Permanent recruitment fills IT, engineering and business roles on open-ended contracts, from the brief through to integration. In Belgium the economics of doing that changed on 1 August 2026: notice during the first six months is now one week in both directions, which removes most of the reason employers spent twelve years routing around permanent contracts.
Notice during the first six months of a Belgian contract starting from 1 August 2026, whether the employer ends it or the employee does.
The cut-off, and it turns on when the work starts rather than when the contract was signed.
Since Belgium abolished the trial period. The workarounds built since are now the expensive route.
Role definition and intake
One briefing standard, before sourcing starts.
Market and salary mapping
Who exists, where, and at what level.
Direct approach sourcing
Because the best profiles are not applying.
Structured assessment
The same criteria, applied the same way.
Package and rate advice
Against indexation and the sector scale.
Offer and counter-offer
Where most searches are actually lost.
First six months
Followed deliberately, because they now count.
Fewer restarts
A search that reopens has cost you twice: the fee and the months. Most reopenings trace back to a brief that described two different people, or an assessment that tested for likeability rather than for the work.
A shortlist, not a longlist
Three qualified candidates you can actually choose between, rather than twelve profiles you have to filter yourself. If we cannot find three, we say so and explain what in the brief or the package is preventing it.
Offers that get accepted
Package benchmarked before the offer rather than after a refusal, with the counter-offer from the current employer anticipated rather than discovered.
Longer tenure
The measure of a permanent hire is not the start date, it is whether the person is still there and progressing two years later. We track promotion after placement, which is a harder number to look good on than time to fill.
With us | In-house | Job boards | Temp to perm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you find people | Direct approach plus our pool | Your network and your adverts | People actively looking | Whoever is available now |
| Who you compare | Three qualified, side by side | Whoever applied this month | Volume, then you filter | One person at a time |
| Assessment | Structured, same criteria for all | Varies by hiring manager | Screening, not assessment | On the job, over months |
| First six months | Followed, with a check-in schedule | Yours, and usually well done | Nobody's job | The trial, in effect |
| Fits when | The profile is scarce or the role is critical | Known market, steady volume | Abundant profiles, clear criteria | Harder to justify since August 2026 |
Worth recalculating. A permanent contract now carries a week's notice for six months.
Intake and market mapping
What the role actually needs, who exists in the market at that level, and what they cost today.
Approach and assessment
Direct contact with people who are not looking, then structured assessment against the agreed criteria.
Shortlist and interviews
Three candidates presented together so you compare rather than react, with your process scheduled in advance.
Offer and integration
Package benchmarked before the offer goes out, counter-offer anticipated, then structured check-ins through the first six months. Since August 2026 that window is also the period in which either side can leave on a week's notice.
Notice during the first six months of a Belgian contract starting from 1 August 2026, whether the employer ends it or the employee does.
The cut-off, and it turns on when the work starts rather than when the contract was signed.
Since Belgium abolished the trial period. The workarounds built since are now the expensive route.
Cloud, DevOps and SRE
Almost nobody in this group is actively looking, so adverts return the wrong half of the market.
Cybersecurity and risk
A vacancy rate around three times the Belgian average, so the search is an approach not a filter.
Software and application
Candidates hold several offers, so every day lost in your process costs a hire.
Data and business intelligence
Job titles mean different things at different companies, which makes the brief the hard part.
Mechanical and structural
A smaller pool that moves rarely, where reputation and referral do most of the work.
Finance and controlling
Deep supply at junior level and thin above five years, with sector scales setting the floor.
Financial services
Group approval cycles outlast candidates, so the process has to be fast where it can be.
Automotive and manufacturing
Hiring follows production plans, which makes timing as important as the profile itself.
Technology and innovation
Growth hiring where the internal team is the constraint rather than the candidate market.
Send us the role you are struggling to fill. You get a written view of who exists in the market at that level, what they cost today, and what in the brief is narrowing the field.
Driving business success with expert solutions.
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