When Marco Rijkhoff was tapped to spearhead a total workforce initiative for telecommunications firm KPN, the 20-year recruitment veteran proved that he was up to the challenge.

To succeed in the rapidly changing business environment, Rijkhoff merged the direct hire and contingent workforce units, creating an integrated talent acquisition center. He organized the 30-person center into agile business teams that serve as expert advisors to KPN’s operating units, while managing the company’s ATS/VMS providers, employment agencies, secondment agencies and labor market communication. He also established a total-value approach where KPN collaborates with its partners to co-create on the workforce challenges, which leads to cost savings for KPN and revenue increases for the partners.

Rijkhoff also initiated the Workforce Insights program, which started with a more holistic approach toward the total KPN workforce. With a team of key stakeholders, he created a new framework and a workforce model that provides a wide, but regulated, highway toward KPN’s envisioned total talent workforce. Still under development, the program will deliver insights in the usage of the 15,000 outsourced/SOW workers, enabling KPN to steer client value and spend. And by optimizing the mix of traditional workers and non-employee labor, KPN will be able to adapt quickly to market changes and make sound talent sourcing decisions.