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In the second week of September it was time again: HeadFirst Group's Summer Party. If you know us a little bit, you know that our parties are always something special. This time the festivities took place at an external location, namely at Papa's Beach House in Hoofddorp, and we can say with certainty that we all enjoyed one of the last days of summer.

With our feet in the sand and a refreshing cocktail in hand, colleagues from different labels, locations and departments were able to socialize with each other. Colleagues were even flown in, for example from Romania. It was a time to meet each other again and toast the highlights of the past six months. Before we sat down to dinner, the barbecue was lit and delicious salads were prepared. But the best was yet to come.

We were treated to great live performances! Soulm3n enchanted us with their musical talent, followed by the amazing Jeffrey Parmentier. And as icing on the cake, the Raddraaiers closed the evening. It was another night to never forget, but luckily you don't have to rely only on memories - we have a great aftermovie to relive the feeling!

So, are you ready to be part of these amazing parties? Then check out our job openings soon and who knows, maybe we'll see you at our next party in December!

Since June 1, Marjolein Slappendel has been the new CFO within our organization. In the first weeks, Marjolein mainly spent time getting to know the various departments and colleagues within our group. She wanted to get a picture of what is going well, where there is potential for improvement and what steps will be taken in the coming period.

In her own words, Marjolein's expectations of the potential of our organization have been far exceeded. "HeadFirst Group is an ambitious and fast-growing organization with very smart driven people. I am proud to be part of that now. It is a wonderful challenge to be responsible for the further professionalization of the business units finance, operations, quality and legal in order to further strengthen the basis for our growth ambitions."

"There is a driven atmosphere in the organization, making huge strides. We are constantly moving and that is also what suits me. I have always worked in departments where the adrenaline was regularly high. It suits who I am."

What's next on the agenda? "When I came in, a clear strategy toward 2025 was already mapped out: to become the market-leading, international HR tech service provider. This requires continuous improvement from us. Right now, the main focus is on digitizing our business. Automating where we can, so that repetitive things can go away from our colleagues, allowing them to focus more on contacting our clients. Something that fits completely with our aspiration: tech enables touch. For our finance and operations department this is very interesting and there are still good further steps to be made in this."

Marjolein looks positively on her first months at HeadFirst Group and can't wait to see what the further optimizations will enable us to do next. Do you want to contribute to these improvements and think and work on the future of this organization? Then take a look at our vacancies.

As an HR-tech service provider, we are working hard to create "The Next World of Work." A transparent and balanced labor market, without prejudice, in which organizations and talent are perfectly connected. To realize this, we are taking huge steps in the field of technology. Not only because it fits within our digital roadmap - becoming the number one tech platform - but also because we are convinced that with technology we provide a better service. Tech Enables Touch.

Technological developments are following each other ever faster. ChatGPT, AI, robotics: these are just a few examples that we use to the organization's advantage. To bring and keep all colleagues up to date on this, we organize a special tech event "Up Next" every quarter.

Technological developments within our organization

During this event, colleagues from different departments climb the stage for an update on current projects. Using our semicircular projection screen, the coolest developments are shown. For example, our Data Manager showed a new self-developed benchmark tool. This has been made available on our smart matching platform Striive and allows professionals to easily see, for example, what an average rate is for a data analyst.

Next, our Recruitment Manager showed the results of our virtual assistant Benthe. This robot helps our recruiters enter applications, giving them more time for personal contact with suppliers and professionals. She also reduces repetitive work, which makes the work a lot more fun for our colleagues.

Furthermore, our development team is also busy with technological improvements for contract management. The goal: to reduce the contract management flow from several days to 15 minutes. Ambitious? Certainly. But not unachievable with the planned improvements.

With two editions already in our minds, the next one is scheduled for October. We are again counting on a packed program with updates of new cool technological developments. Will you be there next time? Then take a look at our vacancies. For a sneak peek you can watch the video below.

Since 1995, HR-tech service provider HeadFirst Group has been a knowledge broker between independent professionals, suppliers and clients with the aim of allowing professionals to excel in their work and clients to use their expertise without worries. Joke de Graaf, responsible for HR & Organization, tells why HeadFirst Group chose the MyCademy Learning Experience Platform and what the platform and the cooperation brings them.

Learn every day

HeadFirst Group has experienced explosive growth in recent years. In about five years we went from 70 to almost 500 employees. Such growth brings with it a transition among employees, but also clients now expect more from us. This means, among other things, that we have grown from generalist roles to more specialized roles. We also invest in the growth of our talents, which increases the bond with our organization and stimulates internal flow, which in turn is important for further innovation and growth. Not for nothing is one of the core values of HeadFirst Group: 'Learn every day'. Making mistakes is allowed, as long as we learn from them. Continuous improvement is the norm.

Learning Experience Platform

About two years ago we started working with MyCademy's Learning Experience Platform, the training platform we internally call "HeadFirst Group Academy. In this learning environment, all our employees can follow (online) trainings, virtual labs or bootcamps. It is very flexible and employees can choose what suits them, in terms of content, form and time. Every month the platform is supplemented with new training courses and other learning materials. What is also very valuable is that we can create learning paths and with this we can also offer internal training courses online. A special learning path has been created, specifically for HeadFirst Group, with all the things we focus on, such as customer relations, design-thinking, agile working and time management.

'In our view, such an advanced learning platform is a basic requirement for an organization like ours.' Joke de Graaf

Appropriate learning experiences

To encourage people to use the platform, we made it part of our onboarding process. During onboarding, new employees receive a separate session in which they become familiar with the platform. Moreover, we actively involve executives in the learning process of their team members. We generate monthly reports that give executives insight into progress. This allows them to see how much is being learned by their team members and whether additional support is needed somewhere. It gives executives concrete data to use during one-on-one meetings and feedback sessions. If employees need a specific training or course, they can search the database for suitable solutions. If there isn't one, we can always turn to MyCademy, so we can always offer our people appropriate learning experiences.

A partner who thinks along in all areas

MyCademy 's L&D team helps us with challenges around training plans and development goals, for example. We can also use their expertise when it comes to getting our employees to truly embrace learning. We especially interact with Martine Broekman, their manager of Learning & Development. She is enormously helpful, always thinks with us and she is also very nice in her contact. It's nice to have such a proactive partner. For example, when we introduced our core values, MyCademy helped us think about which training courses fit well with them. And early this year, they held a number of sessions for our managers. These not only addressed how we could further stimulate learning in our teams, but MyCademy was really curious about how they could improve their solution even further. There are many learning platforms out there, but MyCademy's Learning Experience Platform is not just another learning platform. MyCademy offers a combination of a smart learning platform, extensive training offerings, daily support and is truly a partner in knowledge development.

Source: MyCademy

Our annual report for 2022 has been presented. We had a successful year on all fronts. We welcomed new clients and once again succeeded in helping more professionals - independent and employed by our suppliers - find valuable assignments. The new brands in our group found their niche. And to top it off, we were named a Great Place to Work.

We developed tremendously as an employer in 2022. We opened our new, state-of-the-art and energy-neutral headquarters in Hoofddorp and also improved our location in Rotterdam. We focused on making a place that could easily compete with home. And it worked. We had no problems with employees struggling to find their way back to the office after Covid-19. That said, we still facilitate hybrid working and encourage an optimal work-life balance.

Fully in line with our core value 'Connecting People', in 2022 we invested a lot in connecting our own people. We organized parties in our own HeadFirst Group Theater, various teambuilding activities and an end-of-year 'Roaring 20's dinner'. To optimally support our employees in circumstances when things are unexpectedly less good mentally, we entered into a partnership with OpenUp. This gives our colleagues easy access to a qualified psychologist, with whom they can discuss all kinds of issues, small or large, private or work-related.

All of this was greatly appreciated: in 2022, we were officially certified as a Great Place to Work (GPtW). This was a great recognition of who we want to be as an employer. In the GPtW survey, our employees rated us highly on the themes of fair treatment, diversity & inclusion, responsibility and independence within the job. We are enthusiastically working on the areas for improvement that emerged from the GPtW survey.

Curious about all our Facts & Figures on HR? Check out this dashboard: (pg. 43 & 44 from the annual report)