About HeadFirst Group

Tech and touch

What can you do digitally and what do humans do? Where in the process do you choose to have personal contact and when do you let tech work for you? Bart says they are looking for the ideal balance between tech and touch. "We are in a transition from traditional employment intermediary to a platform company. In much of our existing services, 'touch' will always be important. Take our MSP services, but also the partnerships with our suppliers. We see that customers appreciate this. A new part of our services is organized around our online platform Striive, where supply and demand find each other directly and the goal is to make the process end-to-end as digital as possible. If you look sec at the definition of a platform, there is often no "human" involved at all. That will never be the case with us, because we also keep adding 'touch' at the moments when it adds value to the customer journey. When you look at other markets in which platforms move between supply and demand, you see a number of disruptors that have changed the market overnight. But that's more appropriate in the business-to-consumer market, like renting a cab ride or house. In the world of labor, that's going to be a little more steady."

Simone adds: "We want a customer journey that is tech driven as much as possible, because it is ideal for our clients to do things partly online and automated, but that there are also parts of the process where we consciously employ people and take care of them. Think of invoicing and contracting, as well as advising professionals and clients. Where we were previously an HR service provider with tech components, we are now an HR tech service provider. That's where the difference is."

On the side of independent professionals and suppliers, HeadFirst Group has been working primarily digitally for some time. In its online environment Select move professionals and suppliers for over a decade. Here, a professional can be found by HeadFirst Group recruiters and bid on assignments from hundreds of clients themselves. Transparent and without extra links. Bart says that HeadFirst Group - with its Striive brand - has now also taken the step towards platformization on the client side. "You could say that we were ahead of our time with professionals and suppliers. There is a lot to gain in the steps we will now take for clients. Where we come from helps us make this step."

HeadFirst Group's ambition is to double in revenue between now and 2025, but to get there they have therefore had to change their organizational model, Bart points out. "We are already fairly scalable, because we are quite far along when it comes to digitalization, but at the same time we can really take further steps in that. We're in the middle of a transition to an even more scalable organization, because in terms of vision, we foresee that that's where added value lies for the type of company we are."

Winning Party

That transition is really necessary, Simone points out. Especially when you consider the tightness in the labor market. "To me, talent is anyone who moves around the labor market. You are a winner if you know how to bring parties together. With that, I see the need increasing when it comes to independence, such as being independent from an employer and freedom in how you can organize your work. This also means that there is still a great need for flexible employment. But uncertain times often also make people want permanent employment again. We are a party that deals with the deployment of talent and it doesn't matter in what form of work. It shouldn't matter. And we want to connect that with tech. How do you make clever use of data and algorithms in this? What role does talent pooling play in this? If you work with HeadFirst Group soon, we will be able to get the best talent out of the market."

Not just the transaction is the focus

According to Simone, that goes beyond just bringing supply and demand together. "How are we going to ensure that we also properly support you as a self-employed person with, for example, training and insurance? Not only the transaction is central, but also providing a platform where you can meet and develop yourself. And by the way, we also make sure you have cool jobs, because we work with parties in the Netherlands that also have the coolest assignments."

Sense of urgency

The talent market is unpredictable and, according to Simone, we still don't understand the sense of urgency of the talent shortage. "We all shout it, only we don't really feel it yet. Doing critical jobs remotely is something organizations find difficult, especially with IT jobs, for example. If that's still an issue you're struggling with, you're really going to have to do things differently. It's important that we as employers are challenged on our creativity. Thinking around and thinking outside the box of what we've always done. For example, think about looking at skills rather than just an education. Parties and individuals who dare to do that keep themselves in the game and remain agile."

"When we look very factually at the data of the labor market and how scarce it is now, but also look at the aging population towards 2030, the labor market is not going to be any different than it is now and it is only going to get tighter. Especially when the workload gets higher and people drop out, the risk spiral is only bigger," Bart points out.

Recruitment marketing automation

A crucial element in what makes you agile as an organization, Simone sees in defining your talent strategy. She partnered with UP for the MSP label Staffing MS because she believes you need to roll out your sourcing and talent strategy in a different way. "I advocate RMA (Recruitment Marketing Automation), because it allows you to build a continuous pipeline and make things transparent. We're also in a competitive market to recruit internally. But we want to be "on" and always engaging with talent. With RMA, we know how to find and entice another target group than we do now. I believe this is a necessary part of your talent strategy. How do you continuously stay in view of your target group? You have to structurally seek that market and be visible, in order to gain insight into the behavior of your target group so that you can follow up much more efficiently. You let RMA technology work for you, allowing you to focus on other things." In conclusion, Bart points out: "It would be crazy that when we digitize more and more on the service provider side, we don't do this in the employee journey. Ideally, we would have done this two years ago and been prepared, but now we're doing it fast and well!"

This article was published on UpinBusiness

As of January 2023, HeadFirst Group is "Great Place To Work-Certified. The eponymous global authority that assesses organizations in terms of organizational culture surveyed employees of the leading HR-tech service provider for this purpose. With a Trust Index of 71%, HeadFirst Group meets the criteria for being a great employer. Joke de Graaf, Head of HR: "The certification is a fantastic recognition that our employees experience what we stand for as an organization and remain committed every day."

HeadFirst Group is labeled a 'Great Place to Work' by over three-quarters of the employees surveyed and scores high with 96 percent on a physically safe working environment. The employees experience being able to be themselves within the organization and being treated fairly, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin and/or religious beliefs. De Graaf explains, "We stand for a diverse and inclusive work environment, where everyone wants to and can use their potential and feels appreciated for it. We are extremely proud to see this reflected in the results."

The road to organizational success
Another theme in which HeadFirst Group excels is trust in the individual. "Our employees receive extensive guidance to help them get the best out of themselves. This is because we believe that if they grow and improve, we as an organization will do the same. A good example of this is the Lean program we started last year, for which colleagues worked in groups on improvement projects. In addition, we pay a lot of attention to vitality and mental health, for example through ergonomic (flex) workstations and access to the platform OpenUp, but also activities in our in-house theater and our own gym at the headquarters in Hoofddorp," says De Graaf.

Keep learning and growing
De Graaf realizes that building good employment practices is an ongoing process. "Based on the survey results, we are going to work on the areas for improvement so that we can further optimize our employership from our core values of Customer first, Learn every day and Connecting people. Putting the internal and external customer first, growing and developing every day and putting connection first. With this conviction more than 400 passionate employees from seven locations in the Benelux work every day with great pleasure on innovative solutions to offer added value to clients, suppliers and professionals," said De Graaf.

About Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work helps companies create a culture of trust. They do this through the Trust Index™, the employee survey that measures trust, pride and joy. They believe trust is the foundation for better
individual performance, better team performance and better business results. Growth and innovation
then follow naturally. The philosophy is based on more than 30 years of experience in 60 different countries.

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 a new investor. With this, HeadFirst Group aims to enable the company's future growth in Europe.

HeadFirst Group provides a diversity of tailored HR services for large and medium-sized companies in the private and public sectors, employing more than 20,000 highly skilled professionals every day. The company has a proven track record of strong organic growth and expansion through acquisitions. For example, it doubled its size in the past two years to more than two billion in revenue. HeadFirst Group's core market segments Managed Service Providing (MSP) and mediation of STEM profiles are also developing well. With the strong market position in the Benelux as a basis, the company sees plenty of opportunities to expand in Europe. With IceLake's involvement, solid financing is in place to realize these ambitions.

Financing for growth
HeadFirst Group has found in IceLake a pragmatic and highly ambitious shareholder that fits the company and its entrepreneurial culture. IceLake was founded by private equity professionals and entrepreneurs who have extensive experience in growing companies. IceLake's initial investment is part of a broader commitment to HeadFirst Group's international M&A roadmap.

Han Kolff, Chairman of the Board of HeadFirst Group, commented, "We are very pleased to welcome IceLake as a strong financial investor, alongside our existing financing partner Kartesia and our founders. This confirms the great performance of our employees in professionalizing our organization and achieving solid growth over the past years. With IceLake on board, we will be able to realize our growth strategy in Europe."

Bastiaan Hagenouw of IceLake added: "We are very excited to invest in HeadFirst Group. We are impressed how they have developed into a company with a unique and market leading position in HR services. We look forward to working with their experienced board and management team to realize their ambitions for future growth and to offer their innovative value-added solutions to an even larger group of clients, suppliers and professionals."

Jean Diercxsens, managing director at Kartesia, agrees: "We have seen HeadFirst Group more than double in size and profitability in the two years we have been involved as a financial partner and remain committed to being part of this. Kartesia is pleased to have IceLake as a new investor, allowing HeadFirst Group to continue its profitable growth and international expansion."

The transaction is subject to customary approval by competition authorities.

About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR technology service provider and the largest platform for professionals in the Netherlands. The organization offers a diversity of HR solutions, such as Managed Service Providing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, intermediary services (matchmaking, contracting) and HR consulting. Every day 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 the 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 focused on forming partnerships with entrepreneurs and management teams to support their (international) growth ambitions.

About Kartesia
Kartesia provides tailored credit and capital solutions for leading mid-market companies in Europe. The group manages more than EUR 5 billion and operates from local offices across Europe.

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Mutual reinforcement of tech and touch opens new perspectives

HeadFirst Group acquires Belgian award-winning HR technology company ProUnity. With this, the group takes an important step in its internationalization and platform strategy. With the acquisition, HeadFirst Group triples its existing business in Belgium, gaining a prominent place among the major service providers in the hiring field.

Platform Organization
ProUnity operates in the Belgian market as a Managed Service Provider (MSP), with its own marketplace and Vendor Management System (VMS). With its unique combined offering, it helps organizations quickly and efficiently find and manage remote employees through a single platform. The addition of ProUnity to HeadFirst Group broadens the Dutch group's HR technology portfolio, which already consists of its own hiring platform Select and collaborations with external VMS partners. In this way, it increases flexibility in solutions for its clients. ProUnity retains its name and management team.

Marion van Happen, CEO at HeadFirst Group: "ProUnity is an innovative tech company, a digital native platform organization, with a sense of personal touch. That has earned them a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award two years in a row. HeadFirst Group is originally an HR service provider, which is just now making the tilt towards platform organization. The perfect balance between tech and touch is essential in our service and industry. ProUnity will be an accelerator in this."

David Muyldermans, founding partner at ProUnity, is excited about the partnership with HeadFirst Group: "After our rapid growth, this new step together with HeadFirst Group comes at the right time for our team, our clients and our partners. ProUnity already works for large and international companies and we see their demand increasing. Now we can offer them an even more powerful answer. We make each other stronger and will continue to blossom, as people and as organizations, while respecting each one's identity."

Internationalization
ProUnity serves over forty clients, mostly large profit companies and Belgian organizations in the public domain. HeadFirst Group has already had a Belgian office since 2016. With the addition of ProUnity, it triples its existing business in Belgium. With this scale, HeadFirst Group can serve clients internationally even better, which fits its further-reaching strategy towards an international platform organization. Van Happen: "In that respect, too, ProUnity fits well within our group. Just as we are now growing abroad with our Dutch clients, we aim to do the same with Belgian clients. Above all, by adding value in organizing talent in this scarce labor market. Through smart use of platforms, with an international supply of professionals - on location, remote and hybrid - where the boundaries have been blurred by corona, literally and figuratively."