Take the robot out of the human

Marijn van de Poel is Managing Director of Ciphix. This innovative company’s mission is ‘Take the robot out of the human’. “With some 60 specialists, we automate as many routine tasks and cognitive decisions for our clients as possible,” explains Marijn. “Using Hyperautomation technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Process Mining and Low-Code, we develop ‘digital assistants’, so that our clients’ employees can focus on more important and more interesting aspects of their work.”

“The latter is crucial. Everyone is struggling with staff shortages nowadays, so it’s a real waste if you let well-qualified employees spend time on repetitive work. People are much happier if they can work on new challenges and customer requests. It’s what stimulates and inspires them. If people spend less time on routine jobs, the work will be fun and interesting, and they will enjoy working for you. That’s what we aim for at Ciphix.”

Balance between tech and touch

Marijn explains how this works in practice, describing the first digital assistants Ciphix introduced at HeadFirst Group. “HeadFirst Group handles tens of thousands of hiring transactions every year. A complex process involves an application, publication, matching, and finally a contract. In 2022, with the help of digital assistant Benthe, we fully automated the uploading of assignments. The process is flawless and much faster, and recruiters now have more time left for the matching process itself. It really creates a better balance between tech and touch, as they call it at HeadFirst Group.”

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“The process is flawless and much faster, and recruiters now have more time left for the matching process itself.”

Bring human into the robot

“Together with HeadFirst Group, we’re already looking ahead. For example, we’re considering ways in which AI could make faster and smarter analyses of the data in applications and CVs, supporting recruiters in terms of content. It’s just one of the possibilities, and the great thing is that HeadFirst Group is completely in the lead. Our technical solutions can help you achieve your goals, but you do need to have the mindset to want to work differently.”

“So why do we use personal names? That’s a very deliberate choice, because it helps us to make our solutions more recognisable and bring a bit of the ‘human into the robot’. New software with a techy name doesn’t mean much to most people. No one likes SAP or Office, but everyone loves Benthe!”

by Jeroen van Kleinwee

IceLake Capital backs HeadFirst Group as investment partner to accelerate future growth

HeadFirst Group, the leading HR-tech service provider for professionals in the Benelux, announces it has reached an agreement with IceLake Capital to join as the new investor to enable expansion of HeadFirst Group in Europe.

HeadFirst Group delivers a suite of HR services that tailor to the needs of large and mid-size enterprise clients in the private and public sector, with over 20,000 highly skilled professionals active daily. The company has a proven track record of strong organic as well as M&A growth, doubling its size over the past two years to over two billion revenue today. Also HeadFirst Group’s core market segments Managed Service Providers (MSP) and sourcing of STEM-profiles, continue to show positive momentum. With an established presence in the Benelux, the company sees ample opportunities to expand in Europe. With IceLake’s commitment, there is solid financing in place to realize these ambitions.

Financing for growth
In IceLake, HeadFirst Group has found a pragmatic and very ambitious shareholder that suits the company and its entrepreneurial culture. IceLake was founded by experienced private equity professionals and entrepreneurs who have extensive experience with building and growing companies. IceLake’s initial investment is part of a broader funding commitment towards the HeadFirst Group international M&A roadmap.

Han Kolff, Chairman of the Board of HeadFirst Group, said: “We are very pleased to welcome IceLake as a strong financial investor, next to our existing financing partner Kartesia and our founders. It is testament to the great achievements of our employees in professionalizing our organization and realizing solid growth in the past years. Having IceLake on board, we will be able to realize our strategic goals across Europe.”

Bastiaan Hagenouw of IceLake added: “We are very excited to back HeadFirst Group, as we appreciate how they have developed into a company with a unique and market leading position in the HR services space. We look forward to work with their experienced board and management team to realise their ambitions and providing its innovative, value-added solutions to an even wider range of clients, suppliers and professionals.”

Jean Diercxsens, Director at Kartesia, agrees: “We have seen HeadFirst Group more than double in size and profitability during the two years that we have been involved as financial sponsor and remain committed to be part of this journey. Kartesia is delighted with IceLake as the new investor, which will allow HeadFirst Group to pursue its profitable growth and international expansion.”

The transaction is subject to customary competition approvals.

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR-tech service provider and the largest platform for professionals in the Netherlands. The organization offers a wide range of HR solutions, such as Managed Service Providing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, IT Sourcing & Recruitment and HR consultancy. Daily, more than twenty thousand professionals work for over five hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over two billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are MSP (including intermediary services) labels HeadFirst, Between and Staffing Management Services, RPO and recruitment specialist Sterksen and IT talent sourcer StarApple.

About IceLake
Icelake is a private equity firm which focusses on partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams to support their (international) growth ambitions.

About Kartesia
Kartesia provides bespoke credit & capital solutions to leading mid-market companies headquartered in Europe. The group manages over EUR 5 billion and operates out of local offices across Europe.

by Natasja Spooren-Wassenaar

HeadFirst Group acquires successful IT talent sourcer StarApple

HR-techdienstverlener HeadFirst Group adds StarApple Group, consisting the brandsStarAppleandStackOps, to its organization. Both companies are specialized in sourcing IT and digital specialists. HeadFirst Group hereby takes another step in strengthening its portfolio of solutions for workforce challenges in the professionals segment: the current high-tech solutions of HeadFirst Group are enriched with the services with a great human touch of StarApple Group.

StarApple Group, is an ambitious and young organization, founded in 2008 and since then grown into a successful IT talent sourcer. StarApple Group has already successfully connected more than 10,000 specialists to a variety of organizations. Caner Hamamioglu, General Director at StarApple Group: “Growing talent is our mission. We do this by carefully connecting professionals from our network to assignments, where professionals not only do what they have done before with other clients, but are also challenged to take a step forward in their development. Design your career, is how we call it. With the collaboration with HeadFirst Group, we can do this on an even larger scale and we are looking forward to that tremendously.”

Responding to dynamic market

HeadFirst Group foresees that combining various services is necessary to continue to solve all client issues in the current dynamic global job market. Marion van Happen, CEO at HeadFirst Group: “The scarcity will not disappear in the coming years. This requires creativity in opening up the market. We believe that combining high-tech solutions with services with a great human touch is the key to customer success. For us, those customers are both clients – who we continuously provide with mission critical talent – and professionals, who we actively help from assignment to assignment with the most attractive clients.”

StarApple Group remains independent

StarApple will become an independent brand within HeadFirst Group, retaining its own identity. The current management will continue to lead the organization in its growth strategy into the future. amamioglu: “HeadFirst Group will be the driving force behind StarApple. With our enthusiastic team of over eighty colleagues, we will continue to offer a full service recruitment solution for our clients and professionals. And we get access to the group’s platform, which gives us extra power to realize our growth ambitions.”

About HeadFirst Group

HeadFirst Group is a leading international HR service provider and a specialist in the professional organisation of external hiring. The company offers a variety of HR-solutions, including contracting, matchmaking, MSP-services, and business consultancy. Daily, more than fifteen thousand professionals work for over four hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of more than €1.5bn. HeadFirst Group’s main brands are intermediaries HeadFirst, Between, recruitmentspecialist Sterksen and Myler and managed service provider Staffing Management Services.

About StarApple Group

StarApple is an ambitious and young organization, founded in 2008 and since then it has grown into a successful IT talent sourcer. In 2018, a second brand was established in the form of StackOps, specializing in the mediation of professionals in IT infrastructure, cloud and security. With a team of more than eighty colleagues, StarApple and StackOps offer full service recruitment solutions for our clients and professionals. Together they have successfully connected more than 10,000 specialists to hundreds of organizations.

Note to editors

Do you have any questions or comments regarding this press release? Please contact Bart van der Geest, marketing & communication manager at HeadFirst Group, on 023 – 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

by Youri Snip

Talent Monitor: Forecast tariff development professionals 2022

Labour market data specialist Intelligence Group has developed a unique rate prediction model, which includes data from HeadFirst Group. At the end of 2021 we presented the first prediction, which has started an annual tradition.

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On average, highly educated professionals will earn 5% more.

Self-employed persons without employees and agencies that second professionals will probably raise their fees considerably in 2022. On average, highly educated professionals will be able to raise their hourly rates by 5 percent in 2022. The highest increases are expected in vocational professions, with machine fitters expected to make the greatest wage jump – they will most likely earn 44.6% more. The average wage increase is expected to amount to 7 percent across the entire workforce, ranging from those with vocational training to those with higher education Read the entire press release here.

Key findings

Fees are expected to rise by 7% on average in 2022. Fees charged by highly educated professionals are expected to rise by 5%, while fees charged by professionals working in more vocational and operational jobs (blue collar workers) are expected to rise by at least 7%.
If we focus on the professionals’ segment, we see that the only professionals for whom no fee increases are expected are logistics managers, librarians and curators. While the former do have a profession that is in demand, they are less in demand than last year. The greatest fee rises are expected for electrical engineers, sales and marketing managers, IT managers, database and network specialists, architects and engineering and forestry technicians.
If we consider the more practical and operational segment, we see that only independent bus and tram drivers are expected to see their income reduced slightly (-1.1%). The greatest pay rises are expected for machine fitters, plumbers and pipe fitters, carpenters, electricians and electrical fitters, assembly workers, farmers and foresters, welders and platers and lorry drivers.
Pay rises are mostly due to a constant, year-on-year increase of 1.8%. Such increases may largely seem to be due to inflation, but that is not always the reason. Increases or decreases in the number of outstanding vacancies in the profession also play a role. Fees fluctuate along with fluctuations in the number of outstanding vacancies, i.e. as the market becomes tighter or slacker. Together, these two factors explain the level of variance in the forecasting model for up to 90.6%.

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by Jeroen van Kleinwee

Talent Monitor: Extreme labour market tightness

At present, Total Talent Management (TTM) and labour market tightness seem to go hand in hand. So after focusing on TTM in the first issue of the Talent Monitor, we thought we might as well focus on labour market tightness in the second issue. In this issue, we provide an in-depth analysis of this trend, as well as unique insights based on Intelligence Group’s recruitment data and HeadFirst Group’s hiring data.

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For the first time in history, the flexible work market is extremely tight.

For quite a while, organisations were fortunate in that they could fill any vacancies for staff on permanent contracts with temporary, external workers. That time is over now. The flexible work market, like the rest of the labour market, is subject to pervasive tightness. Read the entire press release here

The fees commanded by self-employed persons without employees are rising, even though inflation is at its highest point.

While inflation rates in the Netherlands are at a 20-year high, a sharp distinction can be observed in the wages earned by employees on a contract and the fees charged by self-employed persons without employees. This latter group can significantly raise their fees, while the wages paid to employees on a contract as specified in the applicable collective labour agreements are lagging behind the development of prices.