Solving staff shortages
Do you need extra staff? If so, you could use on-call workers, self-employed professionals, or temporary staff. Alternatively, you could redeploy your current staff. Find out what options are available and what you need to arrange.
Do you want to hire (more) salaried staff.
There is a lot involved in hiring staff. For example:
- concluding an employment contract
- agreeing on terms of employment
- drawing up a health & safety policy
Check the step-by-step plan for hiring staff. And the step-by-step plan for hiring staff for the first time
On the KVK website you can read tips on finding staff. The KVK Staff adviser tool shows you which personnel matters you must and can arrange.
What are my personnel costs?
The infographic shows four categories of personnel costs.
- Mandatory wage costs:
- the gross (minimum) monthly wage
- holiday pay of 8%
- costs arising from collective labour agreements (CAO)
- Wage costs that you agree upon (secondary employment conditions), for example:
- a company car or bicycle
- travel allowance
- pension contributions (sometimes mandatory under the CAO)
- Mandatory payroll taxes for the employer:
- national insurance contributions
- employee insurance contributions
- income-related contribution under the Healthcare Insurance Act
- Extra personnel costs, for example:
- the costs of work clothing
- telephone or computer
- work equipment
Do you temporarily need extra staff? For example, to replace a sick employee? Then hiring temporary staff is an option. For example, through:
- a temping agency
Then the staff member is not employed by you, but does work for your company. Different rules apply to different forms of hiring. Such as for the notice period.
Read more about the difference between scondment, temping, and payrolling.
You will have to deal with the Dutch Workers Allocation by Intermediaries Act (Waadi). Under this act, you must check if the organisation that is hiring out personnel (the lender) is registered in the Business Register. You may be fined if this is not the case.
> Always do the Waadi check (in Dutch).
If you employ staff you can ask them if they can work more hours to help you deal with a staff shortage. For example, someone working part-time. You can also ask employees to retrain and take on new roles in your business. That way, you will not have to hire new staff immediately.
Also, see what you can do to ensure that your employees continue to enjoy working for you.
If you want to hire staff from abroad, you must first look within the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. Can you not find suitable employees there? Then you may start recruiting in other countries. You must check yourself if you need to apply for a visa or work permit for foreign staff.
An on-call worker does not have fixed working days or hours. On-call employees work when you call them. You only pay wages for the hours worked. You must give your employee at least 4 days’ notice before calling them in to work. There are various types of contract for on-call workers, such as a zero-hours contract and a min-max contract.
You can also hire a freelancer if you are looking for someone with specialist knowledge and experience. A self-employed professional is not employed by you, but works for you for as long as necessary. You do not pay any personnel costs for a self-employed professional, such as payroll taxes, pension contributions, and holiday pay.
But you must assess together whether a particular assignment may be carried out by a freelancer or not. You must avoid false self-employment. If, according to the rules, you are in fact the employer, you must pay wage tax and social security contributions.
Agree on general terms and conditions and procurement terms together. For example, regarding the hourly rate and the number of hours required for the assignment.
Interns or trainees work in your company as part of their education. With an internship, a student gains work experience. For you, an intern can be a way to train future staff, as they may later join your company as an employee. This allows you to invest in future solutions for a (potential) staff shortage. There are rules for offering internships. Such as for the internship agreement and compensation. You may also need to apply for accreditation as a training organisation.
Your family may also help with your business. If your partner works in the business, you may get co-working partner tax relief (meewerkaftrek). You can then deduct an amount from your income tax return. Your children may also work in your business.
> Read more about partners or children working in your company.
You can hire young people, minors, during school holidays or outside school hours. This is cheaper than hiring adult staff. Do take into account the rules for employing minors, such as the minimum age of young people. For example, children aged 13 and 14 are not allowed to do industrial work. That means they are not allowed to work in a factory. And they are not allowed to work with and/or near machinery.
Are you busy, but do you not want to hire staff? Or do you not have enough time for a big new project? Then consider collaborating with other entrepreneurs. You can
- work together with other entrepreneurs in a (temporary) joint venture. For example, for a large assignment.
- set up a company together. Such as a professional partnership (maatschap) or a general partnership (vof).
Statistics: how many persons have a fixed or flexible contract
The graph shows the number of employees with permanent contracts and a fixed number of hours per week, the number of employees with fixed-term contracts or flexible number of hours per week and the number of self-employed.