News

Over 60 percent of highly educated self-employed people support a basic social system for all workers in the labor market. This is evident from research by HR service provider HeadFirst Group, in which over 1,700 self-employed professionals (zp'ers) recently participated. A wide support compared to the support for a compulsory disability insurance (AOV) for self-employed, where just 70 percent feels nothing for it. It makes Han Kolff, CEO at HeadFirst Group, feel positive. "We embrace the idea of creating a more level social playing field. Every individual in the Netherlands - regardless of the form of work and employment relationship - is entitled to protection and security."

Last month, the SER issued the advice to create a social safety net for the self-employed for special and unforeseen circumstances. Self-employed people should contribute to this themselves. Kolff goes a step further and advocates a basic provision for all employed people, as proposed in the social agreement between ONL, VZN and AVV. "Don't make the zzp'er an exception, but offer a broad safety net. We are moving towards a labor market in which the work is central, not the contract or legal form. Therefore, it is important to create securities that move with the challenges and changes people encounter in their working lives."

Security at the level of individual
Kolff is fed into this by the opinions of self-employed people. Research by HeadFirst Group shows that especially in the field of disability a basic system scores high: 61 percent are in favor. Sickness and unemployment has fewer supporters, but is certainly not excluded with 41 and 24 percent. "Solidarity among self-employed people is high. Still, I was surprised by the number of self-employed people willing to contribute to a basic social system, for disability in particular. If in this way we can protect the needy self-employed and leave the rest free to do business, then we are really taking a step in the right direction. It is up to the new cabinet to pick up this gauntlet and get serious about this," Kolff stressed.

Support for compulsory AOV low
The SER also announced its adherence to the agreement in the Pension Agreement to make it compulsory for self-employed persons to have insurance against disability to prevent unfair competition and large income risks for individuals. In March last year, the Labor Foundation came up with a proposal for the implementation of compulsory AOV. This proposal drew criticism from self-employed individuals' organizations. The Tax and Customs Administration and the UWV also informed outgoing Minister Koolmees that they had doubts about the technical implementation. Yet it seems that the plan is not yet off the table. However, the government cannot count on the support of self-employed workers; only 30 percent are positive.

Half of self-employed workers have nothing arranged
Currently, half of the self-employed have covered the risks of occupational disability themselves - for example, through a private party or a mutual fund. The most important reason for self-employed workers to take out insurance is that they are unwilling (53 percent) or unable (21 percent) to bear the financial risk themselves. Another 16 percent cannot fall back on their partner's income. Of the self-employed who have not taken out disability insurance, 35 percent say they can bear the financial risk. Furthermore, one in five feels the costs do not outweigh the benefits and 11 percent consider the risk of disability low.

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR service provider and specialist in the professional organization of permanent and flexible labor. The organization offers a diversity of HR solutions: Managed Service Providing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, intermediary services (matchmaking, contracting) and HR consultancy. An average of fifteen thousand professionals work daily for over four hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1.5 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are the intermediaries HeadFirst, Between and Myler, MSP service provider Staffing Management Services and RPO and recruitment specialist Sterksen.

Note to editors
All outcomes of the study have been compiled into aninfographic.

Do you have any questions or comments in response to this press release? Feel free to contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, reachable at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

HR services provider HeadFirst Group is launching an initiative to boost sustainable employability of independent professionals (zp'ers): Select Academy. With this it facilitates zp'ers in personal development and continuous learning. "The direction on development naturally remains with the entrepreneur, at the same time we take the responsibility to make 'lifelong learning' easily accessible," said Han Kolff, CEO at HeadFirst Group.

Sustainable employability
"Jobs are disappearing, processes are being automated and digitized and the required skills are changing rapidly. All the more important to invest as a worker in the targeted development of knowledge and skills in order to be able to continue to add value to a work or client on a continuous basis," Kolff professes.

People in self-employment who consciously choose entrepreneurship work significantly less on their sustainable employability compared to employees in permanent employment, according to a report commissioned by the Dutch Parliament on obstacles to lifelong development. People who are self-employed are intrinsically motivated to develop themselves, but they mainly rely on existing professional knowledge and experience and 'learning on the job'. Kolff: "Most self-employed people are highly educated and have extensive work experience which they use for projects. Development 'on the job' is what they do every day, that is where the basis is formed, but supplementing knowledge with education and training is necessary. With Select Academy we make personal development more attractive. Naturally, the control remains with the self-employed, they became entrepreneurs for a reason, but as a market-leading HR service provider, we consider it our task to make continuous learning as attractive as possible in order to send professionals forward to their next dream role."

Select Academy: 9,000+ substantive training courses
The training environment, realized by HeadFirst Group in exclusive cooperation with the continuous learning platform MyCademy, offers the most complete offering in the Netherlands: 9,000+ professional training courses from more than 120 'world leading' providers in the fields of IT, management and finance, among others. Professionals can take unlimited online courses, virtual labs and knowledge sessions in Select Academy at any time. In addition, they can test their knowledge by taking mock exams.

Select Academy has been made available for zp'ers, who use our Professionals services. From July 2021, the environment will also be ready for suppliers of HeadFirst Group, such as secondment and consultancy companies.

Professionals & Partners services
The subscription 'unlimited online learning' in Select Academy is one of the advantages of the Professionals & Partners services of HeadFirst Group. Besides the possibility to acquire challenging assignments through HeadFirst Group, freelancers and suppliers of professionals can use the services for administrative support, accelerated payment of invoices, group discount on various insurances and from now on more benefits in the field of personal development.

"This unique package of services forms a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs, with which HeadFirst Group ensures that professionals can do business worry-free. In doing so, we actively contribute to our clients' 'being a good client' and collectively ensure that the best professionals want to work on an assignment with them," Kolff explains.

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR service provider and specialist in the professional organization of permanent and flexible labor. The organization offers a diversity of HR solutions: Managed Service Providing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, intermediary services (matchmaking, contracting) and HR consultancy. An average of fifteen thousand professionals work daily for over four hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1.5 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are the intermediaries HeadFirst and Between, MSP service provider Staffing Management Services and RPO and recruitment specialist Sterksen.

Note to editors

Do you have any questions or comments in response to this press release? Feel free to contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, reachable at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

HeadFirst Group is rock solid in second place in the Flexmarkt Turnover Ranking Top-100 2021 published last week. The prestigious ranking lists the hundred largest flex companies in the Netherlands based on their turnover in 2020. With revenues of over 1.5 billion euros, HeadFirst Group strengthens its position as the largest intermediary and MSP service provider in the Benelux and permanent Top 3 player in the overall flex market.

HeadFirst Group and Between Staffing Group, listed separately but part of HeadFirst Group since November 2020, achieved gross sales of 1.515 billion euros. A strong result, especially in an eventful year like 2020. Vincent van der Mark, CFO at HeadFirst Group: "The organizations achieved 2% organic revenue growth, in a year in which we were confronted with the coronavirus. That makes us incredibly proud. In 2019, we reached the €1 billion revenue milestone for the first time and have been steaming ahead strongly ever since. Due to our diverse portfolio of clients and strong presence in the niche of highly skilled professionals, including many IT professionals, the impact of the coronavirus has been limited."

Full service HR service provider
In 2020, HeadFirst Group made the transition to full service HR service provider by developing as an advisor to clients on recruitment and hiring issues. "We offer data-driven solutions to optimize and future-proof the recruitment process of personnel - flex and permanent," says Han Kolff, CEO at HeadFirst Group.

This has led to demonstrable success. Existing large master contracts have been extended and new European tender procedures won at, among others, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ministry of Justice and Security, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Municipality of Schiedam and Leiden University Medical Center Leiden. "The new clients we have welcomed are great news for the independent professionals and suppliers in our network. All open assignments appear on Holland's largest assignment platform: Select.

Top 10 Flex Market Turnover Rankings Top-100 2021

Source: Flexmarkt.co.uk

About Flexmarkt Turnover Ranking Top-100

The Flexmarkt Turnover Ranking Top-100 is published annually by Flexmarkt in cooperation with Corporate Finance International (CFI). The Turnover Ranking provides an overview of flex companies, from small to large, with diverse forms of services in staffing and hiring. In addition to staffing agencies, it includes numerous payroll companies, as well as secondment companies, zzp intermediaries and MSP service providers. This leading ranking covers more than half of the total Dutch flex industry in terms of turnover and thus provides a clear, representative picture of developments in the market.

About HeadFirst Group

HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR service provider and specialist in the professional organization of permanent and flexible labor. The organization offers a diversity of HR solutions: Managed Service Providing, Recruit Process Outsourcing, intermediary services (matchmaking, contracting) and HR consultancy. An average of fifteen thousand professionals work daily for over four hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1.5 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are the intermediaries HeadFirst, Between and Myler, MSP service provider Staffing Management Services and RPO and recruitment specialist Sterksen.

For further information

Do you have any questions or comments following this post? Please contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

Led by ONL founder Hans Biesheuvel, CEOs Han Kolff (HeadFirst Group), Jeroen Zwinkels (Manpower) and Dominique Hermans (Randstad) and chairman Cristel van de Ven of Vereniging Zelfstandigen Nederland talked about the future of the labor market. The roundtable can now be viewed back.

Part 1

The labor market is becoming more flexible. This trend will continue in the coming years. The permanent contract is not the solution and political The Hague must become aware of these developments. What is the role of flex companies in this development and how can we support The Hague?

Thesis: Flexibilization of the labor market creates a lot of job insecurity, a bigger gap between rich and poor, and it encourages false self-employment.

Watch the video here

Part 2

The focus in The Hague is mainly on tackling false self-employment. Although it is a very small group, we are not against it. How can we fight false self-employment, but at the same time continue to give real entrepreneurs space?

Thesis: Establishing a basic social system for all working people provides security for those who need it and a basis for entrepreneurship for those who want it.

Watch the video here

Part 3

What role can major HR service providers within the flex industry play in keeping people sustainably employable? How can we educate/train and guide flex workers and self-employed workers from job to job?

Thesis: Training and personal development is the responsibility of the self-employed and the flex worker themselves.

Watch the video here

If it were up to Han Kolff, CEO of HeadFirst Group, and ONL chairman Hans Biesheuvel, the successor of outgoing minister Wouter Koolmees in a new cabinet would immediately start working on the position of the self-employed in the labor market. The flexibilization trend continues worldwide and requires good and clear regulation. The Netherlands can learn a lot from the situation in Belgium, California and Scandinavia. This is evident from research by independent knowledge platform ZiPconomy, commissioned by HeadFirst Group and ONL.

Positive reaction minister Koolmees
ONL voor Ondernemers and HeadFirst Group, market leader in the Benelux in the field of external hiring, want to work together with politicians to shape the labor market policy and make the labor market future-proof. Minister Koolmees takes the call seriously and took the report 'Independence, flexibility and social security. A look across the border'. Hans Biesheuvel, Han Kolff and Frits Huffnagel recorded a podcast about the report with Koolmees.

Background
Not only in the Netherlands is there a lot of discussion about laws and regulations around work. Therefore, ZiPconomy looked at how the aforementioned regions deal with social security, self-employment and rules around flexible work.

For both HeadFirst Group and entrepreneurs' organization ONL, it is clear: it is time to make decisions together - politics and business. There has been enough talk in recent years. Countries around us are making sharp choices and also in the Netherlands we have to make clear and unequivocal choices,' says Biesheuvel. Kolff, himself active in the flex industry for many years, agrees: 'There is a task for the new cabinet. Step by step we must work towards future-oriented solutions. A good first step is to think together about the introduction of a basic social system for all workers. By doing so, we will create a more level playing field, regardless of contract or legal form. I believe that many self-employed people in the Netherlands are willing to participate in this, in order to properly protect the bottom of the market and leave the market free above. In any case, we are happy to join the debate and invite all parties to think together about a feasible implementation.

Key research findings
'In Belgium, for specific sectors, where the risk of underpayment or vulnerable workers is high, nine additional criteria have been devised in determining the employment relationship. This approach contains much more customization and in this way false self-employment is effectively combated,' Kolff says. The report further states that the fiscal and social security differences between employees and the self-employed in Belgium are much smaller. Good examples for the Netherlands.

Researcher Hugo-Jan Ruts, also editor-in-chief of ZiPconomy, also examined California, the birthplace of the gig-economy. There, the ABC test was introduced in 2019; a test that uses three criteria to determine whether someone can be hired as self-employed. 'The format of the test is tantalizingly simple, but within a short time many professionals at the top end of the market were unable to get assignments because of these criteria. So even in California they have not yet found the solution to distinguish between vulnerable and non-vulnerable self-employed.' As the flexibilization trend continues unhardened there as well, consideration is being given to protecting the bottom of the market.

In outline, the Scandinavian situation is similar to the Dutch situation. There, too, there is discussion about making a clear distinction between employees and the self-employed. Criteria used in determining the employment relationship are - as here in the Netherlands - derived from case law. In Scandinavia there is a desire to make this set of criteria for determining the employment relationship more explicit and to lay them down by law. Adjusting these criteria is pre-eminently a task for politics. A recognizable call, then.

Also watch the roundtable discussion on the future of the labor market

Led by ONL founder Hans Biesheuvel, CEOs Han Kolff (HeadFirst Group), Jeroen Zwinkels (Manpower) and Dominique Hermans (Randstad) and chairman Cristel van de Ven of Vereniging Zelfstandigen Nederland talked about the future of the labor market. The roundtable can be viewed back on YouTube.

HeadFirst Group acquires recruitment service provider Sterksen. The market leader in the organization of external hiring takes the strategic step to full service HR service provider for temporary and permanent work. HeadFirst Group and Sterksen thus respond to the market trend that organizations organize the use of talent increasingly integrally - regardless of contract form.

Sterksen, founded in 2002, is big in Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), which means that a client outsources the recruitment process of new staff. It also offers services in recruitment, mediation for interim professionals and Managed Service Providing (MSP). Sterksen is a leading player in the IT & Technology segment.

Total Talent Management
With the acquisition of Sterksen, HeadFirst Group is responding to the market trend that companies increasingly manage personnel in an integrated way - regardless of contract form - known in technical jargon as Total Talent Management. It also responds to the increasing demand from clients for service providers with a broad portfolio of HR services.

CEO Han Kolff comments, "The trend of total talent management has been underway for some time and is continuing. The form of contract on the basis of which work takes place is becoming less and less relevant. The cooperation with Sterksen is therefore a logical step in the broadening of our services. Sterksen has a winning concept in recruiting top talent in IT & Technology; a dynamic, scarce and growing segment of the market. Sterksen's high touch recruitment expertise helps the group broaden and deepen the quality of our services, in addition to our focus on high tech with our platforms."

Sterksen remains independent
Sterksen will become an independent brand within HeadFirst Group, retaining its own identity. The current management will continue to run the organization. However, Sterksen and HeadFirst Group will join forces in various areas. Managing Director Donald Derksen explains: "The knowledge and experience in two areas - permanent and flex - will be bundled into a strong combination. Together we will advise and support clients with their issues at the intersection of recruitment and hiring. The size and leading market position of HeadFirst Group will help us open new doors, both nationally and internationally. In this way, HeadFirst Group will become the pushing force behind Sterksen."

International expansion
Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a growing and widely adopted concept in the United States, the United Kingdom, Asia and is rapidly gaining ground in continental Europe. HeadFirst Group and its brands have achieved expansion in several European countries in recent years through organic growth and partnerships. Kolff concludes, "Sterksen is going to help us tremendously in accelerating the delivery of value to existing and new clients across national borders."

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR service provider and specialist in professionally organizing external hiring. The organization offers a diversity of HR solutions, including contracting, matchmaking, MSP services and business consultancy. More than fifteen thousand professionals work daily for over four hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1.5 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are the intermediaries HeadFirst, Between and Myler and MSP service provider Staffing Management Services.

About Sterksen
Sterksen has been an innovative and leading recruitment service provider in the field of IT & Technology and a specialist in Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) since 2002. From its offices in Breda and Utrecht, Sterksen works in both the Dutch and international markets, with a focus on Northwest Europe. The organization annually mediates around two thousand candidates and one hundred and fifty interim IT & HR recruitment professionals. Sterksen is known as a fast-growing company with a listing as a Top 250 Growth Company and FD Gazelle.

Note to editors
Do you have any questions or comments in response to this press release? Please contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

The past year is one that will go down in history because of the global impact of the coronavirus. Companies closed their offices, trains were never quieter and the job market changed. The virus demanded adaptability from everyone and it made people think. So did our CEO, Han Kolff. Because in this new year where people worldwide are being vaccinated for COVID-19, the world will look different again. For example, how will the job market change in 2021? Kolff shares his predictions.

Impact COVID-19 on external hiring

"The impact of corona on the hiring market for knowledge-intensive positions in 2020 has been limited," Kolff says. "Obviously, in principle we saw a setback in new hiring requests and hours worked. Fortunately, the positive trend gently set in as of May. The number of professionals whose assignments were concretely terminated also remained very limited. Three reasons underlie this; 1) highly educated knowledge workers can perform work at clients largely remotely, 2) they are often employed in business-critical processes of organizations, with the result that these projects simply continued, and 3) government organizations make extensive use of external professionals, they proved to be a stable hiring source at the time of the corona crisis."

Even for "permanent," this picture is supported by CBS figures. At the end of 2019, a record 286 thousand vacancies were open. As a result of the corona crisis there was a decrease of 30 percent, reducing the number by 86 thousand. Nevertheless, at the end of September, the number of open vacancies rose again to 216 thousand. This is expected to have increased further in the last quarter of 2020 and will increase even further in 2021.

Forecast for 2021

"Corona is driving the flexibilization of the labor market in 2021, stemming from the further increasing need for organizations to move with the market, the need to get a grip on hiring and a new boost in digitalization," Kolff says. He explains these three causes as follows:

• By allowing the cost of personnel to move with projects, business pressures, the market and the economy, it is possible to work more cost-efficiently. In addition, among professionals the urge for flexible working is undiminished. Being able to determine their own working hours, work days, assignments and rate is still attractive to many. With the rapidly shrinking life span of skills and the coming and going of many jobs, professionals significantly increase their employability by working for different assignments and companies and training themselves on the job for the next job.
• Organizations that have a grip on their external hiring know exactly who is being hired at what place in the organization and why. Organizations that did not have that picture at the start of the corona crisis proved less able to move with market developments.
• Location-based work has proven to be a risk factor. During the crisis, work as we previously knew it changed to mass homeworking, which made the need to automate - unfortunately painfully - obvious. This gives a new boost to the digitization drive of organizations. From this comes more demand for online and IT specialists, who relatively often work on a flexible employment basis.

Kolff argues that service providers who can respond to these needs with relevant data-driven services and a good balance between tech (digitization of processes) and touch (personal contact, good advice) will be the winners of the year.

Finally, Kolff expresses his confidence that "in 2021, the new cabinet to be formed will show the ambition to want to align labor market legislation - with the DBA Act as a hot topic, of course - with the desire for flexibility of clients and professionals, of course with sufficient social security for anyone who wants it."

HeadFirst Group, active in the flexible labor and external hiring market, acquires industry peer Between Staffing Group. In a constantly evolving labor market, the demand for full service HR service providers is increasing and scalability is a key success factor. By combining the strengths of HeadFirst Group and Between, the new group is optimally positioned to seize market opportunities and continue its growth strategy together.

Between Staffing Group, consisting of the Between, FastFlex, Yellow Friday and EXPR brands, is one of the largest intermediaries for temporary employment in the Netherlands; every day over four thousand professionals work for clients through the organization. HeadFirst Group provides a broad spectrum of solutions for flexible labor, including contracting, matchmaking, msp services and hiring consultancy. More than ten thousand professionals work through HeadFirst Group every day for over three hundred and fifty clients in Europe, generating an annual turnover of over €1 billion. Together, HeadFirst Group and Between are the market leader in the Benelux in organizing external hiring.

Full service HR service provider
Han Kolff, CEO of HeadFirst Group: "The merger of HeadFirst and Between strengthens our position as a full service HR service provider. We hold the key to expand this role, nationally and internationally. With our smart online solutions, rich data and expert consultants, we increase the customer experience every day. I look forward to jointly realizing our ambitions."

Rein Buijtelaar, CEO of Between Staffing Group, added: "HeadFirst Group's energy and ambition aligns very well with Between's DNA. We complement each other well, as evidenced by the complementary customer portfolio and our different sourcing formulas. Together we have a winning online platform on which supply and demand in the flexible labor market come together. I look forward to the next steps of the new combination."

In addition to clients, HeadFirst Group sees the suppliers and independent professionals (zp'ers) in its network as equally important customer groups. Kolff: "With this step we become even more interesting for suppliers and self-employed professionals. Together we form the largest assignment platform in the Netherlands, where these entrepreneurs have direct access to hundreds of clients. But together we can also innovate faster and on a larger scale. This contributes to our profile as the partner for a 'life long flexible career'."

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is the market leader in the Benelux in the professional organization of external hiring. The organization offers a diversity of flex solutions, including contracting, matchmaking, msp services and business consultancy. Every day more than ten thousand professionals work for over 350 clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are intermediary HeadFirst, Myler and MSP service provider Staffing Management Services.

About Between Staffing Group
Between Staffing exists since 2000 and searches, finds and contracts professionals for interim assignments with major clients. The company works from the strength of personal staffing and total market access, advises on hiring processes and benchmarks on quality and rates. Clients include much of central government, banks, insurers, provinces, universities, multinationals and system integrators. Between realized annual sales of approximately 475 million euros in 2019.

For further information
Do you have any questions or comments in response to this press release? Please feel free to contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, reachable at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

HeadFirst Group ("HeadFirst"), the market leader in professionally organizing external hiring, has raised an initial investment of 75 million euros from Kartesia. The investor will receive a minority stake in HeadFirst, which has more than ten thousand professionals working daily for hundreds of clients.

The flex market is developing and especially the segment of intermediaries and managed service providers, in which HeadFirst is big, is growing fast. The organization is active with its platform solutions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Scandinavia, Poland and Switzerland and sees opportunities to add clients in other European countries. CEO Han Kolff of HeadFirst explains, "The support of a strong financial partner like Kartesia helps to accelerate our growth strategy, both in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. The focus here is on perpetuating and expanding HeadFirst's role as a full service HR service provider, innovating with smart online solutions and adding value to our clients with rich data."

With Kartesia, HeadFirst has found a partner that fits well with the company and its entrepreneurial culture. Kartesia is a leading investor for mid-market companies in Europe. Recently, Kartesia has invested in a number of technology companies in the business services sector, including Sewan, the French market leader in digital telephony, Richardson Sales Performance, the global leader in sales training and performance improvement, and MAIN Energie, a provider of innovative energy supply solutions aimed at SMEs throughout the Netherlands.

Jean Diercxsens, managing director of Kartesia, added: "HeadFirst is one of the leading players in the HR services market in the Benelux, offering innovative value-added solutions to its large network of clients, suppliers and independent professionals. The group has a proven track record of both organic growth and growth through acquisitions, gaining market share through technologically advanced services in a competitive environment. We look forward to working closely with the team to continue to leverage the company's potential across Europe."

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is the market leader in the Benelux in the professional organization of external hiring. The organization offers a diversity of flex solutions, including contracting, matchmaking, msp services and business consultancy. Every day more than ten thousand professionals work for over 350 clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are intermediary HeadFirst, Myler and MSP service provider Staffing Management Services.

About Kartesia
Kartesia is a pan-European, independent and private investment fund. It focuses on facilitating tailor-made investments to leading mid-market companies from a wide range of high-growth sectors. Kartesia manages over €2.5 billion in assets, which it does with a team of fifty experienced professionals from across its investment and management teams, led by its four founders and also managing partners. The group has offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Munich and Paris.

For further information
Do you have any questions or comments in response to this press release? Please feel free to contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, reachable at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

HeadFirst Group, market leader in professionally organizing external hiring, has appointed Han Kolff - also chairman of the board - as CEO. He takes over this role from Gert-Jan Schellingerhout.

The organization's growth strategy, both nationally and internationally, will continue under the leadership of Han Kolff. The focus here is on perpetuating and expanding its role as a full service HR service provider, innovating with smart online solutions and adding value with rich data. Han Kolff: "We believe that scale, strengthened by our online platform, and combined with a personal approach is the key to success. I look forward to realizing our ambitions together."

In 25 years, market leader in external hiring
Schellingerhout has spent twenty years in various roles with the organization, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Schellingerhout: "Together, we have grown the organization from 3 employees to over 150 now. We serve hundreds of wonderful clients by connecting them to our network of thousands of suppliers and independent professionals. I am enormously proud to have been able to spend two decades with a passionate team building the organization as it stands today: the market leader in organizing external hiring."

About Han Kolff
Kolff has a long track record at major international organizations, including ten years in HR services. He held executive positions at Randstad, Danone and Heineken, among others. He has also been involved in digital business transformations, HR tech startups and scale-ups. Since March of this year, Kolff has already held the position of chairman of the board at HeadFirst Group.

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is the market leader in the Benelux in the professional organization of external hiring. The organization offers a diversity of flex solutions, including contracting, matchmaking, msp services and business consultancy. Every day more than 10,000 professionals work for over 350 clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are intermediaries HeadFirst and Myler and msp service provider Staffing Management Services.

For further information
Do you have any questions or comments in response to this press release? Please feel free to contact Bart van der Geest, manager of marketing & communications at HeadFirst Group, reachable at 023 - 568 56 30 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.nl.

HeadFirst Group and ONL voor Ondernemers are joining forces as of March 1. Last week Gert-Jan Schellingerhout, CEO HeadFirst Group, and Mike Korenvaar, CFO HeadFirst Group, signed the cooperation agreement together with ONL chairman Hans Biesheuvel. Both parties will act together for a fair flexible labor market in which hirers and providers of knowledge - and organizations that connect them - have room to do business. Monitoring and positively influencing labor market legislation, with the replacement of the Wet DBA in the lead, is a spearhead.

Getting lost in political Hague

ONL, located in the heart of The Hague and a stone's throw from the Binnenhof, as an independent foundation is the link between HeadFirst Group and politicians in The Hague. "Over the years, ONL has built a large network of politicians, civil servants and policy officers. The office in The Hague offers the opportunity to be 'close to the fire' and engage with policymakers. In addition, ONL provides political monitoring, so that we as an organization remain informed of relevant developments. A good next step in our public affairs and lobbying strategy," said Schellingerhout. "We also think we can add value to ONL with our knowledge, data and relationships with tens of thousands of clients, suppliers and the self-employed. Together we will work for the higher goal: to give entrepreneurs space."

About ONL for Entrepreneurs

ONL voor Ondernemers aims to make the Netherlands more entrepreneurial together. The entrepreneurs' organization makes the voice of the entrepreneur heard by lobbying, raising problems and proposing solutions for issues that affect entrepreneurs. ONL takes a critical stance against ramshackle legislation, such as the DBA Act and the Employment and Security Act, but not without presenting a well thought-out alternative that will benefit entrepreneurs.