We enrich differences!
We enrich differences
Tuesday, October 4, 2022: Diversity Day. The day HeadFirst Group joined 250+ other organizations in calling extra attention to diversity and inclusion. To encourage colleagues to appreciate differences and embrace everyone's unique talents, we invited a special guest speaker to our theater. Of course we also committed to this before and after this day, for example through our participation the Charter Diversity of the Social and Economic Council (SER).
Promoting equal opportunities
In recent years, among other things, we have ensured that both the 'male/female ratio' and the 'older/younger than 35 ratio' are equal and we pay men and women with the same job equally. Our 'Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce' supports the organization in conducting our services in an inclusive manner. Furthermore, they have conducted research and set goals on diversity and inclusiveness. The result: being allowed to be part of the Diversity Charter of the Social and Economic Council (SER). This demonstrates our social responsibility as an organization to create an inclusive, equal and safe environment for our own employees, but also for the professionals we employ. Be who you want to be, get space to develop yourself and learn a little more from each other every day!
Diversity Day
SER Diversity in Bedrijf is also the initiator of Diversity Day. This year's motto - difference enriches - stands for a workplace where everyone's talent is utilized. Where differences are not only respected, but also seen as enrichment: it is not yet commonplace, although the theme is more alive than ever. This is also the case at HeadFirst Group. In honor of this day, behavioral expert and social psychologist, Dr. Florien Cramwinckel, stood on the stage of our own theater. She took the well-filled audience through the meaning of prejudice and gender. Then we were put to work with an activity, which made the message come in extra well.
As an organization, we remain committed to promoting the principles of equal opportunity. Do you also think it's important to work in an inclusive, equal and safe environment? Where you can and are allowed to be yourself? Then take a look at our current vacancies!
Looking back on a great summer
Looking back on a great summer
Autumn has officially begun. A good time to look back on the summer at HeadFirst Group. A period full of developments, events, new and successful collaborations, but also fantastic four moments. Today we highlight some of them! As an organization we are putting all sails up in the coming months towards a banging final quarter of 2022.
Working at the beach
Now that working in the office has become normal again, we at HeadFirst Group thought it would be extra fun to try something new this summer. What could be better than the sun, sea, and beach? Nothing, we thought. Therefore, all colleagues got the chance to work on the beach for a day. In a specially equipped beach tent, they were able to alternate hard work with a dip in the water. As far as we are concerned, we will do this again next summer!
Summer was fittingly ended with a smashing party, all in Indian Summer theme. Beautiful outfits, music, delicious food and of course the enthusiasm of all colleagues. And all in our own headquarters! This video gives you the feeling that you were there after all.
Did you also enjoy the summer and are ready for a new challenge? At HeadFirst Group we are always looking for new talent. Check out the vacancies here!
Continuous improvement using Lean methodology
Continuous improvement using Lean methodology
Streamlining and simplifying our processes to make them more attractive to our clients, suppliers, freelancers and employees. That is what we value highly. For this reason we started two months ago to apply the Lean philosophy and encourage everyone within HeadFirst Group to 'learn every day'!
Ideal balance between tech & touch
Lean is a methodology for optimizing processes with customer satisfaction in mind. To look at how a process can be "leaner. This means that waste in the process - work that does not add value - is removed from the process. So that more time remains for the tasks that do add value. On the basis that we arrive at the ideal mix between tech and touch.
Home Run through the organization
The Lean program has been named "Home Run," a term from the baseball world just like the name of our organization. In addition, the name resonates because we strive for perfection: hitting a home run. We do this using four bases: strategy and control, leadership and behavior, chain thinking and processes, and communication and change.
These bases are being contributed to from every nook and cranny of the organization. NGenious, specialized in organizational transition and Lean performance improvement, coached us on this. They provide tools to work according to the methodology and to implement permanent improvements. In addition, every colleague gets the opportunity to follow a Yellow Belt training. A perfect fit with our core value of 'learn every day'.
HeadFirst Group in 2025
Continuous improvement is not just something we tackle with Home Run. To improve the user experience of our online platform, we are developing a new front-end. We have also established a Growth Board to work on product innovation, with the primary focus on a new smart matching solution for the mid-market segment. All these steps will help us achieve our main goal: to be the leading international platform in the job market by 2025.
HeadFirst Group as an employer
HeadFirst Group as an employer
Streamlining and simplifying our processes to make them more attractive to our clients, suppliers, freelancers and employees. That is what we value highly. For this reason we started two months ago to apply the Lean philosophy and encourage everyone within HeadFirst Group to 'learn every day'!
Commitment, fun and ownership are central to our organization. We encourage our employees to be entrepreneurial through personal development and by giving them responsibility. This is appreciated: in the latest Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS), autonomy within the job was rated an average of 8.4. A strong belief in autonomy also underlies our organization's choice to make hybrid working the standard, allowing our employees to maintain a good work-life balance. This too is rated an 8.4 by our employees. By nature, we have an informal culture with short lines of communication. At the same time, professionalism resonates in everything we do. It makes us proud that this balance is appreciated by our employees: on the subject 'Cooperation & atmosphere' we received an 8.
Diversity
Our workforce is diverse in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, motivation and life experience. Each person is equal but also unique. We take these differences into account. The balance between men and women is equal. It is not yet fully balanced in management, but we have improved this situation in 2021, not least through the appointment of Marion van Happen as the new CEO. We are also visibly more diverse in terms of age last year: the number of employees in the under-40 category is now almost equal to the 40 years and older category, which was not the case in 2020.
Curious about all our Facts & Figures on HR? Check out the dashboard below!
Our new virtual colleague: Sam!
Our new virtual colleague: Sam!
We are proud to introduce to you a very special colleague. The virtual and gender neutral colleague Sam will join our Contract Management and Relations team, so that they can use personal contact at the moments where it matters.
Sam was developed in cooperation with Scotty Technologies. Over the past period Sam has been trained to become more intelligent and able to answer the most frequently asked questions, in both Dutch and English. We are going to further feed Sam with information on other topics, so that wider deployment becomes possible. Both internal and external applications will be investigated and where there is added value Sam will be introduced in phases.
Embrace technology
With the entry of Sam, we took an important step towards becoming a platform organization, with a perfect balance between tech and touch. In the past year, we have done much more to achieve this, such as accelerating Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to robotize labor-intensive processes with many repetitive tasks and setting up a central service desk to record incoming contacts. In addition, we have invested heavily in the development of our platform, technology, security and user experience to optimize our core processes. Among other things, this has already led to a spot on the exclusive list "Soonicorn Club of the Netherlands Tech 2022.
United we grow: HeadFirst Group engages ProUnity colleagues
United we grow: HeadFirst Group engages ProUnity colleagues
Thursday, July 14, 2022, the day HeadFirst Group joined forces with Belgian company ProUnity. A new collaboration with an award-winning HR tech company, which marks a big step for our further reaching strategy towards an international platform organization. Together we open new perspectives for a mutual strengthening of tech and touch!
International platform organsation
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. With its addition, we are broadening our HR tech portfolio. We make each other stronger and will continue to blossom, as people and as organizations, while respecting each person's identity.
Which opportunity do you seize?
ProUnity serves over forty clients, mostly large profit companies and Belgian organizations in the public domain. HeadFirst Group has also had a Belgian branch since 2016. With this acquisition, we are tripling our existing business in Belgium.
And of course we need hands for that! We offer opportunities at various locations in Belgium and in the Netherlands. Advancement opportunities and learning opportunities, but certainly also the chance to have fun and grow with our wonderful organization. Do you want to use your strength to bring HeadFirst Group to a platform organization? Or do you excel in offering that personal touch? Have a quick look at our vacancies.
HeadFirst Group included in 'Soonicorn Club of the Netherlands Tech 2022'
HeadFirst Group included in 'Soonicorn Club of the Netherlands Tech 2022'
Tracxn, a global platform for tracking innovative companies, has added HeadFirst Group to the "Soonicorn Club of the Netherlands Tech 2022. Only the most promising Dutch tech startups are named. This is evidenced by the also included leading organizations such as SendCloud, VanMoof, Otrium and WeTransfer. Achieving major milestones have led to a spot for our organization on this exclusive list.
Perfect balance tech and touch
We've been building as an HR service provider for a while, but we're also taking big steps towards becoming a platform organization. For example, with all teams within HeadFirst Group we have achieved major milestones in the past year, such as the migration of all Between Staffing Group agreements, accelerating Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to robotize labor-intensive processes with many repetitive tasks, and setting up a central service desk to register incoming contacts. We also invested heavily in developing our platform, technology, security and user experience to optimize our core processes. This has not gone unnoticed and has led to a spot on this exclusive list.
And that's not all, because since this appointment we already have many great examples to add. Think of the joining of forces betweenHeadFirstGroup and ProUnity, which further broadens our HR technology portfolio. Together we are fighting to become a Unicorn! Do you want to contribute to this? Take a quick look at all our vacancies.
Becoming diverse and inclusive: so much more than targets
Becoming diverse and inclusive: so much more than targets
The commitment to diversity and inclusion is important to our organization. Our Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce and hosting the Men as Advocates for Women's Visibility summit are just a few examples of how we promote equal opportunity principles.
Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce
In recent years, among other things, we have ensured that both the "male/female ratio" and the "older/younger than 35 ratio" are nearly equal and we pay men and women with the same job equally. But diversity is not just about creating a good ratio in terms of gender or age. Achieving a diverse and inclusive work environment requires continued vigilance and decisiveness so that it is not just magic words that sound good in CSR policies. With the creation of our Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce, we are putting our money where our mouth is. The five members of our D&I Taskforce come from different layers and departments within our organization and act as confidants and boosters on themes such as LGBT+, cultural diversity, religion, gender equality, age mirroring and labor limitation. At the same time, they are a sounding board for our HR, management and account teams, among others. The D&I Taskforce supports our organization in executing our services in an inclusive manner and monitors the pursuit of the diversity policy.
Men as Advocates for Women's Visibility
Another initiative is the Men as Advocates for Women's Visibility summit, an initiative by BrandedU to engage more men in the conversation about gender equality in business. Not only are we hosting this fantastic summit for 150 participants, CEO Marion and chairman of the board Han are also on stage. In addition, several colleagues join in pairs (woman + man or identify as such) to participate in the event, so there is a 50/50 representation in the audience. An afternoon of connecting, storytelling and panel discussions to learn, energize and be inspired with those who take this topic seriously.
What do colleagues think?
In 2021, diversity and inclusion was surveyed for the first time in the annual employee satisfaction survey. Taking all aspects around this topic together, 75% of our colleagues view the company culture positively. Overall, we score a 7.5 as the final grade. "Within the team and HeadFirst Group itself, there is respect." And fortunately the majority of the organization agrees with this, namely 87%. Being able to be yourself is experienced by 90% of our employees and a group of 76% indicate that the workplace is free of discrimination and harassment.
Do you want to be yourself in an organization? And do you want to share your ideas with others? Within HeadFirst Group you can seize this opportunity! Take a look at our current vacancies!
FlexTopGrower: we're going like a rocket!
FlexTopGrower: we're going like a rocket!
Achieving great performance together is what we do at HeadFirst Group. As a team, we made sure that the organization was ranked second in the Flexmarkt Turnover Ranking Top-100 for the third time in a row. To top it off, this year we were named FlexTopGrowers in the "MSPs and intermediaries" segment. As an HR service provider and with the largest platform for professionals, we are going like a rocket.
Every year we are included in the Flexmarkt Turnover Ranking Top-100, the prestigious ranking of the hundred largest flex companies in the Netherlands based on their turnover in the previous year. With a turnover of over 1,547.0 billion euros (2021), we are even the FlexTopGroeier, or the MSP and intermediary with the strongest growth in turnover in 2021. Marion van Happen, CEO HeadFirst Group, says: "2021 was a year of connecting people. That was mainly because our core business, connecting professionals with wonderful clients, was running at full speed."
Hard work leads to great achievements, but also moments to celebrate. Finally, we could not achieve this without the commitment of all our colleagues. This is why we have our own Champions League cup, to continuously remind everyone of what we have already achieved as an organization. In addition, we turned the metaphor "rocket" into a delicious cooling gift on the shop floor! How delicious the ice cream tasted with everyone. On to next year!
Do you also want to be part of a driven team and work with enthusiastic colleagues to grow HeadFirst Group? Take a quick look at our current vacancies here!
First sports victory Team HeadFirst Group
First sports victory Team HeadFirst Group
We proudly look back on a great soccer adventure. Two selection days, a seminar by none other than Jan van Halst, various training sessions and to cap it all the friendly match against AJAX | Only Friends. Despite the fact that team HeadFirst Group came onto the field ready to play, including matching outfits, they still made things difficult for us. It remained exciting until the end.
What started as an enthusiastic initiative grew into a real soccer team. Based on the (strict) selection days, coach - and colleague - Michel Kakisina was able to compose the team. In preparation, Jan van Halst gave both the players and the rest of the HeadFirst Group colleagues an inspiring seminar in our own theater. With the motivating words in their pockets, all team members could prove themselves one more time during the official training. Here they got extra tips & tricks from the former professional football player and it was the perfect moment for coach Michel to assign all players to a tactical position. A good preparation is half the work.
Hidden soccer talents?
Still, many colleagues had some questions at the beginning. Would there be team members with professional potential? Or should we consider ourselves lucky if some will soon be off the field? Although some colleagues sneaked through, we also discovered soccer talents. For example, our own striker Bart van der Geest who unexpectedly scored the first goal and flying goalkeeper Niels Knapen who keeps the balls up both on the field and on the shop floor. Thanks to midfielder Jeroen van der Zijden's winning goal, we got the win. Of course the rest of team HeadFirst Group should not be forgotten, including supporters. What a great performance they put up! Of course this could not be celebrated without a drink at the club. After all, it was a friendly match.
What a fantastic experience to have worked towards this as a team! This definitely tastes like more, so what's next? Do you want to be there next time to represent team HeadFirst Group on the soccer field? Are you a star in another sport or do you want to excel on the work field? Check out our vacancies!
