By always keeping quality high and putting people first, AB Midden Nederland once again outperformed the market in 2023. In the past year, further steps were taken to improve the inflow of employees, to meet customer and member demand even better and to make even more use of the qualities of employees. That is paying off.
“We have had a solid year in which we achieved very good results that are better than the market,” says Gijs Jan Kuilman, general manager. “With full ownership of AB Job Service, we have a second company in Poland, which has improved the recruitment of Polish employees. Moreover, the merger with AB Vecht and Amstel went very smoothly. It would be strange if we were not satisfied. At the same time, we see a decrease in the number of hours taken, against the trend of the last ten years. As management, we are closely on top of this.”
Results 2023
“The merger of AB Midden Nederland and AB Vecht en Amstel has broken the 100 million barrier, bringing turnover to 105 million euros. The combined turnover has increased by 11%,” says financial director Henk van Doorn. “This increase was partly caused by a significant increase in the minimum hourly wage at the beginning of 2023. However, there was a decrease in the number of temporary employment hours in 2023. In the market, the decrease in hours was 10%, while we faced a 4% decrease. Our net result decreased by 1.2 million euros to 2.1 million euros. This has to do with the merger costs, a one-off provision for long-term absenteeism and costs for more training and better internal processes.”
Challenges
“We mainly see the decrease in hours in the Transport & Logistics sector and this is largely the result of the significantly increased statutory minimum hourly wage,” says commercial director Bram Schouten. “There were three significant increases in twelve months, together accounting for a 25% increase. The basis has also changed. There is now a minimum hourly wage based on a 36-hour working week. Several sectors are shedding work and therefore rely less on us. We especially notice this in our large Transport & Logistics market.” The demand for company carers remains high, although it is difficult to attract these professionals due to a tight labor market. By partly deploying self-employed people, AB Midden Nederland is able to meet customer demand in various sectors.
Good inflow
Recruiting well-qualified employees is a challenge in all areas of work, but paying attention to people and improving the process yields a lot. “The collaboration between our recruiters in the Netherlands and the teams in Poland is noticeably better,” Bram continues. “There is more intensive mutual contact and Polish colleagues come to the Netherlands twice a year, where they also visit our customers. This gives them a better understanding of which employees our customers need. Due to the own network of our Romanian colleagues, the influx from Romania has also increased.” They are often used for greenhouse horticulture and green areas in municipalities. The internal Lean process also has a positive effect on this foreign influx. “Working groups with employees from different departments look together at how the process can be improved,” Bram explains. “We have trained employees for that. This ensures, for example, that fewer steps are needed to arrange everything for the new employees and that there are no misunderstandings about working conditions. This means they will not be faced with any surprises.” This efficiency improvement has led, for example, to the fact that almost all contracts have already been signed before Poles and Romanians come to the Netherlands, while previously this was about half. This gives a lot of confidence, which has significantly reduced the number of no-shows.
Housing
Good housing is an important reason why AB Midden Nederland is able to retain employees. “We provide a comfortable living environment and with the Good Landlordship Act we have once again expanded the number of single rooms,” says Gijs Jan. “We have also purchased three large-scale properties that we want to develop into good homes. We are in full discussions about this with municipalities and provinces, with the help of an advisor. We solve the housing need for new employment, that is an important message.” In preparation, architects are developing designs to show that the new construction will fit into the environment. This also includes the attention to quality at AB Midden Nederland. “Housing is a continuous point of attention for us,” emphasizes Gijs Jan. “We invest in sustainability with the installation of solar panels and heat pumps. In 2023, we concluded a contract for green energy, which has resulted in a 418,000 kg CO2 reduction compared to gray energy. That is substantial.”
Strong foundation
A powerful organization is being built in all kinds of areas. For example, a group of office workers is following the post-higher professional education Personal Leadership course in the context of talent development, which offers opportunities for future advancement to other (higher) positions. A wide package of training courses is available for temporary workers in our own training center. Furthermore, sustainability continues in the vehicle fleet and in the office buildings. For example, the newly purchased office in Zaltbommel is being upgraded to energy label A++. IT security has been improved by collaborating with an external partner and making employees more aware of the risks.
Outlook
“This is the first year of our new policy plan 2024-2026,” says Gijs Jan. “Our strategy is to consistently build on our strong foundation. We have no influence on economic developments, but we do have control over our own organization with good employees in whom we have a lot of confidence.”
“We focus on new customers and continue to serve our existing customers well,” Bram emphasizes. “After all, we stand for sustainable relationships based on quality and reliability with attention to people.” The events for customers, members and employees on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of AB Midden Nederland strengthened the mutual bond. “Our expectation is that we can match the number of hours in 2023 and once again achieve higher turnover,” Henk says finally. The strong foundation and good teams are important success factors.
