A more risk-based approach

As of February 13, 2023, our inspectors have started testing against the revised SNA standard. The main purpose of this revision is to achieve a more risk-oriented approach. Companies that do not fall under the transitional arrangement and have to be tested against the new standard as of Feb. 13 have been inspected by us during the past six months. How do companies look back on the 'new' inspections and what are the experiences of our inspectors? I discuss this with Arjan Boer, Technical Manager of Normec VRO, Bas Witvoet, Founder and Owner and Yermo Lans, Tax Lawyer of the Oranje Group and Martijn Remmelzwaal, Partner at Experts in Flex and responsible for the implementation of GRC Software at Oranje Group.

By: Julisa Fereijra-Phelipa, Business Unit Director Normec VRO

Changes compared to the old SNA standard

The inspection frequency and thus the pattern of inspections has changed. We no longer conduct a standard annual full inspection followed by a shortened inspection after six months. In the revision, the full inspection serves as a zero measurement and the zero measurement always determines what the follow-up inspection will look like. The content of a follow-up inspection depends on the extent to which a company has its records in order, written or computerized procedures in place, and any risk areas that need to be zoomed into more closely. In this way, inspectors can focus a follow-up inspection on matters relevant to your company. Over the past six months, a company's procedures have therefore been the subject of massive attention. Because the revised standard is more risk-oriented, the presence of procedures and their operation have become part of the standard. We wrote an article about this earlier.

Getting procedures in order

"It is not self-evident that an average staffing company has its (working) procedures in order. We regularly see that companies do not yet have detailed procedures in writing and do not really know where to start," says Arjan Boer. "In addition, there may be a procedure in place but the risks present are not yet sufficiently tackled. These are, for example, risks in the context of the Foreign Workers Act and/or application of collective bargaining agreement remuneration. A company is still often searching how to achieve that good result".

You can always ask questions

That is why service orientation and unburdening customers is central to us. Normec VRO has a flexible internal organization which makes the process run smoothly. With our helpdesk, customers can always go to us for content, but also for other peripheral issues related to inspections. Currently, incoming questions mainly concern procedures, their design and implementation. We help these companies by providing as much explanation and clarification as possible.

Tip from Arjan: "Get advance advice from parties in the market who are experienced in mapping out your current processes, the necessary measures for risk coverage and the elaboration of this in a procedure."

Safety first

Orange Group is one of the companies inspected by Normec VRO over the past year. "In the past six months we have had, among other things, the inspections for the (revised) SNA and PayOK quality mark and have passed with flying colors," says Bas Witvoet, founder of Oranjegroep. "Safety first has been the adage at Oranjegroep for years. We supply our subject specialists to clients where special safety aspects apply. In addition, our staffing on the various projects is largely occupied by migrant workers. This naturally requires something of our internal operations. In terms of onboarding, administration, housing, etc., the complex procedures are always under particular scrutiny."

Overview of procedures, standards and legislation through GRC software

Bas continues: "In order to keep an overview of these complex procedures, standardization and legislation, Oranjegroep created a management environment using GRC software, implemented by FlexChecker.com." This had a number of benefits during the inspection at Oranjegroep. Arjan Boer: "Because we received procedure descriptions from the GRC software tool at the start of the inspection, we could state that Oranjegroep has done serious work to make risks manageable. The chance of us encountering a nonconformity in the sample is then relatively small. An additional advantage of good and written or computerized procedure descriptions is that the follow-up inspection does not have to test the so-called risk areas. The follow-up inspection is therefore less extensive and therefore costs less time and money."

Martijn Remmelzwaal, Partner at Experts in Flex adds, "With the implementation of GRC software, we quickly screened and updated all updates of procedures and manuals for Oranjegroep. After implementing the entire application landscape in 2021, several ways of working had changed. Underlying documentation has now been published in an orderly fashion. We are pleased with our contribution to Oranjegroep's inspection results."

Oranjegroep about Normec VRO

Yermo Lans, Lawyer at Oranjegroep: "Normec VRO and Oranjegroep are well aware of each other's working methods. The information needs are clear in advance. Our operations benefit from this: the periodic preparations and inspections do not take up more time than necessary. Moreover, Normec VRO understands our business model and thus our motives. There is low-threshold contact and room for consultation. It is also nice that Normec VRO proactively informs and guides us in the event of a revision with a changed standards framework."