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!
CEO Marion van Happen 100 days on board: "What an energy in this club!"
CEO Marion van Happen 100 days on board: "What an energy in this club!"
CEO Marion van Happen' s first 100 days at HeadFirst Group are over! In her own words, the time has flown by. She got to know hundreds of entrepreneurial colleagues, met clients, suppliers and professionals, talked to stakeholders in politics, industry organizations and had the first press moments. Her most important experiences and steps taken? She shares them based on the three core values of our organization.
1. Connecting people
"I started the day after the opening of our new state-of-the-art, energy-neutral headquarters in Hoofddorp. We celebrated this grandly in our own in-house theater! How wonderful also to see the face-to-face interaction between all colleagues. We have now found a balance between working at home and in the office. But 'connecting people' also stands for our core task: connecting professionals and clients. In this time of scarcity in the labor market - which, based on labor force figures, will continue for years to come - we fulfill a rewarding role: helping organizations find high-skilled professionals."
2. Learn every day
"Every day a little better, that's the vision. There are certainly things that could be improved in the organization, but above all I have seen good things and enthusiastic colleagues. To lay the foundation for further growth, I introduced the Lean methodology to improve processes. Starting with our contracting and finance process. We are progressing rapidly with the development of our platform, deployment of AI and data maturity. This allows colleagues to add more "touch" to our tech processes, makes colleague functions even more enjoyable, and makes clients, vendors and professionals happy. Finding the perfect balance between tech and touch, that's my goal. In addition, we are going to work structurally on innovation with a growth board, for example, continuously taking our Professionals & Partners services to a higher level and further rolling out our Total Talent Management proposition."
3. Customer first
"When I came in, there was already a clear strategy to 2025, which I fully endorse. Yet it is in my nature to test that strategy against the current image that clients, suppliers and professionals have of us and how they see the future with us. That helps to achieve perfection in our services. The study is now underway with an external partner. Meanwhile, I have started talking to clients myself and invited suppliers to our office. It makes me happy what I get back from that in valuable feedback: we are a reliable and creative partner, with whom they see a bright future. And then in the meantime we are working on new, innovative services: soon first for the thousands of professionals and suppliers in our network and later this year we will present a smart matching solution for medium-sized clients, based on our platform that we are providing with a new UX."
HeadFirst Group has embraced Marion, when will you follow?
Discover our learning platform
Discover our learning platform
Learn every day, one of the three core values of our organization. For this reason, all colleagues have access to the training platform 'HeadFirst Group Academy'. In this learning environment it is possible to follow (online) trainings, virtual labs and/or bootcamps. Meanwhile, many have already found their way to it, so the time to look back at the experiences. Saskia Kleinendorst shares hers.
"I am very eager to learn so I immediately looked at the offer."
Since 2021 Saskia is bid manager within HeadFirst Group and in her role deals with tenders and tender processes at (potential) clients. Within her work, Saskia is always looking for that little bit extra. HeadFirst Group Academy offers her this opportunity. "I am very competitive and like to be one of the first to discover a training course. That doesn't always have to be something that is directly related to my job, like most recently the training course Creating Infographics with Infogram." says Saskia.
"There are trainings and labs offered at the beginner level, but certainly at the expert level as well."
You keep track of your own progress through the personal dashboard and/or the monthly progress email. It motivates Saskia to complete the trainings even faster. She also keeps a close eye on the trainings that colleagues complete. In this way, she hopes to knock colleague Erix Santman, who is also very active at HeadFirst Group Academy, off the throne. It is a neck-and-neck race who has completed the most trainings.
Learning Paths
Learning paths allow you to aggregate training, e-books, videos and knowledge sessions and put them into a schedule. In this way, you cut up an end goal into pieces. In line with the organization's core values, three learning paths have also been prepared. "I soon completed these learning paths and start looking for a new end goal to work toward," Saskia said.
Saskia believes that all colleagues should discover the learning platform, "Knowledge is the future. HeadFirst Group Academy makes it possible to continue learning with each other in a central way."
Do you also think it's important to keep developing? At HeadFirst Group you get this opportunity! Take a quick look at our current vacancies here!