Jeroen Tiel (Randstad): ‘The labor market must be priority number one’

That digital transformation you describe took place over several decades. Now AI is on the horizon, and the question is whether you will have that much time again…
‘Randstad has been around for more than sixty-five years. We are used to adapting and, where necessary, reinventing ourselves. As our founder Frits Goldschmeding said: when the market changes, we change with it. And preferably sooner rather than later. That is exactly what we are doing now. At Randstad, we have started with automation, digitization, and robotization. The next step is AI. We are in the middle of that process. We are still finding our way. But we are fully aware that AI will have an impact on our business operations. Just like on all companies. The speed of change is overestimated, but the impact of change is underestimated. That is my conviction. That said, the speed is extremely high. The world is changing exponentially. Issues we discussed a year ago are already irrelevant now.’

Where are you deploying AI at Randstad?
‘We see that AI is very applicable to certain sub-processes, but not yet to others. That is kind of the crux of it. We cannot yet hand over the processes end-to-end to AI. We have an enormous amount of data, but much of that information is privacy-sensitive: salary information, passport information, social security details – you have to handle that with the utmost care. That limits the speed. That is occasionally a source of tension. Additionally, we need ethics, we need creativity, we need control. Those are values ​​that I do not want to entrust to AI, or at least not fully yet.
Furthermore, at Randstad, we are working internally to make everyone AI-literate. We organize special training courses for this, such as the AI ​​Accelerator Program. Participation is mandatory. We need this from the company's perspective, and we want our people to stay up to date themselves and not become AI-illiterate. This also strengthens their market value.’

To what extent is Randstad already matching ‘talents’ and ‘clients’ without human intervention?
‘We have made great strides in that area. I see many parallels with an organization like Booking.com. At that company, you book your own vacation. You search by country, city, date, and the terms and conditions. And then you get relevant options. We actually work exactly the same way. As a talent, you only want to see the jobs relevant to you. If, as a finance professional, I am looking for a full-time position as a controller in Utrecht, I do not want to be offered a job as a forklift driver in Maastricht for three days a week. In that area, we are making enormous strides thanks to AI. AI will help us connect millions of talents worldwide with our clients. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, at speed and at scale.’

And will humans eventually be completely phased out?
‘Compared to today, human contact will decrease when it comes to repetitive, preparatory, and administrative processes, but I suspect that a real, flesh-and-blood person will still be needed within this process for a long time to come. That will ultimately make all the difference. If you are unsure about a job, or if you want advice about your career, it is nice to be able to talk to a colleague about it. Of course, you can ask the chatbot initially, but at some point in the process, you also want human contact.
On the customer side, from the companies’ perspective, there will continue to be a demand for this. No company will say: just send whoever is available. They, too, have questions and set requirements. Human contact will decrease in quantity over time, but increase in quality. It is precisely human contact—at crucial points in the process—that will add value.’

Let us zoom out a bit to the labor market. The crucial question: will AI cost jobs?
‘Yes, to some extent it will. There are predictions from various organizations, including the World Economic Forum (WEF), that suggest between seven and ten percent of current jobs will disappear worldwide. That is substantial. At the same time, the WEF also expects that between seventy-five and a hundred million jobs will be added by 2030 alone. The lion’s share of jobs will be transformed by AI. The core of this transformation is that AI changes tasks and strengthens teams. AI is capable of taking over repetitive tasks. But analyses and summaries can also all be done by AI. Soon, we will have AI-literate people on the one hand, and AI-illiterate people on the other. That is a massive shift, moving from selection based on qualifications to a market that selects based on skills and adaptability. At the same time, we see that knowledge will no longer be exclusive. That also means that more complex jobs will become accessible to more and more people.’

Who will be most affected by this? Who will bear the brunt?
‘For example, we see that the number of entry-level jobs is declining significantly, particularly at the higher vocational and university levels. I suspect that AI has taken over many of the specific tasks associated with an entry-level job. For instance, when conducting analyses, performing archival research, or drafting reports. Those are precisely the tasks you perform when you start somewhere as a highly educated junior. That is a major problem. Because if the entry-level position disappears, how will you ever advance to a mid-level or senior position? I see an important societal role for us here. Using technology to empower people and involving everyone – from junior to senior – in AI to prevent a skills gap.’

You have children yourself. Do you have discussions at home about study and career choices?
‘Of course. I regularly discuss with my children which skills will be decisive in the future. With all due respect to your profession, perhaps in five years, a plumber will have a higher hourly rate than a lawyer.
We even ran a campaign at Randstad: if you are smart, you work with your hands. On an individual level, you want everyone to pursue the education they desire. But as a society, you have to ask yourself whether that is desirable. It is a huge challenge for education. They, too, will have to start looking at skills and competencies, at AI literacy.’

Will the needs of talents and customers, of employees and employers, still align in five years?
‘That is the huge concern. The labor market is increasingly becoming an ecosystem of skills and competencies. In the future, it will not be so much about jobs or contract types; it will be about what you can do and what you have been trained for. How do we ensure that we get the right skills in the right place and that no one is left behind? How do we ensure that we organize this together across sectors? Moreover, talent is scarce. A skilled technician working in the energy transition cannot also work in defense.
That is why I believe we must work together with sector stakeholders, knowledge institutions, and the government to introduce a labor budget: an integrated, cross-sectoral plan for the future of the Dutch workforce. This is not just a financial budget that clarifies how much manpower is needed where and when, but will provide insight into the bottlenecks where personnel shortages will become an obstacle. We have drawn up numerous plans in the Netherlands – for security, energy transition, housing construction – but we have never looked at the bigger picture. That needs to happen. We are reaching the point where we have to make tough choices. We need to move from consensus-building to prioritization. That takes guts.’

Okay, we will have to choose; that is clear, and many people will agree. But the big question is what should we choose?
‘Peter Wennink presented a number of very good ideas in his report. I fully support them. He clearly stated that we must make the labor market our number one priority. If we do not, our economy will decline. Of course, that is difficult and sometimes painful. Because if you do one thing, you cannot do the other. But we will have to think about scenarios. Imagine – just a silly thought experiment – ​​that we shut down the logistics sector in the Netherlands. How do you then retrain those people for something else? You have to think about that in advance. Regardless of the economic impact or the Netherlands’ earning capacity.’

Your ideas regarding the labor budget focus heavily on skilling and reskilling, on investing in education, making better use of labor potential, and increasing productivity. How can we boost productivity?
‘In the Netherlands, we cannot be very satisfied with the increase in productivity over the past few years. Productivity needs to go up. Automation, digitization, and the use of AI are part of the solution. You can assume that this will also create new jobs, new needs for skills, capabilities, and competencies. So it will also generate additional demand. It is all interconnected. A different approach requires, above all, direction.
That direction does in fact exist. The government certainly has plans regarding energy transition, healthcare, and defense. Moreover, I could name forty or fifty initiatives where we are making well-intentioned attempts to reskill. But these are not connected. It is so fragmented and disjointed that it does not work very well. With the labor budget, we are extending a helping hand.’

How do you ensure everyone participates?
‘That is an important issue. Many people are still on the sidelines. That has not only to do with skills, but also with regulations. We see situations where it does not pay for people to go to work. That is, of course, completely counterproductive. There are also people who want to work but need support or adjustments to do so. That is all part of the puzzle as well.
Absenteeism due to illness in the Netherlands is also a problem. It is higher than pre-COVID. And that has partly to do with rules. Employers are required to continue paying wages for two years in the event of illness. That is already a significant burden for a large company like Randstad, but the average SME simply cannot afford it. We have a high labor force participation rate in the Netherlands; both men and women are working. But when we look at the number of hours worked, we see that women in particular work part-time. That, in turn, has to do with childcare. Those are all bottlenecks that we need to resolve together.’

Significant investments will be needed in the labor market of the future. Who will take on that risk?
‘We will all have to do it. The business community, the government, but also the talent. As a talent, as an employee, you will have to realize that your opportunities in the labor market will diminish if you do not make yourself AI-literate. As a society, we must ensure that people are helped in this regard. That you become adaptable. We will just have to make it clear why. I learned my lesson during COVID. Back then, we offered 15,000 people free training at Randstad, which hardly anyone took advantage of. We investigated why that was. One of the reasons was that it was not clear to the potential participants what they would get out of it. What is in it for me? We did not answer that question sufficiently at the time. There is a very good, clear role here for us and the sector to provide support in this.’

What will be the biggest challenge for Randstad until roughly 2030?
‘We have defined a very clear strategy. We want to become the most equitable and specialized talent company in the world. As Randstad, we have chosen to specialize deeply and adopt a digital-first approach. This will allow us to meet the needs of talents and clients. AI will play a major role in this. It is going to change the playing field. We want to lead the way. Our biggest challenge is to do it fast enough so that we, as a company and as employees, can keep up. And to find the pace at which the company and the employees can keep up. It is all about speed and scale. And the challenge there is—but that applies to virtually all companies— that in addition to transforming the company, you also have to run the current business.’

That presumably requires a different kind of leadership than thirty years ago?
‘As a leader, it is crucial that you are aware of the change taking place, that you do not look away from it, and that you immerse yourself in it. As a leader, I do not have all the answers, but fortunately, I do not need to. But it is important that you seek progress together with your colleagues and the company. Otherwise, you will stand still. No one wants to end up like Nokia. So you have to move forward. That is what you must convey as a leader. And all of this while realizing that the world in which we operate has become extremely complex. That applies to executives as well. As an executive, I am responsible; I sign off on everything. But with those old card index boxes, it was all just a little easier than it is now.’

This interview was published in Management Scope 05 2026.