As the largest industrial bakery in the Netherlands, BACU performs at the highest level every day. It is therefore essential that all 900 employees work towards the same goal, guided by clear core values and expectations. It is equally important that employees and managers have insight into personal development and can respond to it quickly. Talent management within AFAS software supports this and enables BACU to increasingly embed it in its strategic HR policy. The journey has started promisingly, and the long-term vision is even more compelling: to help people learn, develop and grow in a way that suits them.
Industry & production
900
Uden
1997
HRM-software
Interview with:
Jeroen Heerkens, HR Business Partner
Mick Jansen, Application Manager
In recent years, BACU has developed at high speed in the field of HR. Jeroen Heerkens, HR Business Partner Staff & Analytics, provides an inspiring glimpse into this impressive process. It begins in early 2022, when BACU — which supplies bread and pastries to Jumbo Supermarkets — acquires HEMA’s bakery operations. Overnight, the bakery from Uden expands from one to eight locations, becoming a nationwide organisation.
‘That was a major step for our family business, which was founded in 1903,’ Jeroen explains. ‘What we did in Uden, we also started doing in Sneek, for example. Those locations across the country had always proudly been part of HEMA. The challenge then is: how do you turn that into BACU? That also means you have to start thinking about talent management as part of strategic HR policy. It starts with clearly telling people what we stand for as a company, what our core values are and what we expect from them. Everyone needs to understand what gets us out of bed every day and what we want to achieve. It also means that, in return, we want to listen to our people, so they can do what makes them happy and use their talents.’
But BACU was not there yet so shortly after the acquisition. To take a next step such as talent management in practice, the basic HR processes first need to be automated and streamlined. Jeroen explains: ‘Payslips, contracts, letters — they all have to be correct at all times. We spent a lot of time setting up those hygiene factors properly for the entire organisation in AFAS. That is the foundation; it’s like water from the tap. But that alone does not add value. So when this foundation was fully in place in the summer of 2025, that was the moment to say: now it’s time for talent management.’
As if by coincidence, AFAS happened to be working on new talent management features at that tim. Together with BACU’s application manager, Jeroen responded to an invitation to participate as one of the first customers to test and provide feedback. ‘It was great that we could represent the voice of production companies in this way,’ Jeroen says. ‘Our people work on production lines where cakes roll past them, and many start working at night. That is a very different environment from an office. For us, the software needs to work well for someone who is not sitting behind a computer, only uses a smartphone and, in many cases, does not speak Dutch very well.’
Jeroen appreciates being able to exchange ideas with AFAS during the development phase. The result is a talent management solution that BACU can implement within its existing systems. Jeroen explains: ‘Take the way we assess employees. We are a multicultural company with more than thirty different nationalities. In many parts of the world, people are not used to receiving numerical grades. The same applies to assessments such as good, satisfactory or insufficient. At our request, AFAS introduced the use of stars, a visual rating scale. One star represents the lowest score and five stars the highest. That is recognisable, because you also give stars when you have watched a series on Netflix or when you write a review of a restaurant. It resonates with our target group.’
BACU opts for a target-group-oriented and step-by-step approach to implementing talent management. Not moving too fast is the guiding principle. Jeroen explains why this is important: ‘If you approach a pastry baker with 360-degree feedback, they will look at you in surprise: do we really have to ask others what they think of us? They rightly say that what matters are the cakes coming off the production line. That pragmatic mindset is typical for us. But we also have managers working in the office, from whom we expect something different than from a production employee. That is why, in AFAS, we are setting up three different appraisal systems, which we may expand in the future.’
For production employees, the appraisal process is fully based on core values and behaviour, Jeroen explains. ‘We are convinced that if our production employees demonstrate the right behaviour, we will progress as an organisation. We chose to implement this first in AFAS. In 2026, we will start configuring the appraisal system for office staff within the framework of the 9-Grid Method, such as planning and customer service roles, where performance is important in addition to behaviour. Together, we define objectives and initiate a structured review cycle that is embedded in the software. At the beginning of the year, the goal-setting meeting takes place, halfway through the year there is a progress review, and at the end of the year the appraisal. It may be fairly traditional, but it suits who we are. And the software supports us in this; we can configure the review cycle as we wish and receive a notification when it is time for a meeting.’
Jeroen and his colleagues have been working with the talent management software for two months. The appraisal process has been embedded in an automated workflow within AFAS, which marks a significant improvement compared to how things were handled previously. Jeroen explains: ‘We used to conduct appraisals largely in Excel. For each employee, we received Excel files from managers detailing how he or she had performed. Try recording that properly, generating reports and analysing the data. Now, everything is documented in the employee’s digital file. At any moment, they can pick up their phone to review their appraisal results.’
For HR, this means that a large amount of data is now available for analysis. ‘When a vacancy arises, I can see which employees have scored well and may be eligible to fill that role. That data is essential for putting strategic workforce management into practice. We have come a long way and made major strides: from having contracts in order to working smarter to analysing data. We have now reached a point where, as HR, we truly add value.’
Thanks to the availability of this data, Jeroen and his colleagues are able to ‘calibrate’ the results. ‘We believe that appraisals are always subjective. Where I give someone five stars, someone else might give three. That’s why we said: let’s look for the average. Do we see that a manager consistently rates more strictly than average? Or, on the contrary, too leniently? Then we start a conversation about it. We bring managers together and compare perspectives. What do we consider sufficient or insufficient? From a production employee, we expect them to do their job, be reliable and act in line with our core values. From a foreman, we expect more; they also need to set an example. We have configured all of this in the system, so the software helps us make better appraisals.’
AI is also part of the talent management software. At BACU, managers use the virtual AFAS assistant Jonas to record conversations with employees and generate reports. ‘We found that quite exciting at first,’ Jeroen admits. ‘We don’t want to make mistakes. But when we asked within our organisation who was already using AI themselves, it turned out to be almost everyone. Then we thought: we can be cautious, or we can embrace it. Fortunately, AFAS has built AI in such a way that you remain in control. Managers enjoy working with Jonas. They type, so to speak, half a word and Jonas turns it into a conversation report. They can then edit it and share it with the employee. This allows managers to spend more time having a meaningful conversation. For us, talent management is mainly about listening to people: what do we expect from each other, and how can we support one another?’
The first appraisal round supported by AFAS software has led to positive reactions on the work floor at BACU. Jeroen: ‘Managers are already saying: this really helps us. You have to realise that they face challenges on the production line every day. They must meet daily deadlines, because we produce fresh products. If someone doesn’t show up, they have to step in themselves. That’s why it’s a great compliment to AFAS and to ourselves that we are already receiving feedback that the appraisal system works extremely well. HR is often seen as an obligation, but here employees are already experiencing its added value. In our company, everything revolves around production; as HR, we are the service department for the people who ensure that production runs smoothly. We need to make their working lives easier. Talent management within AFAS is a great example of how that can be achieved.’
What else does talent management in AFAS bring to BACU’s organisation? Jeroen calls it, first and foremost, ‘an enabler’. ‘We have many ambitions in HR, but they also need to be feasible. AFAS helps us make that happen. With talent management, we can steer desired behaviour that is needed to achieve our board’s strategic goals. We can then recognise and reward that behaviour. The software also helps us identify who is performing well and who is not. We can act on that by helping teams and individuals develop. If we see that someone lacks a particular competency, we can provide training. And if a team leader leaves, we know who may be eligible to succeed them. In short, the software provides us with insight. And based on that insight, we can take action. It enables us to assess and develop people based on data rather than gut feeling. For a company with 900 employees, that makes a significant difference.’
The next step for BACU is to invest further in learning and development. This will be a major focus in 2026. Jeroen explains: ‘It goes beyond simply doing your job and being rewarded for it. If you want to become a pastry baker, it must be clear which competencies and knowledge you need, which training courses are available, how you will be onboarded and how you can ultimately grow. Our goal is to move towards a personal development plan for each employee, embedded in a structured process. In the future, employees will be able to initiate their own appraisal within a workflow. Again, we are taking it step by step. First make it work, then refine it. Three years ago, we would never have expected to be among the frontrunners working with talent management in AFAS. AFAS is a strong partner for us, always ready to listen. This is only the beginning; we want much more.
At BACU, they see it this way: ultimately, talent management software contributes to strategic workforce management. ‘Objectives, succession planning, career paths — it’s all in there,’ Jeroen says. ‘We believe in learning and development. You can only train if you know what is missing. Our goal is to keep our employees vital and engaged. They need to be happy in what they do and feel part of the organisation. We want to be and remain the largest and best industrial bakery in the Netherlands, so we must ensure that everyone contributes to that from the same core values and expectations. The software supports us in that. I am convinced that if we continue working with talent management in AFAS for a few more years, we will know exactly which levers to pull to make our company even stronger and better.’
BACU is a family business that has grown since 1903 into the largest and one of the most modern industrial bakeries in the Netherlands. The organisation employs more than 900 people with a passion for the baking profession. Down-to-earth individuals who roll up their sleeves every day and work at full capacity to supply hundreds of supermarkets with fresh pastries.
Flexibility is therefore part of their daily routine; being agile and able to switch quickly to provide optimal service. Continuously working on improvements and innovations at both process and product level. BACU’s organisation never stands still and is always looking for ways to make what may already be good even better.
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