Hero | Interim Professionals | MSP

Bovib member Hero Interim Professionals wins the FD Gazelle Award for the fifth year in a row. Where does this strong growth come from? CCO Saskia Kapper on strategies, sharing knowledge and being proactive.

Hero Interim Professionals is also one of the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands in 2019. For the fifth time in a row, the company will receive a Gazelle Award, a prestigious entrepreneurial award from Het Financieele Dagblad.

“We are a growth company and I think that is because we are at the front of the buck,” says CCO Saskia Kapper.

Bonding through research

Hero Interim Professionals started about 12.5 years ago as an intermediary for senior IT professionals. They were scarce even then, but Hero managed to find them for clients. “And still do,” says the CCO. “I think that's because we work so proactively. We constantly want to know what our target audience needs. We do research, share knowledge and, moreover, make sure we keep existing contacts.”

Hero matches independent professionals not only on knowledge and skills, but also on character. “It is important that someone fits within a client's subculture,” she explains. “Then I'm not just talking about the overarching corporate culture, but the culture within the team.”

The intermediary also keeps an eye on whether things are going well during the assignment. “We do online checks and hold interviews every six to nine weeks. With both the hiring manager and the contractor. That way we make sure they feel confident with us and discover needs in time.”

‘Binding self-employed people sounds like contradiction’

Hero offers freelancers coaches, courses and even team-building activities, such as squash clinics. “Bonding a self-employed person sounds like a contradiction,” says Kapper. “But in our experience, zzp'ers want to be independent as much as possible on the one hand, but also have the opportunity to ‘belong’. We offer opportunities to develop and network. And that is appreciated.”

The fact that Hero provides in-service training and team building also has advantages for the client. The latter may want to involve and upskill self-employed workers, but is afraid that the tax authorities may see this as an indication of false self-employment.

Kapper: “We are well informed about current legislation and developments surrounding the DBA Act. This keeps us compliant and allows us to think about solutions with clients.”

Fourth generation employed

Hero Interim Professionals recently conducted research together with flex and labour market strategist Wim Davidse. Davidse examined the wants and needs of the new generation of workers.

Indeed, it is rather relevant for Hero and his clients to know how they can continue to be of interest to professionals in the future. “The new generation has a different attitude to life,” says Kapper. “It's more about time, rather than money. Time is a scarce resource, so they really appreciate it if you offer opportunities to learn as an employer. The new generation wants challenge and to be genuinely of value to an organisation or project.”

What makes Hero different?

“We also share knowledge with the customers for whom we only perform the broker role,” says Kapper. In fact, Hero sometimes also works as a contract manager. Because the company is originally an intermediary, they go just a bit further in that service than other contract managers.

“For example, we provide comprehensive reports on satisfaction and workload,” says the CCO. “The fact that we now also fulfil the role of contract manager is because our clients increasingly asked for it. If such a customer had found its own candidates, they wanted Hero to contract them, just like the rest of the pool. We can now arrange that too.”

Hanging out with industry peers

Kapper has been CCO at Hero since the beginning of this year and has now been with the company for about 7 years. She has been actively involved with Bovib for the last 3.5 years. “It is positive to have a joint venture as industry peers. We all run into the same problems and yet regularly bump into each other. So why not act together?”

An industry association offers real added value for intermediaries and brokers, she believes. “Especially when it comes to quality. As far as I am concerned, the Bovib quality mark is a prerequisite if you want to be taken seriously in the industry. In addition, it is nice to share knowledge as an industry. We at Hero really like that anyway.”

Source: website Bovib