Dutch businesses shift focus from recruitment to retaining and developing staff
Businesses in the Netherlands have shifted their strategy for dealing with the tight labor market away from recruitment and are now focusing more on retaining and developing the staff they already have, Berenschot found in its annual study on HR trends. Employers in the Netherlands are now more focused on organizing their work differently than on finding new workers to fill holes in the roster, Financieele Dagblad reported.
In 2024, recruitment and selection were the top priorities for HR staff. In 2025, this dropped to second place. Absenteeism, workforce planning, and learning and development now rank higher on the priority list. According to Berenschot, this indicates attention shifting from attracting new people to retaining staff by making sure employees are healthy and engaged.
HR departments are increasingly looking for ways to structure work to best match employees’ qualities and capabilities. That is proving complicated in many cases, as organizations’ structures are still based mostly on job title, while this approach requires structures focused on skills.
“Many organizations are still structured around job titles, job frameworks, and fixed career paths,” Berenschot consultant Francel Vos said to the newspaper. “The question should be: what ambitions do we have, what do we need to do to realize them, what skills are required for this, and how can we better utilize or develop them.”
According to Berenschot, vitality and absenteeism have ceased to be solely about preventing employees from being unable to work. Employers increasingly view it as a way to position themselves relative to others. “Especially in a tight labor market, that is a prerequisite for retaining people,” Berenschot managing director Chiara Kieft told FD.
Like other studies, Berenschot also noted that employers are not paying enough attention to how AI impacts the quality of work. AI can increase mental strain because it takes over easy tasks, or makes usually engaging work more boring. Employers mainly focus on practically deploying AI to make processes more efficient.
