

He went on to say: “And through the history of TMC, there have been several spin-offs created out of that lab. We don’t invest in them but we are very proud to have help some of our employeneurs to become real entrepreneurs.

“This entrepreneurship is all about ownership, autonomy, responsibility and entrepreneurship. That’s probably one of the reasons why we are doing quite well in attracting talent from all over the world, bring them to our entities, bring them to our clients and probably to keep them longer.”

In 2024, Mottrie said, TMC reached what he called “a critical mass” of 2,500 employeneurs. This led to additional financial means for the company, and also resulted in its appeal to potential acquisition targets “to hang their wagon on the TMC train”. In the last two years, TMC have acquired two businesses, one in the Netherlands and one in Germany, which will be used as growth platforms. Both companies have enjoyed 20-30% growth since they were acquired, Mottrie said.

Our ‘employeneurs’ are on our payroll, so they have a long-term contract and they can combine the security of a long-term contract or project with the advantages of entrepreneurship

Whilst TMC prefers organic growth, Mottrie acknowledged it takes more time, with acquisitions offering more of an accelerant. “There is a lot of growth potential,” he said. “We set up new greenfields in new regions and countries, but we will also grow through well thought-out acquisitions. We’re looking for companies who are complementary with what we are doing and will add something to our purpose [which] is to build the most irresistible home for scientists, digital experts and engineers.

“We want to have 5,000 operators in 2028… and go to 10,000 in 2032.”

The continuing aim for TMC is to build out as decentralised organisation, “as horizontal” as possible, Mottrie said, “where we maximise entrepreneurship and autonomy, with a management style based on proximity, coaching, partnership and empathy, rather than a top-down approach. It’s about transparency, sharing, caring, wanting to talk, respect, gratitude for what other people are doing.

“If you can group people from different nationalities, different convictions, religions, whatever, around the same values, that’s very important. And I always say, if you share the values, you don’t need the rules. And I hate rules,” he adds, “I think they’re always blocking and they are rarely fair. So if you can get rid of the rules, you can have a very lean and mean organisation and be very efficient.

“And we are convinced that the organisations that survive in the future will be those values-based organisations.”

Locations

The Member Company (TMC):
Countries of operation

• Belgium
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Romania
• Saudi Arabia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Tunisia
• USA (United States of America)
• United Arab Emirates

Image credit | iStock