OTTO Work Force is Europe’s largest international employment agency. From more than 50 offices in various countries, it connects more than 27,000 international workers with temporary employers. The company therefore plays a key role in the European labor market and because of its size and the sector in which it operates, it can really make a difference.
At Empact, we were therefore immediately excited when OTTO Work Force asked us to guide them in their ESG transformation at the end of 2022. Because making a real difference, making a real impact together with our clients: that’s what we do it all for. A year and a half later, together with CFO Peter Bouman and Risk Manager Freek Heurkens, we look back on our collaboration and what we have achieved together so far.
“You can see from everything that Empact wants to set the tone just like us, and then you work together nicely.”
CSRD as an opportunity to stand out
Even before cooperating with Empact, OTTO Work Force was already busy with ESG, paying particular attention to social (S) factors given the sector in which it operates. Peter: “We find it important to take responsibility towards our employees. Our aim has always been to do right by our people. Meanwhile, we notice that customers are also paying more and more attention to working conditions and other social aspects. We have the ambition to set the bar higher than what the law prescribes. Partly with this, we want to exceed customers’ expectations.”
“We quickly realized that the CSRD is an opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves from our competition.”
Therefore, when it became known that OTTO Work Force, as a large company, would fall under the scope of the CSRD, the company immediately saw this as an opportunity. Freek: “We quickly realized that for us the CSRD is not only an obligation but also an opportunity to distinguish ourselves from our competitors. We always had the idea that we were ahead in our sector, but how do you make that transparent without being able to make a good comparison based on transparent data? You just can’t. The CSRD provides better comparability of performance between us and our peers. This is another driver for further improvement. The CSRD is really a springboard for this.”
Choosing Empact as an ESG partner
Given the complexity of the CSRD, it was soon clear to OTTO Work Force that they needed support in reporting according to the CSRD and further developing their ESG strategy. So the choice here fell on Empact. Freek: “We really started looking for a partner who goes further than just reporting and compliance. And then Empact quickly came into the picture as the best option. Not only because of their expertise in the field of CSRD and the development and integration of an ESG strategy, but also because they came across as very knowledgeable and driven. You can see from everything that Empact, like us, wants to set the tone and then it’s nice to work together.”
“It can sometimes be difficult to make decisions and then you are in danger of getting stuck, but at those moments Empact knows how to move flexibly with us or, on the contrary, give a push from their expertise, so that we keep up the speed.”
Full CSRD implementation with support from Empact
Meanwhile, Empact has been supporting OTTO Work Force in its full CSRD implementation for a year and a half now. This starts with an analysis of the existing ESG status, stakeholder engagement, a double materiality analysis and a gap analysis. Peter and Freek experience the cooperation as very pleasant. Peter: “We are greatly relieved in this area and that gives us the confidence and space to include the rest of the organization. It can sometimes be difficult to make decisions and then you threaten to get stuck, but at those moments Empact knows to move flexibly with us or to give a push from their expertise, so that we keep up the speed.” Freek adds: “And then it also helps a lot that you always have a fixed contact person. As a result there are short lines of communication and Empact is actually always available to think along quickly if necessary.”
Experience with the CSRD so far
About the process toward the first CSRD report, Peter and Freek note that a lot of documentation has to be documented: “That takes some getting used to. The process of arriving at the material themes also took more time than we expected, but fortunately no surprises came out of it. Logically, the social themes are important to OTTO Work Force. This has now been confirmed through the thorough and structured process of the materiality analysis. The insights we gained confirm us in our belief that from the employee perspective, fair employment is number one.”
Whether any new insights emerged? Freek: “What we have definitely learned is that we need to communicate more about what we are already doing. There has also been much more attention for ecological themes. Those have, partly through working on CSRD, become more and more on the agenda.”
And now making impact together
The first steps have been taken, as a result of which OTTO Work Force now has a good picture of what is already going very well, what can (still) be improved and what is necessary to take follow-up steps. Peter: “The real work will now begin. Together with Empact we are going to integrate ESG into our strategy even more than before. With their support and a wealth of reliable data, we can now stay more in control and steer better for improvement. That data also helps enormously to build up a reliable reputation and we also benefit from that financially, making it well worth the investment. In addition, the CSRD gives reason to think about your impact on the world and whether you are doing enough. That motivates you to take the right steps and continue with this, because after all, that’s essentially what it’s all about: making a positive impact on the world with your services.”