Highly educated zpp'ers give the trust relationship with national politics, on a scale of one to ten, a 4.6. This is evident from research by HR service provider HeadFirst Group, in which over two hundred independent professionals (zp'ers) participated. Underlying the low score are reasons such as doubts about expertise and the feeling of not being appreciated and poorly represented. Han Kolff, CEO at HeadFirst Group, takes the responsibility to contribute to the restoration of this trust: "Give self-employed people an independent place in the SER and start an accessible conversation with all types of self-employed people in the Netherlands. We like to play the connecting role to bring both worlds closer together."
Political trust historically low
Earlier research by the Social and Cultural Planning Office showed that confidence in politics fell sharply in the first six months of 2021. The stalled formation, the handling of the corona policy and the political aftermath of the allowance affair were at the root of this. These are also reasons often mentioned among self-employed people.
What plays a much bigger role for self-employed people, however, is the feeling that there is insufficient representation in the decision-making process. They experience that the traditional polder parties, such as trade unions and employers' organizations, are mainly listened to. In addition, self-employed people are annoyed by the fact that all types of self-employed people are lumped together and that politicians in The Hague have the wrong image of self-employed people: 'calculating self-employed people with tax advantages' instead of 'hard-working, passionate self-employed people who consciously choose entrepreneurship'. Finally, self-employed people doubt politicians' dossier knowledge and their ability to solve labor market issues. The lack of clarity and impracticability of laws and regulations for the self-employed, the DBA law in particular, was often mentioned as an example.
Building trust
Although the relationship of trust is under pressure, Kolff sees prospects for restoring it. An important point, which is in line with the "Outline Document" of the VVD and D66, is the representation and independent position of zzp'ers in the Social and Economic Council. "This gives zp'ers a central place in the decision-making process, so that interests can be better heard," Kolff explained.
In addition, he believes it is desirable to bring self-employed people in direct contact with MPs to share and discuss their concerns, entrepreneurial choices and practical bottlenecks. This knowledge exchange will have a positive effect on the information position and knowledge level of politicians. "Our core task as a labor market platform and service provider is to connect. We also like to fulfill this task between self-employed people and politicians, so that we can have a constructive debate together about the future of the Dutch labor market and the role of self-employed people therein," Kolff said.
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
Read the entire report 'The political trust of the independent professional by the yardstick'here.
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.