Employers are looking less hard for staff, and temporary employment group Randstad feels that in the wallet. For the second quarter in a row, the result this year was lower than in the first half of 2022. Worldwide, Randstad posted a turnover of 6.4 billion euros in the period April-June, more than 400 million euros less than a year earlier.
The result fell most in North America (minus 10 percent), but the drop was also considerable in the Netherlands, by 9 percent. Because Randstad spent less money, the profit margin remained virtually the same at 4.2 percent. During the presentation of the semi-annual figures CEO Sander van ‘t Noordende was positive on Tuesday: according to him, his company shows that it can adapt to more difficult market conditions.
Randstad does this by not only focusing on temporary employment. Managing director Jeroen Tiel speaks of a ‘cocktail of activities’, such as secondment, recruitment and selection and ‘the whole range of HR’. Tiel sees growth in so-called outplacement, offering guidance in the event of compulsory redundancy. Now that the number of bankruptcies is increasing, as the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) showed in June, there is more demand for this. Outplacement can also be an issue, according to Tiel, due to ‘reassessment at a company after the strong growth of recent years, or because a company is going to take a different course’.
Read also: First time since the pandemic that turnover and profit have fallen at Randstad
Still tight labor market
Increased demand for dismissal counseling coincides with a still tight labor market. Those who lose their job often have more options to find work elsewhere – depending on the profession.
Tiel sees it as an example of how dynamic the labor market is, with different developments in every sector. For example, the number of unfilled vacancies was 2 percent lower in June compared to last year, about 450,000, but the demand for government policy advisors and lawyers is actually increasing. Technicians are also still needed everywhere. The decline is mainly due to a lesser need for sales staff and marketers, while the transport and logistics sector has also been in a dip in recent months. Nevertheless, the demand for drivers and couriers seems to be picking up again in the past quarter.
Randstad also looks at Statistics Netherlands’ vacancy indicator for its own financial expectations. The statistics office generally does not expect an increase or decrease in the demand for vacancies in the coming period, although (slightly) fewer people will be needed in construction and industry. Bart van Krimpen, labor market analyst at Randstad, points to the fact that the number of vacancies has been very high recently, so it is not surprising that the need is leveling off. Currently, about 3.3 million people in the Netherlands work in a profession that can be classified as ‘very tight’, he says. “These are professions where there is twice as much demand for personnel as there is supply.”
Vacancy texts contain more universal skills, such as ‘collaboration’, ‘analytical thinking’ and ‘service orientation’
Universal skills
Partly due to the tight labor market, Van Krimpen also sees that employers are more often opting for applicants from outside their own sector. Vacancy texts contain more universal skills, such as ‘collaboration’, ‘analytical thinking’ and ‘service orientation’. In 2017, 50 percent of job changers switched to another profession, but that is now about 60 percent. “You see that there is overlap in what is asked in different professional groups,” says Van Krimpen. “You have to be analytical as a customer service employee, but also in financial or secretarial positions.” He thinks that the importance of skills will only increase in the coming years. “Employers will in particular place more weight on analytical skills, creativity and digital skills, which are reflected in many activities.”