Innovation

Randstad’s innovation is their unique approach to the staffing industry, whether integrating through online platforms or in-person interactions, Randstad's ability to establish personal connections and demonstrate a deep sense of care for their clients. Randstad was founded in Holland in 1960 by Frits Goldschmelding and Ger Daleboudt, two university students. They saw that a lot of people were out of work and began handing out flyers printed in Goldschmelding’s attic. Their aim is to combine both the online and human interaction aspects of the staffing process.

Randstad is working towards creating a world without poverty, creating decent work and economic growth, and providing industries with hard-working employees band together to improve innovation and infrastructure. In today’s world, most people prefer to look for a job online as opposed to going out and searching for a job in person. Randstad saw the need for a human touch to the job search and staffing process, as the CSR manager, Eva Jura explained, “...if they couldn’t find work they come and see us and we have a relationship with the particular client, we reach out to the client.”

During our interview with Eva Jura, she told us how Randstad differs from other staffing agencies,“...we skype, we do interviews with each other so whatever the person prefers, that’s how we do it.” Randstad goes above and beyond compared to the average staffing agency by working with clients hands-on by reviewing their applications, providing insight to the criteria the business is looking for in employees, and providing tips and tricks to the interviewing process for “you to have a better chance of getting that dream job.”

Inspiration

At the time of creation, the agency was called ‘Uitzendingburea Amstelveen’. Frits Goldschmelding and Ger Daleboudt saw the obvious need by people for work and within 10 years, Randstad had established branches in four countries. Today, Randstad has offices in France, in Argentina, in Spain, Germany, Poland, China, Japan, US and Brazil with the head office still remaining in Holland. To this day, Goldschmelding holds the largest stake in the company.

Randstad is always trying to stay, “one step ahead.” Eva told us that one of their main motivations for innovating the staffing business was that at Randstad, ”...we are passionate about finding people work, we're also passionate about getting the best deals, we're passionate about being the #1 staffing agency.” She also said that "...it’s always a strive to be better, strive for perfection which is one of our corporate values. So our corporate values are to know, to serve, to trust, to strive for perfection, and simultaneously promotion of all interests. So no matter which Randstad employee you ask they will know those values...It's just who we are as people.”

Overall impact

Randstad’s impact on society has been big and can certainly be felt by Randstad clients. Randstad currently has over 4,500 clients in Canada alone and helps 626,300 people worldwide find employment every day through their 4,752 offices in 39 different countries. The ultimate goal Randstad has set to achieve, is to touch the work lives of 500 million people worldwide by 2030. As described during our interview with Eva, “I think that our impact is really one that helps individuals find work. When an individual is jobless how do they feel? They feel helpless,...it’s a challenging time because you still have to pay your bills, and you still have to support your family if they have a family, they still have to eat. So it is very hard on a person's moral and on individuals who let's say, for 3, 5, 6 months they haven't found work.”

In our interview, Eva also described how most of Randstad’s impact on not only the staffing business but also people’s lives comes from “the tech and touch, improving employability, promoting equal opportunities, contributing to labor markets, ...helping people, connecting people to each other. ...at the end of the day, it’s shaping the world of work.” These commitments to worldwide success for any and all unemployed individuals is an impact that will be seen long-term for not only by the individuals gaining careers but for their employers who gain hard-working members of society.

Business benefit

As a business, Randstad aims to improve the staffing industry, as well as themselves. We live in an era of constant technological change and it has become part of everything we do on a daily basis. Randstad’s innovation has allowed them to keep up with these technological changes and as Eva explained they are always aiming “to be one step ahead.”

At the same time, they have kept a human forward approach. Eva said it best, “So, what we're bringing is that even though technology is changing, even though people are texting more than they’re talking, we're still trying to bring back that human forward.” As previously mentioned, Randstad’s innovation along with the recent acquisition of Monster Worldwide, helped them grow into the biggest staffing company in Canada as of 2017. To date, the company includes 55 offices and 22 in-house locations in seven Canadian provinces, and more than 650 corporate employees in Canada and 10,000 temporary workers on site daily. They are proud to say that over 60% of the companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange are Randstad clients. This comes with a revenue of more than €20,684.1 million in 2016. Even with all those tremendous numbers, they are still striving to “move on to the next, and the next” in the coming years.

Social and environmental benefit

Randstad not only contributes to society on a staffing level and helping individuals find jobs but also participates in many volunteer opportunities worldwide to give back to the world. One program Randstad is part of is Voluntary Service Overseas, which is the world’s leading development NGO that fights poverty through volunteers. Randstad supports VSO by providing expertise, funding, and the recruitment of volunteers.

Randstad is also involved with the Breakfast Club Canada which focuses on children getting a nutritional breakfast. The Ride for Myriam, a ride for one of their coworkers that passed away from leukemia to raise funds for her daughter’s education also happens every year. “This year it’s going to be from Montreal to New York. So our CEO, CFO, CPO, CIO, pretty much they're all on the ride. There's going to be probably around 50 to 100 people... So there is people doing that to raise funds for the Princess Margaret foundation for cancer research.” Eva also told us about the Jennifer Ashley Foundation that was set up to raise funds for parents who have a sick child in the hospital. Usually one of the two parents has to quit work in order to be with their child full time in the hospital. “Then there's a decrease in revenue so that’s where they come in.”

Each Randstad employee also gets one day a year, fully paid, to volunteer anywhere they like in their local community or on a more global scale. Randstad is partners with Cuso International, a non-profit organization that uses volunteers for a period of 3 or 6 months to help ..build houses, schools and do some educational work as well..all paid for by the company.”

Interview

Eva Jura, CSR Manager