Ambition by the CEO

Our organisation is transforming into a digital platform with the perfect balance between smart tech and human touch. Last year, we made impactful improvements on that again. In 2023, the goal is to accelerate even more. We take the lead in the journey to the next world of work, which is increasingly tech-enabled, without bias and regardless of contract form. Are you ready to lead with us?

2022: 26% growth in gross invoice value

2022 was the year in which labour market scarcity ruled the media. And this scarcity seems to be here to stay for the next few years. You can see this as both a threat and an opportunity for our organisation, but we very much see it as an opportunity. As we said in our report last year: creativity will be required. And let's just say we have a lot of creativity in our group.

Last year, we added even more creativity and solutions to the group through several targeted acquisitions: Belgian HR tech company ProUnity, IT talent sourcers StarApple and StackOps, online recruitment platform OpenTalent, and professionals services platform ZZP365. All these acquisitions have their own rationale, linked to our five bold steps strategy. To enable HeadFirst Group's expansion in Europe - a key part of our strategy - IceLake Capital has joined as a new investor. With IceLake’s commitment, there is solid financing in place to realise our ambitions.

One of the main points of that strategy is ‘Next level services’.

As an important step towards becoming the lifelong flexible career partner of choice for independent professionals, we have made it possible for them to purchase our Professionals services on our platform even when they are not working through a HeadFirst Group brand. For clients, the main innovation last year was our new tech solution which enables ‘direct clients’ to hire professionals themselves on our user-friendly platform. This promises to boom in 2023.

Over the year, we saw a rise in demand for our services. All our business lines contributed to the acceleration of our gross invoice value growth of 26% to 1,953 billion. Especially our MSP and Professionals & Partners propositions showed strong performance and organic growth. This growth came from both new customers (such as Alliander) as well as increased volumes with existing customers. Our gross profit rose by 11% to € 46 million (2021: € 41 million). Operational EBITDA increased by 5% to € 25 million. This provides the perfect foundation from which to continue our investments in the digital transformation of our organisation.

To top off the year 2022, we were certified as Great Place to Work. This matches perfectly with the role we want to fulfil as an employer for our fantastic staff.

2023: find the perfect balance between tech and touch

We are convinced that the perfect balance between tech and touch really exists. Through smart use of automation and AI, we believe it is possible to fully digitalise the end-to-end process of sourcing, matching, contracting and paying professionals, so that our staff can add a personal touch at those moments when it really adds value for our customers. From early 2023, we will be accelerating our digital transformation programme to achieve that perfect balance.

All the services within our group are easily plotted on the axes of tech and touch. By combining our services as building blocks, we can always find the best solution for each client’s issue – ranging from access to talent to compliance. And for our professionals and delivery partners, we aim to focus on a warm relationship, with tech offering convenience.

We are well on track to achieve our main objective: to become the leading international platform on the labour market by 2025. It’s all about daring: daring to be innovative, and daring to lead.

Hoofddorp, 31 March 2023

Marion van Happen

CEO HeadFirst Group