Randstad N.V. (RAND) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'm Wout Dekker. I chair the Supervisory Board. I'm pleased to open this General Meeting of Shareholders. Welcome. I'm also pleased to welcome our online viewers to the meeting. Today, the entire Executive Board is present from left to right in front of you in the room, our CHRO, Myriam Beatove Moreale; our COO, Chris Heutink; CFO Jorge Vazquez; and our CEO, Sander van't Noordende. And all members of the Supervisory Board, in addition to me, are present as well. From left to right, the Audit Committee Chair, Frank Dorjee; the Remuneration Committee Chair, Annet Aris, Cees't Hart, Hélène Auriol Potier, Laurence Debroux, and Jeroen Drost. We also have present Ben Dielissen from Deloitte Auditors. At agenda item 2d, the adoption of the financial statements for 2023, he'll be able to answer questions about the audit opinion to the financial statements. Prior to that, he'll deliver a brief presentation about the annual audit process and the auditor's opinion. I'm especially pleased to welcome Marianne Scholten, our Legal Director. This is Marianne's last shareholders' meeting with us because this year, she'll take well-deserved retirement. She's a familiar face because for nearly 38 years, she has helped prepare the Randstad shareholders meeting. We also have present the Corporate Secretary, Jelle Miedema who I'm hereby designate as secretary for this meeting, and he'll present some procedural matters.

Good morning, Wout. Thank you, and good morning all. You may attend this meeting in Dutch and in English. So we've interpreters providing simultaneous interpretation of presentation on the screen in the room is in English. And if you would like a headset for interpretation, please see the people at the back of the room. This meeting was convened on 13th February and all the meeting documents were posted on the website on that date as well. Shareholders may also attend the meeting virtually via the Internet site, www.abnamro.com/evoting. They can also vote and ask questions via the chat function that way. And they've received the log-in from us following registration to that and shareholders have also received the opportunity to submit voting instructions before the meeting either via the aforementioned ABN AMRO site or via IQ EQ Financial Services. Prior to the meeting, shareholders also had the opportunity to submit questions and the VBDO took that opportunity and the questions and their answers have been posted on our website. Today, we'll not vote by agenda item that Chair has decided that the vote will remain open for all agenda items throughout the meeting and will be closed after agenda item 5c. Shortly before the meeting closes, we'll disclose the voting results. The exact wording of the proposals that we're voting on today appears in the agenda with explanatory notes. This meeting is broadcast live via our corporate website, www.randstad.com and at the meeting and after the meeting, video recordings are prohibited. If you would like, you're -- you may take a photograph of a certain slide that appears on the screen. The draft minutes of the meeting will be available within 3 months and posted on the website. And afterwards, after 3 months for you to make any remarks, they will then be adopted. Over to you, Wout.

And that takes us to agenda item 2. The report on 2023. At the agenda item 2a, we'll discuss the report from the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with respect to 2023. At 2b, the highlights of the corporate governance structure and compliance with the corporate governance code in 2023. At 2c, the remuneration report for 2023 and at 2d, the proposal to adopt the financial statements for 2023. 2e, the explanation of the reservation and dividend policy. 2f, the regular dividend for the 2023 financial year and at 2g, the special dividend for the 2023 financial year. First, I'll give the floor to Sander van 't Noordende and -- who will deliver a presentation about the general course of events in 2023. And after him, Jorge Vazquez, who will deliver a presentation about the financials and other items mentioned. Sander, have the floor.

Thank you, Wout for giving me the floor. Let's move on to the next slide. I would like to focus on our strategy today, which is partner for talent. Partner for talent because we aim to be a partner for talent for our clients to bring different groups of people and talent to them at the right number and the right quality as well as a partner for talent for talent, a partner for people who work for our clients via Randstad to help these people build their careers and look for opportunities, acquire skills, obtain training and advance in their career so that they can perform optimally at work and also for their family -- and can also take care of their families and communities. And we do that along 4 different specializations, I'll elaborate on them later on, but you can see in the room, which these are, let's start, I'd say, where Randstad started. The Randstad Operational, that's all the talent that our clients need to operate their businesses, for example, the people at the distribution center, the people in the factory and at restaurants and at the airport. All talent needed to keep the world operating. Randstad Professional, those are the professionals in human resources, finance, legal professionals as well as nurses, physicians, physiotherapists, teachers and other educational staff that runs Randstad Professional. Last year, we launched Randstad Digital. Randstad Digital comprises all talents that our clients need to digitize their business. These include people with programming skills, people with user experience skills, customer experience. We're also referring to cloud computing. And of course, nowadays, you cannot convene a meeting without mentioning artificial intelligence data and analytics. And finally, our Randstad Enterprise group specifically addresses the largest clients worldwide to recruit people, large numbers of people for these clients and train them and manage external workforces. These include clients such as Philips around the corner. We've been doing business with them for 50 years. ING is around the other corner, we've been doing business with them for a long time as well and many similar parties that we do business with all over the world. And we do all of that, as you can see on this slide with our core messages from our Capital Markets Day, "our ambition is to be the world's most equitable and specialized talent company." Because we've said at Randstad that in a world where talent is scarce and where clients need more services for talent and where digitization is key, we need to take the next step in our history of becoming a talent company because the talent agenda is the agenda where we serve our clients. Talent is pivotal in Randstad's future. Clients don't look for just any people. They look for people with skills and that's where specializations surfaces. Clients want finance skills, process engineering skills, legal skills, for example, nursing. So the specialized talents that our clients seek, we need to specialize in those skills as well to serve our customers as best we can. That's why we refer to them as specialized. Now the most equitable relates to talent being scarce. And when talent is scarce, we need all hands on deck. Anybody with any background whatsoever, male, female, LGBT, people with disabilities, people from various ethnic backgrounds, they all need to be able to participate in an equitable and fair way. And that's why equitable comes into the picture. So the objective is to be the world's most equitable and specialized talent company. And the formula at the bottom is how we do it. First, of course, at Randstad, we've a very strong foundation that Chris is 64 years now. We've built that over the course of 64 years. Our position started here in the Netherlands, but now we're a global operator. And that we established that position through good contacts, both with talents and of course, with our clients. We established that position by having excellent teams on all markets. In recent weeks, for example, I was in Germany, Sweden, England as well as the United States. I was in Texas. And what you always see here is the zeal of the teams for the talents and the clients and to make that match and ensure that the talents are at their best at the company. So we've established that and scaled it up over the past decades, and that's unparalleled in our industry. And what is all about the reason that the client approaches us is because we deliver what we promised to clients, and that's why we're appreciated. And of course, that's all embedded in our culture, and I cannot skip any Randstad shareholders' meeting without mentioning Frits Goldschmeding because he determined the culturing values of Randstad as they remain today, know, serve, trust. Know your customers and talents and to earn their trust and serve your clients and talent to aim for perfection. And in -- what's very important to mention in this group, balance the different stakeholders and their interest throughout the procedure, shareholders, clients, talents, Randstad staff and, of course, the communities in which Randstad operates. The second element, partner for talent. I just mentioned that, that's our strategy. We're implementing that strategy. And one important element is our specialization strategy. I'll talk about that in more detail later in. And last, but certainly not least, we've an executive leadership team. Of course, with the 4 people you see at this table, as well as several other people that run our businesses in the different countries as well as Randstad Digital and Randstad Enterprise and some strong performance people who are responsible for talent and client delivery and marketing and our information technology as well as our legal affairs and so on and so forth. So it's -- this very strong team will deploy this new strategy that will culminate in a new growth algorithm for Randstad. Now on to the next slide, you'll see a bit more detail there about the different areas of specialization. And these are the different specializations that I mentioned previously. And you may wonder why these specializations as I just said, our clients seek specialized people who are skilled, but these 4 areas of specialization impact different businesses and almost different branches of industry in our company. Randstad Operational, that's the operational force. It relates to large numbers of people with many shifts in which digitization is paramount. And increasingly, we see digitization in our company. Next, Randstad Professional is about being part of the communities of different specialists, whether it's finance or HR or health care. So that's a slightly different line of business. And digitization at Randstad Digital concerns the talents that our clients need to digitize their businesses. And that's also about ensuring that we've talent in other parts of the world, such as in India, Eastern Europe, Latin America so that we can serve our clients from a distance, and we've worked hard on that in the past year as well. Next, Randstad Enterprise, as I said, these are the large clients with large deals, where we recruit large scale and manage workforces for these clients. So these are 4 different branches. Talent is pivotal everywhere, but the nature of services and the nature of talent varies. So we need to focus there. What matters is that if we focus on something as a team in a country, for example, we may be the Randstad Operational team in France, then they get up in the morning and they -- when they get up in the morning, they say we want to be the best operational team in Randstad, France. They know their clients better, and they know best how to deliver their services. They know more about pricing and they know more about the competition. So it's important to have that focus. In all these branches, we need to be the best in the world. So that's the background to our specialization strategy. And another very important aspect that, of course, you see on this slide as well is that we do all of this within the Randstad branding. We're strong believers in the strength of Randstad as a brand and our clients view Randstad as a strong brand. And of course, our talents in these different branches of industry do so as well. That's an important differentiation for Randstad. So that's our specialization. I'll speak very briefly about how we implement the strategy. Growth through specialization, as I just mentioned, focus means more quality, knowing your market better and more growth. That's first. Next, talent and equity at the heart. We need to focus on talent because talent is becoming increasingly scarce in this world. So Randstad's differentiation should be that we know talent better and can find it better than anybody else. So number three, delivery excellence. We deliver what we promised to the client. That's the most important marketing tool for Randstad. If you deliver what you promise, then the client is always willing to talk about additional business. If you don't deliver on your promise, then the client will want to discuss that. Delivery excellence through talent centers and delivery centers and additional digital technology. That's the fourth element of our strategy. That's the Randstad talent platform, more digital -- using more digital technology in how we find our clients, how we interact with our clients and how clients can engage in self-service and how we -- also how we find talent and how we can sign on talent and how we can achieve that match. So the technology and the role of technology will become increasingly important. And last but not least, we aim to be the very best team in the industry. I believe that we're already the best team in the industry. It doesn't happen overnight, and it won't continue without working on it day after day. So we want to offer our staff an excellent workplace where they find what they're looking for, so that's interacting with the clients and with talent, ensuring a pleasant work environment where they can succeed and build their careers. So very briefly, that's our strategy. And on that note, I'd like you to -- I'd like to hand over to our CFO, Jorge to walk you through the financials.

First of all, good morning. And thank you, Wout. Thank you, Sander on behalf of, let's say, a lot of us here, but also on behalf of all of our colleagues around the world. Let's deep dive a little bit into the financial results of 2023. And let me start by saying it was a challenging year. So we -- Randstad comes from a peak. Can we move the other slides? Thank you. Randstad comes from a peak year in 2022. So for those who follow us closely, 2022, we still had the peak of a lot of our COVID specific business. A lot of companies were also still hiring and adjusting to supply chain differences, a lot of e-commerce and we saw a lot of winding down of some of that business in 2023, Randstad and the markets where we operate. Just to put it into perspective, a little bit we see, for instance, in the United States, almost for 16 months now in a row, PMI. So the confidence in manufacturing still below 50%, still suggesting that things have been decelerating since 2022. At the same time, for Randstad that is clear what we need to do. So we then focus on adaptability, meaning we try to find growth where there is growth. And in several pockets of our countries, we could still start investing or continue to invest. On the other hand, where we could not see growth coming further, we had to basically adapt and making sure that we prepare for the economic environment that we find ourselves in. As I found -- I read yesterday report, it actually said 2023 was the year that we went from the great resignation. So a lot of job changes, a lot of movements in the economic market to the Big Stay. To basically holding talent and making sure that we weathered what this softening would bring in 2023. We'll talk more about cash flow in a minute, but very important for us, when we decline, there is a strong focus in protecting our cash flow. In terms of key financials, you see there are some key numbers. So revenue 6% down, 6.4%. Just to put it again into perspective, in the history of Randstad since 2008 -- since 2009, 2008, there's only 2 years in which we declined as much as 6% or more than. There was COVID, which obviously was a pandemic-induced adjustment, and it was 2008. So we find ourselves in an environment that was particularly challenging. And we're, in a way, happy with the results we've achieved. So our gross margin, 20.8%. You'll notice it's quite protecting versus where we were last year. We talked about it throughout the year and our quarterly updates to investors. We made an effort, always protecting value with volume. Our net results in an EBITDA number lower than last year, but still of EUR 1.075 billion at 4.2% margin. Looking ahead and where we're today in terms of focus, we're not out of the woods yet. I would say we're still seeing challenging market conditions, though, again, hoping to see -- reading the leaves, reading the tea leaves, hoping to see that towards the end of the year, we see a recovery and be ready for that. And the best way to be ready for that is to now start very clearly protecting our field capacity. Remember, Randstad grows by having a lot of consultants and by being able to actually generate gross profit and revenue from our own consultants. So our focus primarily if we continue to do adjustments is on our indirect costs. It's about focusing the company on capturing growth whenever that growth is available and at reach. But lastly, and I think it's quite important what launched 2023 and will change the company for the years to come, is the protection and keep on delivering all our partner for talent strategy, as Sander just highlighted. If we zoom in a little bit more detail into our numbers, you see here our full or kind of net income P&L or income statement. And you see pretty much some of the numbers I just highlighted coming back. On one hand, a sharp reduction in revenue. So you see that the 6% we just discussed, translated naturally because we protected margin also to a 6% reduction on our gross profit. At the same time, through focus on adaptability, we did protect a lot of that impact or part of that impact as well as possible down to EBITDA. So still delivering down year-on-year, but still delivering EUR 1.075 billion in profits. And then at the same time, if we then reconcile from EBITDA to net income, we see 2 particular line items. One is integration costs and one-off. So when it comes to integrating our M&A or our acquisitions we've made, we've to spend money into it. The other one has to do obviously with the restructure costs we make, again, quite impactful. But from an ongoing perspective, these are one-off costs. We consider this pretty much things we need to do to adjust our cost base and move on. In terms of amortization and impairment, it's just -- I'd argue it's just the IFRS accounting. This is just the recognition of the acquisitions we make and the normal recognition of our P&L, which brings us to a net income of EUR 624 million and an adjusted net income of EUR 814 million, down year-on-year, but still quite significant in 2023. If we look at some highlights from a balance sheet perspective, I said and I talked about it in the beginning. Randstad operates in an industry, and we pride ourselves to be one of the best operators in that context that we generate a lot of cash or we generate cash when things are going up because we're generating more profits. And we put a different head into ourselves and when we're actually decelerating, we try as much as possible to protect and if possible, increase and deliver a good cash flow for the year. So our free cash flow actually in 2023 is EUR 883 million, still up from where we were in 2022. This is down pretty much to the countercyclical movement of our working capital as we start reducing our revenue because, unfortunately, we found ourselves in negative markets. Our clients keep on paying our invoices and we're able to protect and generate cash flow even in negative years. In terms of return on invested capital of 14.6%, down from last year through, again, just a natural reflection of where we're from a profitability perspective, still quite high compared to our weighted average cost of capital. But also important, our net debt. So still after a year of generating cash, we've not done significant number of acquisitions. So we were able to basically bring our net debt down to a level of EUR 306 million, excluding lease liabilities, which represents a leverage ratio of 0.3, which brings me down to the shareholder return proposal and pretty much in line with what I just said. So with a leverage ratio of 0.3, and remember, our capital allocation policy has just been reconfirmed in our Capital Markets Day. We've a dividend policy that is embedded into our capital allocation policy and therefore, the proposal for this year just follows as it standards, the normal capital allocation policy and our dividend policy. The proposal is a regular cash dividend of EUR 2.28 per ordinary share, representing 50% of our adjusted earnings. And again, an additional cash dividend of EUR 1.27 per ordinary share, bringing the total shareholder return for this year in terms of proposal for voting at EUR 632 million. As a point on the slide, dividend on the preference B and C shares that follow a different pattern at EUR 8.2 million in total of return. And this concludes the overview of 2023.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Sander and Jorge. After this detailed introduction, we now deal with agenda item 2a, which is the report of the Executive Board and the report of the Supervisory Board for the financial year 2023. This report concerns Pages 7 through 215 of the annual report. Who would like to take the floor? So we're going to combine questions per agenda item. I propose to have a maximum of 3 questions per individual. Please indicate your name and possibly the organization you represent. Mr. Stevense, microphone is coming.

[Interpreted] Thank you. I'll sit down because with trembling fingers, otherwise, I would manage. My name is Stevense from the Foundation for Legal Protection of Investors. We would like to complement you with the results. And then in studying the annual report, we found the point of growth. You grew by means of acquisitions. You still have lots of minor competitors and it's easy to start a temp agency at the moment. And organic growth seems to be difficult in our assessment, given also the very low level of unemployment. So we would like to have your comments on that. Having said this, we'd like to turn to the next item, and that is labor migration. Mr. [indiscernible] already said something about this. The whole of Western Europe sees a growing resistance against migration. And on the 7th of June, you'll see this as well, I expect. Now that obviously, you're in contact with politicians, concerning the fact that something needs to happen at the borders and about the fact that at the same time, we simply need migrants. And I'm not sure to which extent you actually discuss these matters with politicians. But we think there needs to be a better triage, a better selection at the external borders of the European Union. And then we found something else in between all the other matters in the report. And this is about checks for people working in households. How is this working? And what is the return on this? And then something about the share price. We noticed that since 2018, nothing has been done. During preparation, one tends to reflect on how that's possible. And that brought me to the reference to Mr. Goldschmeding, who always said that Randstad is perfectly able to direct or indicate the development of the economics, so better than the central statistics agency. Now that may be a bit too easy, but still -- I also said it economics, general economics to start, and then I had to select between corporate economics or general economics. And if you use the formulas of the central statistics agency or the planning agencies and this is something I remember from the classes I attended.

I think I already wrote down 4 questions, Mr. Stevense.

I know.

Now, I'm looking at Sander as well. We've had the questions about M&A as opposed to organic growth. We've had questions about migration. We've had the question about the check, and I was always taught that there tends to be very little comment on share prices, but let's see what the answers are.

Thank you, Mr. Stevense. First of all, happy to see you in good health as it seems. Happy to have you with us. Thank you, obviously, for the compliment. Very happy to receive them. Now as concerns growth. First of all, we always prefer organic growth. And when in the future, the market will recover, we think that together with our specialized strategy, we'll come to something we discussed at the Capital Markets Day. We think we'll come to a point where we grow along with the gross national product, but actually we want to exceed the growth of the gross national domestic product of our markets. We call it GDPplus, that's our clear focus, and this exactly is why we've launched these specializations. For instance, in Randstad Digital, we expect higher growth that's also in Randstad Enterprise because these are markets that for a variety of reasons such as the ongoing digitization will generate faster growth than the GDP. Randstad Enterprise covers a market -- that we're entering a market that's mainly about outsourcing. Lots of clients prefer to -- or have not yet outsourced part of their recruitment or HR, same for Randstad Professional. Randstad Operational obviously is the business par excellence that follows the 6 cycles of the economy. So we're optimistic about outgrowing the GDP at the same time or rather and -- at the same time, we want to add acquisitions to this. And this is why it's so good to have these 4 specializations because every specialization allows us to see what acquisitions can be added to the Randstad portfolio. Last year, we had an acquisition in Spain. This was about outsourcing within Randstad Operational because outsourcing services in operational is becoming more and more of a trend. And in this way, we're responding to this. So certainly, you can expect more acquisitions from us in the near future, but they'll be focusing on the 4 specializations. This is the course that we're selecting.

An interrupting question.

Well, that's number five, Mr. Stevense, so we'll take it.

Well, you also have Randstad Co and Tempo-Team Co for short-term, temporary employment. Where are they to be found? Are they part of digital?

No, mainly runs at operational. This covers, for instance, waiters for one day in restaurants or staff serving a 1-day event, shifts in distribution centers. If you've a peak at the Christmas holidays, for instance, that covers this kind of very, very short-term employment. Now a few words about labor migration. Let me start by saying that we're not politicians. In other words, we stay away from politics. I think it would be wise for the Netherlands and for countries in general to be a bit more clearly aware of the development of the earning capacities within their countries because this is where it all starts. If you've industries that have high earning capacity and high growth capacity, then that's a better place to be for country than not having these industries and industries are connected to the required skills. If you've high added-value industries, usually, you've a demand for skills, technological skills, financial skills, marketing skills, sales skills. You need skills that require more education than at the other end of the spectrum. And that means that in the end of the day, for every country, it's important to make a selection of the industries and the skills that will be promoted. And the next question is how the labor population, the working population will respond? And an interesting feature is that we work longer and longer. And that therefore, we shouldn't forget the elderly on the labor market. And it's important to make sure that the working population and their skills are attuned or aligned with the industries. And this is about more than training IT experts. This is about skilled people, for instance, in factories, skilled people working in distribution centers, skilled people working in horticulture. So these skills must be on par. Also, there are some jobs that could be executed outside of the Netherlands, some jobs that can be done remotely. And you can also envisage some industries that could find a future outside of the Netherlands or partially outside of Netherlands. So more skilled labor, less unscoped labor should be the philosophy of the future and migration policies could be adapted to that. But I think that's something we'd rather leave to the politicians. Then the checks. I look at my colleague, Chris because this is mainly a Belgium phenomenon, if I.....

Extremely Belgium, I'd say. And it's something that started a long time ago. Governments subsidize some cleaning works at home. And we do selection, recruitment, pay rolling, everything. So this is targeting a very specialized target group, and it's a great business model. And it works perfectly well.

And then one remark was about the share price, what about return on investment? The share price is one way to verify return on investment, but you as a faithful shareholder, will not have feel to know that we've paid out a very generous dividends in the past, and that's something you should take on board. And that's the only thing I'd like to say about this.

Who would like to take the floor now?

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is [ Kina ]. I speak on behalf of the VEB. I've many more questions. But with your permission, Mr. Chairman, I'll take 2 rounds. My first question concerns market share. And this is something we see on Page 116. Accounting back, we see that you've lost market share in most markets. You've gone down faster than most of the markets, if I understand correctly. And then a valid question is whether this is concerning whether you've consciously selected market over volume? The answer probably is yes. And then my question is this, wouldn't have been attractive at some markets to use the residual misery to squeeze weak competitors out of the market. Randstad is a very strong company with a very solid balance sheet. So you can take a blow. That's my first question. Second question about margins. Typically speaking, when there's a revenue drop, this affects the margins. The margins start to go down even faster. Somehow in some markets, you managed to maintain the EBITDA margins and actually to increase them, my compliments, first of all, then a concrete question. Is this mainly related to pure cost reductions? Or have you given up on customers? Did you say no to customers that wanted too sharp rates and you left them to the competitors? This is obviously related to my previous questions. That's 2. And then 2b. There's one region, which is Asia Pacific, where we do see a revenue growth, but there, the margins went down. Did you buy revenues? That's a very obvious question. And a final question in this round, this is the same question I raised last year on the same topic. So all of this is related. You've the long-term target for EBITDA margin, which is 5% to 6%. And this is minimum that was not achieved year-on-year. And this is not criticism because you basically follow the development of the economy, is it a realistic target, though? And how can you make us believe that you're going to achieve this target? So these are my points. 5 questions maybe, but -- still they were related. So I think we can have some guidance here, Sander.

Yes. I'm going to cover question 1 and I'll ask Jorge to cover 2a, 2b and 3. So in general terms, I would advise you to look at the videos of the Capital Markets Day. It has a 4-hour presentation with the whole story, but we're going to give you the gist of that. As for the market share, it's always a balancing act between volume and price and value. We conducted such a balancing act in the course of the past 4 quarters, 2023, in other words. And we believe that when markets are under pressure, it's better for the company, but also for shareholders to protect profitability as much as possible. Can you avoid excessive loss of revenues? Probably not. And where exactly this has occurred is something that's hard to identify. But we consciously decided to protect profitability. Why? Obviously, for the sake of profitability, but also because we know the experience that markets always recover differently from their previous state. So if you maintain capacity there where the market was concentrated in the past that will not necessarily be the capacity will need once the market recovers. This adaptability, this capacity to adapt to recovery is really important for Randstad. Then about weak competitors and market share. In the service industries, which is our industry, buying market share tends to be an unwise discussion or decision always because customers year-on-year, month-on-month or even day-on-day can decide whom to work with. So if I give you a low price once, a few things may happen. You may remain my customer once I increase my prices, but you can also say, okay, price is going up with Randstad. Let me look at the neighbor, maybe they'll give me a better price. So you always need to be differentiated. You must supply your services at a reasonable price, meaning the profitability of Randstad is in order as well. And therefore, buying market share in our industry tends to be a bad strategy always. And that's basically what I would like to restrict myself to Jorge, about margins.

I'll take the margin. Well, first of all, I think indeed, it's a choice. So when we look at our markets, and we look at the size, Randstad has and what we're making in terms of efforts to differentiate, we do need to make choices or we can afford to make choice in terms of value and volume. That's typically how we talk about it also for the sustainability of what we do. But I also highlight one thing Randstad has become progressively more informed over the years. So when you look at pricing, and that's why I emphasize so much our margin. When you look at pricing, we actually, in such a big decline, keeping our margins and making sure that we actually keep the discipline in pricing is in itself an achievement. And that is primarily done as well through a lot of data that we collect, to a lot of discipline in using information. We've about talent scarcity. We're in a more talent scarce world than we've ever been. And being able to put that at the power of our teams and make sure they can make the choices. Remember, Randstad is still a very entrepreneurial company with all its units. They can make the right choices for the benefit of the company. If you look at Asia Pacific, I'll argue, yes, the margins are down, but they're down 10 to 20 basis points. So it's not, let's say, a significant number, especially in one area that we've a big ambition to keep on increasing the footprint of Randstad and our market share. If you look at our market shares, there's a few markets where we can actually large. But there's still a few where we can aspire to gain a lot of presence and bring Randstad to more clients and to more talent. That's one example is Asia Pacific, namely Japan, is the second largest market in the world. Randstad is still not yet as large as it should be. So we're there making trade-offs indeed from a capturing, but also investment in our team. So it's one of the areas that we also import -- at times chose to invest and that's what you see in the results. But overall, we're quite happy with this balance between mix and volume. And then it brings us to the important question, which is our long-term target of 5% to 6%. And indeed, Sander made a comment about Capital Markets Day because we also made an effort there to disclose a bit more by why do we believe it is at reach. And why do we believe we're doing exactly because of our partner for talent strategy. We're actually setting ourselves up to reach it. And we use one example and very open, we used 2022 as an example. In 2022, with the scale we had, we could actually be at 5%, although we chosen to start cutting down a lot of the investments we're making to roll out a lot of the things we're doing. The choice was no, as management, we do need to protect short-term, but also ultimately, medium and long term, and that was basically the result of 2022. As we now look at our strategy, you see a specialization strategy that has ambition for growth in each one of these specializations. It's not a generalist player. It's a company that wants to win in professional, in operational, in digital, in enterprise. You heard Sander talking about what we're doing with those 5 steps. That brings us more productivity, but it also brings a lot of more differentiation in the market. So we can aspire to grow more, and we can aspire to increase our productivity. And if we add those 2 together, and if we think at scale, so if we go back to the normal economic cycle that we know and Randstad can navigate, it is at reach to get to 5%, and it is at reach to be able to continue to improve the company to 5% to 6%. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Who would like to take the floor now?

[Interpreted] I'm [ Heinrich Mundt ]. I represent the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development. We comprise 80 institutional investors and 500 private investors, such as ASN, Black Hawk and other parties. And we've several questions, but we'll make do with 3 in this round. The first concerns the living wage concept on Page 34. In your annual report, you write that you tried to provide for a living wage for all talents you work with. And then you do not define or operationalize at all. So our question is based on the universally accepted definition as provided in the UN Global context, which you've subscribed to as well that reads that "living wage provides for the basic needs of employees and their families." We know that there is no universally accepted definition. Nonetheless, we would like to ask whether next year you could consider that. And let me take a look at my cheat sheet. Could you define and operationalize that? That's my first question. It concerns living loan and including that in your human rights policy. The second question is about meaningful jobs. Last year, Mr. van 't Noordende mentioned the importance of the opportunities available in the energy transition and greener economy. And as the main provider of labor, you've a huge impact on that. Do you intend to identify KPI or a target for next year relating to the important industries, where you've an impact and perhaps the important or less important industries in terms of attribution meaning and significance in the sense of excluding then -- that's what I had to ask about meaningful jobs. And following on the first person who asked question, there is a lot of interest in labor migration. It's often covered in the media. We see a lot of articles as well as a recent feature on the Dutch News program. We understand that you're not in politics, but what's your long-term vision on this topic in Europe and in the Netherlands? And what's your role? We understand that you're not a political party, but what do you see as most important in providing labor?

You also submitted questions in writing based on the opportunity providers. Some of them have already been answered and were posted on the website. So that's in keeping with the questions. Now Sander, would you please take those 3 questions.

Well, the first question, as you read in the annual report, we're already addressing a living wage, and you're asking that we devote more consideration to that and report on that in next year's annual report. And we'll certainly take that suggestion on board.

But is that single sentence that we're asking for, you don't need to. You haven't addressed it in any more detail than a single sentence.

Well, we already have a 350-page annual report, if I'm correct. So there are limits to how much we can cover. What is important to consider is obviously that we need to work with our clients as to what they pay the staff that works there via our clients. So it's always an interplay. We're not entirely in control of wages because sometimes clients will say, "this is what we're willing to pay for this type of worker, and we check whether it's a competitive wage." So we do discuss that with the client, but that's the -- that's where we interact and the field of tension where we operate. As for meaningful jobs, yes, in our growth strategy, we certainly said that there's some industries that we want to address in more detail than others. So in Randstad Operational, we consider skilled trade. Those are all the skilled trades. Those can be people who install solar energy panels or operators and wind energy parks and so on and so forth. So we certainly have a few spearheads. They were not selected based on sustainability, but are based on growth prospect, of course. What -- where I don't agree with you is to say that some industries are more meaningful than others. And I'll be happy to cover that. At Tata Steel, there were very meaningful jobs, and I'm sure you watch that documentary. I saw only part of it. But some of the people in Tata Steel that speaks from recent years says "we enjoy working here, and it's very important for us because that's how we earn a living, and this enables us to take care of our families and communities." So there is no single industry where all jobs are meaningful and no others are meaningful. So I'm sure that you can keep that in the back of your mind in all discussions on this topic. As for labor migration, I believe that I just told Mr. Stevense about that. To sum up, each country has to determine where they want to excel and where they do not aim to excel. How do we earn the best we can in the Netherlands, what skills do we need? Let's ensure that the people here get those skills and wherever necessary, we can bring people from abroad to complement those skills. That's our long-term vision. As for Randstad's role to wrap up, it's our job to get as much of the best talent possible to our clients. That's our role.

Thank you, Sander. Please pass the microphone to your neighbor.

I'm Robert Vreeken of We Connect You. Last year, I congratulated Sander van 't Noordende on his excellent results. And he said that "thanks to my predecessor, pay attention to 2024." Well, I paid attention. It's a magnificent company, and I assume that next year, you'll out class your predecessor. I think that's a wonderful challenge and you're up to it because you're dealing with social shareholders. We had the old conservative guard that we're not concerned about the climate and asylum seekers are to blame for everything, but the new generation cares about climate. And when I look at the analysis, I'm concerned because at ING and ABN AMRO and other companies have solar panels. But on GoogLeNet, I didn't see any solar panels on your offices, and it's important to continue power supply. So you need solar panels and excellent batteries because the company has to continue operating and remain fully energized. I believe that's a nice challenge for next year. And I'm curious to hear your view on that. And of course, we're talking about sodium batteries. That's the new generation of batteries, they're sustainable and far more reasonably priced and are not produced through child labor. I'm sure that the VBDO will appreciate that as well. Next, the conservative, Mr. [ Stevense ] doesn't want asylum seekers here.

Let me intervene for a moment because it's inappropriate for you to express value judgments. It's not appropriate for you to judge each other. Please focus on your own points.

I'll do that. For cooling, you've forest to cool. You've got a forest around the corner from [indiscernible], has used something from there as well. It would be nice for Randstad to have a forest in the Netherlands and outside. Humberto Tan has the Jaguar Foundation, which is intended to plant 2 billion trees in the Amazon. Perhaps, Randstad can join that effort. The third question is what about healthy staff. There is an epidemic of obesity. 50% of people sits at least 9 hours a day and does not get any exercise. And we've got somebody working on Heineken Zero Alcohol and vegetarian food. Now you have began finest food and it almost tastes like meat. And the zoo now offers vegetarian cuisine and it would be nice if the Randstad cafeteria serve more vegetarian cuisine as well. Those -- so 1, solar panels and batteries is item 1, item 2 is forests because hopefully, they'll stay there. And then item 3 is healthy staff and healthy camps. Okay. Thank you for your excellent questions. I propose brief answers. Let me start, Mr. Frake, there's not competition between me and my predecessor. Of course, my predecessor did an excellent job. And given the circumstances, I expect you'll be pleased with our results this year as well. Regarding our climate and CO2 objectives, clearly we fall short of the process of our objectives with respect to 2019, we emit less carbon dioxide. So that we were able to achieve the fastest results in electric cars. So over 80% of our fleet is now electric. So we're doing better than our objective because we're below the stated CO2 emission. And once we've covered that, we'll have to look for the next step and solar panels or planting trees might be excellent, but we'll consider that carefully to ensure that we achieve the best CO2 reduction return on our investment as for healthy staff. I'm pleased to inform you that in our engagement surveys. So the engagement and commitment of our staff, we see a clear focus on health and well-being. And we score 8 there. And I believe that, that relates especially to the fact that in our cafeterias all over the world, we offer many healthy options, and we encourage them to work flexibly, whether from home or on the road or while walking. So we certainly focus on that. Thank you for your explanation.

As you said, for everyone, including our teams and our employees. Randstad does have [indiscernible] commitment to reduce its net zero and carbon footprint by 50% in 2030 like Sander just said, just to put some numbers into it, we are already better, and the 50% is compared to 2019. We are ahead of what we would expect is to be 3 years into the program. We do buy our energy from only proofs of guarantee of origin. So we do make a conscious choice to make sure that we buy the energy from where we should buy it, that's all reflected in the report, but also important because you mentioned planting trees. We do have -- the statistics are, but if I'm not wrong, something between 250 and 300 initiatives throughout the world to also contribute and allow employees to contribute to a choice and whatever -- something that they believe in, it's important from a sustainability perspective. And I would say more than half of that actually was particularly focused on environment, where a lot of us here have been planting trees also in the Netherlands, but in France, in Belgium, throughout the world. So it is something that is important for us, something that we made a special effort to report with a lot of detail externally and something we're actually proud in our progress in our net zero ambition. So -- and just I speak on my hope and literally speak on behalf of all of those in Randstad and have been putting that and pushing their agenda.

Thank you, Jorge, for this addition. Okay. On the next row, we have another question.

[indiscernible]. I represent as an expert, the Work Council of Randstad France, Southeast. Maybe you have seen that 12 members of the Work Council are standing outside the meeting hall waiting for clear answers by the management and maybe you took a look to the 4 pages document they are distributing outside. So I will have 3 questions. First question, they are here because they are concerned by the situation in France, which is not good for Randstad. The company has nearly lost 1 point of market share in 2023. It lost its 2 biggest clients and did only 87% of the yearly budget. At the end of the year, the Work Council has decided to launch an economic alert. So they delegate -- they feel that the situation locally is under control by management who seems to consider it is the result of strategic choices. What is your analysis on this market, which represents 15% of the total turnover of Randstad worldwide. Second question. Last year, the Work Council has won a court an issue against Randstad on the way Randstad was dealing with prevention. The members intend to act on the subject at -- as whistleblowers, because the accident rate is -- at work is worrying with a huge social and economic cost for the company and the Work Council urges management to take extra and powerful measures, but the decisions are not coming. Is it possible to wait longer when we know that 4 Randstad employees died at work in France last year. What are your advice regarding the decision process when the decision is to be made between business and risk. And my third question, in 3 years, 90% of the net income accumulated have been distributed as dividends to shareholders. The level of dividends increased by 25% in 2023, which is also the level of turnover. When asked why they leave? People answer, it is a salary problem. For many years, Randstad has stopped investing in people, which is strange coming from an HR company claiming to level its market and to lead its market. How could you better share the value between shareholders to become the most equitable talent company in the world.

Thank you for your 3 questions. And some of us, both Supervisory and Executive Board members have already spoken with your colleagues this morning, thank you for your clear questions, Sander.

Yes. Thank you for your question about the French market. You're right that the French market is extremely important for Randstad. It's our second largest market globally. And as on all our markets in France, we had to weigh volume against profitability of Randstad. And we undoubtedly lost some customers in the process, but we did notice that, that was the best solution to safeguard Randstad's profitability balanced with the volume that we still have and we're very satisfied with the achievements of Randstad in France. Regarding health and safety and prevention last week, I reviewed the different indicators with the team. And let me see whether I have them at the ready. All indicators are heading in the right direction. I'm talking about frequency, severity of accidents is declining. And so we're clearly on track toward improving in France, and we're satisfied about the progress. And I'd like to note that the indicators are at the best level ever in France in the past 8 years that 4 people died at the workplace does not ring a bell. I'm not aware of that. According to my information, 1 did die. So perhaps we should follow up on that information. It's important to clear that up between us. So we're on track with health and safety. Recently, we performed an audit in France and the outcome was twofold. All policies and procedures are present and compliance is generally good, but could indeed bear improvement. So we'll be happy to work on that together with you and other coworkers in France. I believe that Jorge is best positioned to describe the dividend.

Just to clarify, though, I don't think the question behind the question is not the dividend. But in terms of dividends, we actually have been pretty much paying the same average dividend in terms of percentage of our earnings since over the last 5 years. And it's not net income, it's adjusted net income. So it is a lower percentage than what you're suggesting. But it comes ultimately about the dividend or the profit we generate and distribution of that profit. And in that respect, it is managing expectation from shareholders and the industry but also being an employer and being able to have an attractive employer and HR policies because we cannot be in the market, we cannot operate if we don't have our teams working every day and striking that balance. And we believe in general, if we look from a dividend perspective point, it's more connected to our cash flow and what we generate than necessarily the net income that you meant. In terms of employment, I think we should look at all the employee proposition of Randstad and otherwise, Randstad will not be able to operate in its markets. It is always a fine balance and when you sometimes make 1 decision, you're not protecting the other, but it's trying to basically make sure that we maximize that balance always year in, year out. Without our people, with our people engagement, with our commitment of our employees, we will not be able to operate as Randstad.

Excuse me, I'd like to add 1 more point in recent years to your analysis. So from 2021 through 2023, the dividend for 2020 was waived, it was 0. And we did that under the ages of Wout and my predecessor, Jacques, because at that point, we were under severe pressure because of COVID. So we decided not to distribute a dividend to protect the firm's continuity in retrospect, because we rebounded pretty rapidly at the end of 2020 and 2021 that was not entirely necessary. So basically, there was a cash surplus from 2020, which we distributed in subsequent years. So -- if you extrapolate your analysis over 4 years, although your analysis is correct, it would lead you to a different conclusion than the one that you have currently reached. Thank you.

I speak very well English. I have been working for Randstad in France for 20 years as a temporary worker. Enough is enough. Randstad is nodding without its worker. The boss is the one who needs the order. Randstad can turn its worker into instrument serving the promotion of its capital anymore. Is Randstad going to continue to fulfill its stockholder of dividend, 92% of the net [indiscernible] to its worker. Enough is enough. There are too many of our French temporary workers, who are victim of accident at work. [indiscernible] Randstad France for shortcoming of its production of its temporary worker. How is Randstad going to answer it's obligation regarding professional risk of its temporary worker. Thank you.

Thank you. We do recognize part of that topic, thanks to the previous party who asked a question. Sander, do you have anything to add?

No, I'd like to sum up that we just provided the answer regarding the dividend. And as for safety, we have all the process and procedures we need. Compliance is excellent compared with our competitors included. Can we do any more to improve that? Yes, and we are doing more to improve that Yes. Please pass on the microphone.

I'm Mr. Decker from [indiscernible]. I have only 1 question but it's fairly extensive and perhaps the answer won't be until any other business. I'm also going to start with France, but for an entirely different reason. You have an extended track record there. So you know a lot about France, which is important considering the specific cultural circumstances in France, there's a company that I'm sure you know as well, Atos and Atos is going through very tough times, but seriously concerned -- there's serious concern about the course of events there. And my question is, of course, Atos operates from France, but also operates in some other countries and given their pursuit of solutions, are there any opportunities for Randstad? Or are you saying, we don't have anything to do with that. It's not our line of business or are you going to wait and see what happens to see whether anything remains that you can benefit from? I hope you understand my question.

Yes, I note that this meeting is very interested in France. I'm delighted that we have 2 French ladies on our Supervisory Board. Whether it makes sense to discuss others on the market, I'll leave that up to you, Sander.

Well, I've also read about the challenging circumstances that Atos faces. I'd like to point out that Atos is an entirely different line of business than Randstad. Their problems derived from their infrastructure contracts, which as we saw the with -- in the newspaper relating to several large ministries, they relate to computing power in the cloud. And that's not an area where Randstad is active, and we don't intend to become active there. So I believe that will help Atos where we can with our talents because, of course, they're one of our clients, but we'll leave it at that. Who would like to floor now? Your neighbor?

Good morning. I'm Mr. Spanier on this agenda, I don't see any opportunity to ask the auditor questions whether some miscommunication. Where will it be added? That's agenda Item 2D and our auditor is aware and is prepared. And can we ask him questions about anything or will you try out the questions?

You can ask specific questions.

That's wonderful. I have another question for the current agenda item on Page -- let me see, everything is falling apart here. Well, there are so many pages in that annual report. And I hope that you won't make it any longer. We're doing our best to shorten it next year. Now on Page 162, I see the difference between 2022 and 2023. And if we look at North America, in 2022, it was 7,100; in 2023, it was 6,470 and rapid calculation says that there are several units in between. Were those -- with that seasonal work or something like that without cyclical because in Iberia, you did do shopping last year. And that shopping didn't have a huge impact because that went from 2,610 to 2,520. Are those also seasonal workers? How should I see that?

Well, Mr. Spanier, it's all very simple. It's not really such good news because this derives from the challenging market in 2023. And when the market is challenging, we don't need as many people to serve our clients because we always have to make sure that we have provided the right number of people to meet market demand. So what we usually do in those cases is that some people have temporary contracts with us and we don't extend their temporary contractors. Some people leave Randstad as they would leave any company and then we don't replace them. So that's why you saw a decline on average in the number of staff at Randstad, equaling about 10%. Who else would like the floor? Now on to the second round. Okay. Here we go.

Once again, I'm Mr. Kane on behalf of the VEB. I have 2 more items. First, I'm not a cynic just for the record, but this question may sound cynical, but that's not the real me. How we create value accounts for a considerable share from 41 -- from Page 41 to Page 96 of your annual report. But when I'm overwhelmed by the management speak in fine words, and then I start becoming somewhat suspicious and everything you read in management books about being good for each other and all stakeholders. I'm a firm believer in that. But when there's nothing but news, I start feeling suspicious. So that's why I'd like to follow up on the statements by the 2 people from France, from the union. I spoke with one of them earlier. We don't know each other yet, but that was disconcerting because it relates to human lives and the extent to which people you outsource to clients to do their work safely, and we hope to make money and get more dividend. I'm a strong supporter of that. They may not be, but I am, but we need to do it the right way. And my question is, in what measure can we rely on all those fine words for the 50 or 60 pages, if it were to turn out, not the conditional that in France reality might be a bit more qualified or a bit more negative than those final words appear to suggest. So that's why, my specific question is based on a conversation I had this morning with 1 of the 2 people from France. I was trying to ascertain in what measure this holds true for all clients, of course, you're not in charge of all the clients. Do you perhaps send people to places that are unsafe to work? And in the first place, the client is responsible, but you share some responsibility there. And the analysis that I inferred was these are largely 1 man or 5 men operations with 3 to 5 people working there and the risk may be higher because they're not working as professionally. In what measure do you take this on board and deciding whether or not do business in that part of France. And if you conclude that in-depth analysis reveals higher risks than expected for us as well, such as penalties or perhaps your band from working there if you're punished by the court or fined. So, is this -- perhaps more beneath the surface than those fine words that make me suspicious? And my second question is unfortunate. I'm asking it only because I'd like to understand more about how you're going to earn money in the future for us included. At the VEB where I work often, we seek excellent legal economic talents. And quite honestly, Randstad, one of your other brands would not be -- would not top my list if I'm looking for that type of talent. One is seated next to me, Tom. And I didn't check it on such or another brand to see whether you have the right person. So that may be the wrong decision. What's more important, I can imagine that a great many other companies have the same idea that they look at Michael Page or a real head hunter rather than Randstad or one of your other brands. The same holds true to give you another example, and that the last -- I have 2 daughters. One is thriving, the other is still in college, but the daughter who is thriving may look for a different employer at some point. I don't expect her to go talk with Randstad about other career opportunities of the companies and the like or method for Randstad to support my career development. Could Randstad and its brands perhaps excel most in traditional blue collar or lower paid white-collar jobs and that the true specialist senior management talent are still almost a [indiscernible] for you. And perhaps that's where the opportunities are. What you're going to do to take that step. Those are my 2 rather unfortunate questions.

Let me start by answering the second question, and then I'll invite Jorge to say a bit more about the first question in general terms. First of all, let me express my gladness about your second question because this is exactly why the specialization strategy is being implemented. I disagree with you that if one looks for good talent or a good job for Randstad, one shouldn't turn to Randstad. It is true that we have very good business operations in Randstad Professional which more than 50% of business runs on digital also represents 50% of business in the past, we may have insufficiently expressed this to the outer world as saying that we have experts that will be happy to serve you. So certainly, we see opportunities there. This is exactly why we have positioned the brands in this way. We think it's important to keep it under the name of Randstad. People know this. If you go somewhere and you say, "I'm with Randstad, they'll say, welcome, come in, we'll get the meeting." But then we need to have the experts sitting at the table representing either Randstad Professional or Randstad Digital. So if your daughter is looking for a career and either she can send me an e-mail, and I'll make sure she meets the right people.

Can I respond directly? I'm not surprised at all by reply. My assumption is not that you're unable to do this. My assumption is different. My daughter may be so naive that she doesn't know she should go to Randstad and she may also hear from others that if you really have talent, you shouldn't go to Randstad or a temporary partners. How do you know that if you're a talent or a top talent that you actually should go to Randstad publicity.

Well, first of all, I assume that your daughter is not naive adult like most women from your daughter's age, they perfectly know what they're doing, and they perfectly know what they want from their career. But you're right. We need to work on this very hard. And later this year, we will launch a campaign to put the 4 specializations on the map and to lift the tip of the well here, behind everything you see here, for instance, if you fly from Amsterdam to Barcelona, if you travel from Amsterdam to Barcelona by car, whatever way, you will meet all our specializations. You'll find people at the airport who will be loading your suitcase. You will see people working with [indiscernible], you'll have pilots on board. There will be people who digitally create the possibility for you to check in online. And so on and so forth. In other words, behind everything you do in life, essentially, you will see these [indiscernible] we find in Randstad, and this is what we want to highlight. Now Jorge.

Apart from the jokes on the number of pages, there is 1 page on Page 134, that talks about our control framework. And that control framework starts because we are a people company, and that's just not nice words. We are a people company. It starts with a tone at the top. Our culture, our values is our colleagues talking about our Randstad. That is the tone -- that is the first point. The second point, we have a lot of policies that come from it and they have to be implemented and they are audited and they are monitored. And we have processes to assess if everything is in balance. So the first point will be obviously, something does not feel right. And we need to check if everything is in balance. And we more than -- just because we have to do it as a people company, we will do it. And that's the control framework described in this stage. But I want to remember everyone on 1 thing. We -- again, because of the long page, we also publish what our key material risks or key material opportunities are and how we, as a company come to them, and that's basically a common exercise with our employees about determining a double impact materiality matrix. And we are also approaching a standard Randstad is implementing Corporate Social Responsibility Directive meaning from a shareholder perspective and reporting perspective, we are working and we are identifying those risks that we find are relevant for all our stakeholders, and we are reporting them going forward. I'll just read 1 or 2 and they are in detail, just to understand that it is something that is dear to Randstad. It was already -- we've done this exercise in 2020 and continues to be dear to us. So some of the risks that we have identified before, climate change, we talked about it here today. Diversity, let's take if need to be. Occupational health and safety, both for our talent and our corporate employees, working conditions, talent and corporate employees, training, both for our talent and corporate employees. So we are busy in creating our policies. We are busy in implementing corporate social responsibility. And Randstad being Randstad, we will be here next year talking about what it's doing in each one of these key risks. So I'm quite confident in what Randstad is doing.

Thank you, George. Still, I would like to make 1 addition here. And I would like to thank you for all the questions so far. The world is in need of a number of major transitions and these are necessary transitions. At the same time, you need to move from point A to point B without too much damage and let me give you 1 example. We are talking about talent here. We're talking about mismatches on the labor market. We're talking about the competencies you need now and you will need in the future. But we're also talking about day-to-day life. And this is why I'm so happy with the reality check we have here. People tell us, you promise a lot. This is about a balance, about ambitions, but also about the difficulty, the nitty gritty difficulties of real life. Sander is talking about jobs you are referring to your own environment, top talent. Let me now ask about our migration, the agriculture, healthy agriculture [indiscernible] without migrants certainly in California, but you have seen the same in the U.K. during COVID the fruits and vegetable will be rotting on the land. This is also part of the labor problems that we face with 9 billion people on this earth, how we go from point A to point B. This is a major challenge facing Randstad, something we try to contribute to at every single level, but then reality very often tends to be more complicated. We are still searching our way forward, there are tools. And I'm sure that you have also seen the tools so you can scan annual reports or optimism, pessimism and promises. The last and as I show is somewhere in the midrange. But certainly, we take note of your points. Who would like to take the floor now. VBDO, please.

I still have 1 question to Mr. [indiscernible]. And in reply to what he said about meaningful jobs. Indeed, the world faces some major difficulties. And I think it's great to see what you do in terms of CO2, et cetera. But that obviously is not the core impact Randstad has, Randstad has an impact through the people they employ and appoint. Now you face major difficulties, and I agree with you that it's really important for people to go to the steel factory very happily because they make something useful. But let me formulate it a bit more sharply we have problems, for instance, with the protein transition. We have other major problems. You could employ people there or in the tobacco industry, tobacco industry, we all agree about that it's not good for people now, if would phrase in this word. The question is whether Randstad would be inclined to formulate some targets? And if so, what would you define as meaningful jobs, I would like to invite you to think about this to formulate targets. In terms of your contribution to transition A, B or C, meaning that you'll have fewer people available for those industry that have less added value. We read a lot about moral ambitions about bulls*** jobs. Can we expect you to move along, and I see you're responding here. I see your -- can we expect you to formulate targets on the major problems of the world. I would like to invite you to respond to this.

Thank you for that suggestion. We are absolutely willing to think about this. Once again, let me inform you about the dilemmas we run into in the process, it's not always that crystal clear what is good and what is not. For us, the most important thing is something that was mentioned several times. We need good customers. We need our people to work safely, we need people to get properly paid, et cetera, et cetera. That is concern #1,#2 and #3 then we are very happy to reflect on ways of making further steps forward. And we will start working on this. Thank you. I'm looking around the room. Any other questions -- if not. Last question.

I would like to know what is your analysis and what do you -- what analysis do you make of the development of artificial intelligence for your industry? What are the consequences of -- and what are the consequences you foresee for jobs and competencies. And the Adecco Group seems to be well ahead of Randstad on that subject because last October, we have seen that Adecco signed an agreement with Microsoft on professional use of generative AI. So what is the Randstad strategy on this issue, please?

Yes, about, It can't be that we have an AGM without AI. So thank you for your question. First of all, I would like to say that I'm optimistic when talking about AI. Why? First of all, I, myself, graduated in AI in 1987. So I became modern once again. But this aside, artificial intelligence is a great addition to technology, technology that will make this world -- societies more productive. We've mentioned aging populations many times, meaning fewer people are available to do more work for more people and that means that all of us become more productive. That's something that we and society should embrace, making sure we do this in a responsible way. The EU has now implemented the AI act that obviously, we will abide by, but I think it's fitting for us as Randstad when talking about AI and the application of AI to be as careful as possible to apply due care. That's my starting point. When talking about what Randstad does in terms of AI, I can tell you that we already use AI for many of our jobs talking about very simple, apparently simple, but actually quite complicated methods such as planning job interviews, talking about the translation of CVs into formats that are appealing to our clients thinking about matching demand proposition thinking about finding talent in our databases for certain profiles. It's also about writing job descriptions et cetera, et cetera. So in other words, we have lots of applications of AI in our industry already. A few things I would like to say about this for Randstad as a leading player in the market, it's very important not only to do this incidentally, but to do it in such a way -- in which all our talent, all our employee -- our employees and all our clients can benefit. So this is about upscaling. That's important. And another point I would like to highlight is the fact that we, as leading players also have the means to invest in the application of AI, we are working on this, and we will keep working on this. Thank you. I then propose to -- accelerate to DB, the most important elements of the government corporate structure and compliance with the corporate governance code in 2023. This topic has been explained or commented upon in Pages 176 through 183 of the annual report. Do we have any questions about to be -- if not, I now turn to Item 2C, which is the remuneration report for the financial year 2023. You will find this on Page 199 through 215. I'm happy to give the floor to the Chair of the Remuneration Committee, Annet Aris to give a brief comment.

Elaborate on the activities of the Supervisory Boards Renumeration Committee over the past year. As already mentioned, 2023 was a challenging year, due to difficult economic and market circumstances. At the same time, significant strategic progress was made in defining and building Randstad's position as the world's most agritable and specialized tenant company, introducing the partner for talent strategy and making steps to becoming more specialized such as with the launch of Randstad Digital. Also, Randstad's foundation has been strengthened by, amongst others, taking a step-up in the delivery and enhancing the talent platform by upgrading core IT capabilities and scaling the digital engagement with clients and talent. The financial incentives for 2023 were set to reward market position and profitability whilst at the same time, taking into account the interest of all stakeholders, clients, talents, employees and society. Looking back at the 2023 remuneration the short-term goals were partially achieved 52% out of a maximum of 100% of base salary. The target on market position was not achieved after 2 years of clear outperformance. The targets on profitability and DSO were resulting in an achievement or 31% of base salary for the financial goals out of a maximum of 75%. The nonfinancial calls achieved 21% out of a maximum of 25%. The long-term incentive plan, which was conditionally granted in 2021 invested in 2023, realized a target achievement of 137% out of a maximum of 217%. This reflects the solid competitive performance of the company's relative total return to shareholders in the last 3 years and an above-target performance on the nonfinancial KPIs. Following up on the feedback we got from our shareholder consultation, we have put extra effort in increasing the transparency around nonfinancial performance conditions. And we have added [ expulse ] disclosure of targets and actual payout levels to the report. Also, we specified further the agreement with former members of the Executive Board. The Executive Board received no shares resulting from the matching share plan for the STI allocated in 2020. As the Executive Board voluntarily forfeited its short-term bonus in 2020, due to the exceptional COVID-19 induced trading conditions. And consequently, no bonus was paid out in shares that could have been matched. Looking forward at the 2024 remuneration. In light of the challenging economic and market environment and consistent with the policy applied to the senior leadership team, it was decided on request of the Executive Board not to adjust the base salaries for January 1, 2024. Targets in the bonus 2024 and the PSP, the long-term incentive 2024, we are directly derived from strategic target framework and are focused around market position, financial performance and solid cash flow, like relative revenue growth, EBIT, day sales outstanding and relative shareholder return and also around our strategy and stakeholder agenda. EG grow through specialization, delivery excellence, development of the talent platform, employee client and employee satisfaction and share of females in Randstad's executive population. Much more effort was put into defining meaningful and stretching KPIs for these nonfinancial targets. In 2023, we initiated a review of the remuneration policy, which will be proposed to the AGM in 2025. Topics for review are amongst others, the peer group and the remuneration structure, taking account of the changing competitive environment and Randstad's increased international scope. We look forward to continued conversation with you on these topics.

Thank you, Annet. Microphone, please.

[indiscernible] of DB. I understand this agenda point is in English.

That's up to you.

I think Mrs. Aris is Dutch as well, if I hear the accident. There must be a good reason why you do your presentation in English anyway. My question concerns the 1-year salary, excess salary of Mr. Sharma, who left on good terms, probably has done also a good job, at least that's my understanding last year. I was wondering why Randstad is giving money away for free. There's no point. I understand if somebody is fired, unless he's been stealing, but if somebody is fired because you reorganized and so on, that you then pay some extra to cover your expenses on a daily basis, even though you've been earning a lot of money for years, the previous years. But I don't understand why Randstad should be giving any kind of free money to a good lever. So that is actually my only question.

For this question Annet.

The press release we did February 14, 2024 and also in the annual report. When implementing the new executive leadership team under the leadership of Sander, who had joined Randstad as CEO in 2022. The Supervisory Board and Henry Schirmer agreed that it was a natural moment for a transition of the CFO role to Jorge Vazquez. He has made a great contribution to Randstad, since his appointment in 2018, particularly in navigating Randstad through the COVID-19 pandemic years. But also bringing the finance function to next level and promoting the ESG activities. To ensure a smooth transition and taking his financial expertise within Randstad into consideration, the Supervisory Board and Henry Schirmer agreed that he would continue 12 months as senior adviser. And according with the remuneration policy, which has been approved by shareholders, Henry Schirmer is entitled to severance payment of 12 months base pay. Coming to your question, as you can see, we have had big changes in the Executive Board. We also have a new executive leadership team. We are in a phase of transition. And therefore, we were actually quite happy that we could have Henry Schirmer here to continue -- to ensure the continuation and also not have too much new things at once. And so that's why we made this still. You're right, if we would have terminated, then we would have had a year of notification and a year of payment. However, it's better to have someone there available and consulting and helping then.

I fully agree. Yes. Actually, I fully agree. However, I understood that because I think if he has to continue for 12 months as a coach to make to ensure a good transition for sure, these 12 months should not be for 0. Sure you should be paying. I understood that in addition to those 12 months as an adviser, he also received 1 year of excess salary. If that is the case, I strongly object to that one. So could you please clarify was my initial understanding wrong?

So the idea is -- so we get not an on-top consulting fee. So it's -- the consulting fee is the same as the salary, -- let's put it that way.

Okay. So indeed, so from the time that he stopped officially being a CFO, he continued for 12 months as an adviser, and the fee paid for those 12 months is if he were still a CFO for 12 months, not 2 Years of salary.

No. And then there's 1 year, of course, you get paid after the -- your employment ends.

I'm not sure. So -- from the time he stopped officially being a CFO, if he gets 1 year salary comparison -- similar to a sallary or did you get 2 years in total.

He got 2 years in total, 1 year, he have to work for it as a consultant. And 1 year is like with every executive Board members who does nothing he gets -- you get 1 year of severance payments.

I strongly object to that one. If you would have been fired because the reorganization then I can understand it, but a strongly object as somebody who's deciding himself to leave, he continue for 12 months to ensure a smooth transition should be paid for it and he was. Stronger object that somebody gets an additional 1-year salary.

That is in all the agreements we have with our Executive Board members, when they stop work, they get 1 year of severance payment.

I'd like to add that Mr. Schirmer had just completed the first year in a second term. So your conclusion as to who triggered this, that was your conclusion and not ours. And I believe that links these 2 steps.

Will help and transition that changes the picture.

Now we -- I believe we have some final questions here and then I propose. Now let me see. If I ask about the Supervisory Board remuneration. Is that at this item on the agenda or that a different item. We can take that question here. There are 2 objectives for both parties that I consider important. I told [indiscernible], you make so much money, it would be a good idea to build homes for your staff and my objective for Randstad is that a job placement officer earns about EUR 2,500 and that's the cost of a home in this urban belt as well. So it would be nice if you built housing in the Randstad as Philips used to do and is ASML is about to do, that would be very convenient for your staff because they can no longer afford to rent or purchase a home in the Randstad Urban belt. Next, the Randstad trade rules. There are enough people, who drop out of school and it's -- you can easily teach them to be bricklayers or place heat, central heating. There are lots of grants all over Europe and in the Netherlands. And if you have a grand expert, you could set up those programs quickly.

What's your question about our remuneration policy. My questions are -- could you repeat that, please? What is your question? My question is, first of all, could Randstad build Branstad Homes for staff unable to afford the home in the area. Two, could Randstad open trade schools. There's a huge demand. We got your point. So that's the other point. You understood that too, right?

Excellent Sander. Let me start with the second question. Branstad already provides a lot of training to help people back to work with. We're talking about forklift, truck drivers or truck drivers or IT or HR specialists, training is already part of our daily stock in trade. And we do that, especially in the context of new jobs for people. We're not a training company, but if we have a new job for you, but there's a certain type of training that you still need, we may help you attend that training so that you can get that job. That's the training philosophy at Randstad. As for your first question, Quite honestly, I do see some progression because this -- you're not focusing on Russia and the U.S., rather, you're closer to home and you're talking about housing, that idea certainly appeals to me because it's a serious problem in the Netherlands. Our mindset concerning our remuneration policy for staff is that we ensure that we pay competitive wages, of course, in the sense of pay, flexible working hours, fringe benefits, transportation and so on and so forth. To date, providing a home has not figured in a competitive package of employment terms on the Dutch market, but when it becomes such, we'll certainly consider that -- that was the last question about 2C.

Thank you for net for preparing and for answering questions. As mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, there will be an advisory vote considering the remuneration report for 2023 as well as a vote about the following voting items throughout the meeting, we will remain open through Agenda item 5c, the exact wording of the votes appears in the agenda with explanatory notes after covering agenda item 5c. I will close the vote and Jelle Miedema will disclose the voting results after any other business on to agenda Item 2D, the proposal to adopt the financial report over the 2023 financial year. You'll find that on Pages 216 through 284. But the annual report, and it is explained in detail. First, I'll hand you over to Frank Dorjee, Chairman of the Audit Committee, to say a bit about the audit committees' activities in 2023 and cooperating with the external order. Next, we'll hear from [indiscernible], on behalf of Deloitte -- thank you. Frank.

I will deliver my presentation in Dutch, despite the economic adversity in 2023, Randstad achieved revenue of EUR 25.4 billion in 2023. With an EBITDA of EUR 1.075 billion. Free cash flow was EUR 883 million, whereas in the context of the share buyback program of EUR 400 million announced EUR 240 million in shares was repurchased in 2023. And the business model in 2023, once again, proved that Randstad is flexible, resilient and strong. Most meetings of the Audit Committee took place prior to publishing the quarterly figures prior to the audit Committee. I personally had preparatory discussions with the external auditor, the CFO, Directors of Global control financial reporting and business risk and audit at the Audit Committee meetings in addition to the CEO, the CFO and the external auditor these directors are present at the Audit Committee meetings focused on the financial reports, press releases and reports from the external auditor and from the business risk and audit department. Quite a few other topics were discussed in the meetings, such as an update about implementing the corporate sustainability reporting directives, financing, the group fiscal strategy and fiscal position and updating review of the financial position and legal topics. Extensive time was invested in cybersecurity and data protection as well as on IT in general. Since Randstad works with personal data protection and cybersecurity is essential for the firm and its in 2023, several programs were rolled out throughout the firm in 2023, a Chief Information Security Officer was appointed as well. All this relates to the fact that, generally speaking, the number of cyber attacks is on the rise and is becoming more sophisticated. The Audit Committee is staying on top of that is monitoring progress of these programs within Randstad. And the audit plan of the external auditor and Business Risk and Audit were also discussed and approved in the Audit Committee, as usual, a consideration was given to improving internal audits and the audit setting each quarter, the Audit Committee discussed not only the filings of the external auditor, but also the quarterly report of the Business Risk and Audit division in 2023. The Business Risk and Audit division was enhanced through training and recruiting IT audit specialists. In addition, the business risk and audit is run centrally to maximize effectiveness and efficiency. The business risk and Audit division focuses on ongoing improvement of key controls and monitoring them in which local management has been closely involved. In addition, there are audits of the most relevant financial and operational procedures, management letters of external auditors, both of Deloitte and VDO will discuss the main findings comprised the following observations, maturity levels of the most important financial processes are stable, but are at a high level. The most important reported findings included the IT setting and improving IT controls in which one area of consideration is centralizing the IT landscape and cybersecurity. Third, the key controls concerning the nonfinancial information procedures merit attention but important steps to improve them were taken in 2023, tone at the top is good. In addition, there was a limited number of fraud cases. This was not material. The Randstad's objective is to improve internal control and in the different country organizations and to ensure a high level, each quarter, a risk analysis is conducted by the local management and is included in a risk register. And as usually, there's Randstad performs the half year key control assessment. The business risk and audit function reviews independently, the quality of management in the different operating companies and compares internal audit outcomes with management self-assessments. And discusses these results every half year with the Executive Board and the Audit Committee. George referred to this in answering several questions earlier. The Audit Committee also gave extensive consideration to developments in nonfinancial and reporting in non-financial and financial information, including ESG, as included in the European Corporate Social reporting directives and the related SRS' progress in this respect and the process to comply with the statutory obligations from 2024 financial year had been discussed at length in the Audit Committee and the Audit Committee also asked the external auditor to review the nonfinancial information and Deloitte account has issued a limited assurance statement concerning this nonfinancial information and the business risk and audit division also performed some reviews of this nonfinancial information. The Audit Committee also evaluated the operations of our external auditor at Deloitte, based on various criteria. The outcomes are satisfactory, and the overall rating is identical to last year. As indicated last year, the 2024 financial year will be Deloitte Accountants last, as our external auditor in 2022. An intensive process was launched to select a new external auditor and the outcome of this process was that PwC accountants has been appointed as of the 2025 financial year. I'm pleased to give the floor to our external auditor, Ben Dielissen, from Deloitte.

Thank you very much, Frank. I'm going to give you a rapid overview of our audit for the 2023 financial year. As Frank indicated previously, we issued an unqualified auditor's opinion, as well as a limited assurance statement for the nonfinancial information. Our key audit matter concerned goodwill in keeping with last year. The scope and coverage was adequate. I'll say more about that in a moment. And as you can see, it was -- materiality was lower than in 2022 because of the lower profit before taxes that Randstad realized in 2023. And the final communication, I'll get back to that in a moment. Next slide, please. Now materiality, as I indicated, materiality is determined based on profit before taxes, and that remains professional judgment. We include other criteria as well. So it was reduced by EUR 10 billion to EUR 50 million, and we also communicated a lower materiality for our different entities and components that audit all over the world. And we report any errors exceeding EUR 2.5 million, it was both to the management and to the Supervisory Board. Key audit matter, goodwill. We consider this very important in our audit because it's a large amount compared with the total balance, cheap value. In addition, there are also important estimates contained there. So Randstad prepares an impairment test, and we check the most important considerations there and the main estimates. And ultimately, we also cooperate with our valuation specialists and concluded that no impairment is necessary to the extent it may already been taken by Randstad. As a consequence, there were no additional remarks on this top in our auditor's opinion. Next, we also consider the risk of fraud. And in that context, we examine audits in journal entries. That's an important aspect of our audit, and we examine various estimates by management. In addition, we had some interviews with important departments within Randstad, including General Counsel, the Executive Board and the audit function we examined Randstad for risk assessments as well as some matters emerging from the whistle blower and the code of conduct, et cetera. Another aspect is compliance with laws and regulations. I'm sure you understand that especially labor law is important in many countries. So we focus on that and consult specialists in several countries about that. And another highlight of our audit is IFRS compliance with IFRS and financial reporting obligations. And once again, we speak with several important stakeholders within Randstad, including global financial reporting, Global Legal Counsel and other important directors within Randstad. As for a going concern, the financial statements were draft based on ongoing concern, and we certainly agree with drafting the financials based on this continuity assumption. As for next year, we expect the audit to be similar to the audit in 2023. We don't expect major changes. And in the upcoming 2024 year, we will issue a limited assurance opinion for the CSRD reporting that will be new from 2024, for many listed companies. So that was my presentation. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Okay. I'll ask the same question. Are there any questions about the financial statements or the audit opinion on Pages 288 through 295? And as you mentioned, you have a question for Mr. Dielissen.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I have several questions about that. According to the AFM, Mr. Dielissen you're supposed to perform the OKB, which audit firm does that? And why is that not indicated?

I think you mean the OKB, the OKB, is a commission-oriented quality assessment. How do we do this? We have designated a separate team to look over my shoulder. And they did their work beautifully. And I can sign the audit opinion. Once the OKB approves it and unlike the AFM, we don't have to report who that is, but we do have rules and Deloitte follows the rules.

But which office is it? Because it must be an external office.

No, the moment an audit firm has sufficient Inhouse capacity for that, we can do it ourselves with smaller audit firms, they often outsource it to another office if they don't have the capacity internally.

When did that OKB take place? Because on 12 February, you had to submit your report.

Well, I think you mean our audit opinion. We signed off on that on 12th February. So, we completed our audit in February 2023 relating to 2022. And then my team rests up for a month and then we discuss the audit plan with the committee. And at that point, the OKB starts looking over our shoulders. So before we present that to Randstad, the plan has been approved by the OKB viewers, and they look over our shoulders throughout the year. So we basically work together with them.

And do you need to critically question the OKB auditor, as well? Which questions do you ask the OKB auditor? Well, I see you smiling. Which questions did you ask because what did you ask the OKB auditor about? And what did you gloss over?

Well, I don't have the answer off the top of my head. Okay. After this meeting, let's exchange about that because, as you know, Deloitte is also addressing examination fraud from 16th of October 2023 and did not score well in that respect.

So today, the entire auditor situation was once again reported on in the FD that something is going on in the among chartered accountants in that industry. So that's why I'm asking these questions, and I would like to know the answers and which notes did the OKB highlight? You say you don't have that off the top of your head, but that's a little flimsy.

Well, I'm here to answer questions about the audit opinion. But I don't see that in the audit opinion. Nothing is mentioned in the audit opinion about the OKB.

You don't mention who the OKB is or what the OKB highlighted or what your answers were. That's not in the audit opinion. That's why I have to ask this question now by the microphone.

Well, it doesn't need to be in the audit opinion. And I'd like to leave it at that.

Well, that seems rather flimsy to me.

Who would like the floor?

Yes. Thank you. I'm Mr. Keynar of the VEB. Just as last year, I have a question about taxes. In the media last August in the FDA, I read that there is a tax dispute with a Belgian Revenue Services. And I believe that appeared in last year's annual report, I guess I read over that last year, I did have some questions about that. What I'm wondering once again because I heard that there was a huge windfall, thanks to optimizing the legal structure so that you don't pay as much tax as a group, as you might have expected. So my question was, are there more opportunities to over excessive tax payments if you do it by the book. And then I asked the auditor, is fiscality perhaps a key audit matter that requires consideration because this does concern an awful lot of money. And this year, in the media, not the annual report, but in the media, I've read that for the time being, you're reluctantly going to pay EUR 70 million and that you're going to appeal that. And last year appeared to be a windfall, but now you have a disappointing tax assessment in the entire fiscal structure and the way you handle tax. Does that merit broader consideration, including by the auditor? So this is my question to the auditor. Why don't you highlight fiscal matters as a key audit matter because it has such a huge positive or negative impact.

Well, I'd like to give the Chair of the Audit Committee, the floor first on that topic. Thank you for your question.

Quite honestly, Randstad uses the existing arrangements. And in the respective countries, the revenue services are more active, given the shortage in government finance. And in Belgium, they're more active and more aggressive in their operations. So our tax position was discussed on the Audit Committee, especially our tax position in Belgium. And we requested some additional opinions and the outcome is that the current position is rather cautious. That's what I can tell you about that.

I understand your answer, and I am not accusing you of anything improper at all. But the fact that as you precisely, as you explained, the different revenue service in the different countries are looking harder to obtain [indiscernible] might be caused to take to subject this to more internal scrutiny and to ask opinions about what's happening in other countries, perhaps France and the Netherlands. And to ask the external auditor. Could you take a look because we want to be protected against any bad news.

As for taxes and transparency. We discussed this last year. On statistics, Randstad scored quite well with some compliments. Although, of course, we still have a way to go next Ben, and then I'd like to give the floor to George because we're certainly focusing on this topic.

Well, tax is certainly an area of close consideration of components in the countries audited, including Belgium and France. And have you relate our entire financial position, including our tax position. And as Frank already mentioned, the situation. Belgium and Belgium is under heightened scrutiny on our part. [Foreign Language] It is really about the role of the auditor. Jorge was going to add something.

So Randstad has a quite transparent tax policy. We report, we make an effort, actually we are reporting quite a lot about it. What we also do, of course, is take notice of what the trends that exist. We are now best implementing Pillar 2. As one example is there's a lot of people implementing and busy implementing that. But in addition to that, what we do every 2 years, we actually ask us for an external opinion from a different, let's say, office, one of the different advisory offices, how does our tax policy and our tax strategy hold up in all the trends that are happening. And we do feel we have quite a transparent open tax policy, like Ben, as also said and Frank. There is a significant amount of money always. And of course, we always are going to have disputes. In this particular case, it's just one dispute. We have our opinion. We've looked for external opinion. This is just also part of operating in a multinational and with many governments and many things happening in terms of trends. Randstad is quite transparent on it's tax policy. And I think it's actually one example when it comes to reporting on it.

Yes. If I may react on that one. I'm not claiming that you do something wrong, be very clear. I think Randstad is a great company. I also want to make that very clear despite all my critical questions. The thing I'm asking, the reason I'm focusing on this topic is that last year, you had a big plus said, well, why didn't you discover this 5 years earlier? So maybe there's an opportunity and maybe the accountant should look at it as well. This year, there is maybe a dispute, but you took the hit already, and that's even, that's what is, the audit committee has been commenting upon. There may be a risk that more and more governments are doing -- trying these kind of tricks to you, which you're also trying to go to court. And maybe you'll win, maybe you will lose. There's a very good reason for you to not only ask for external help, but also for the auditor to look -- not only to look into this matter, but the key -- to use it as a key audit matter. So that is my main question. So I understand, of course, you're looking into tax-related issues as part of your job, but it should be so important, and it's got such an impact. And may I add of the companies that I'm following -- and Randstad is a little bit more than I'm used to, and the impact is more bigger than I would expect. So why is it not a key audit matter?

[Foreign Language] I propose that the Chair of the Audit Committee has the last word because we believe it has the attention it deserves, Frank...

Yes, it does get a lot of attention also from the auditor as explained. I think that you're being wrong-footed by the fact that for 2 years in a row, we've had a very low tax pressure and that's related to the valuation of NOLs, which has a one-off effect on the tax pressure. The normal level of tax per share, if you or abstract, you would be at 25% , 26%, 27%, if you rule out the one-offs. And that's maybe the reason you were wrong footed. But this is about 2 specific valuations that were made those years and that had a one-off effect.

I propose to move on to 2E, Mr. Steven. Is that a very urgent question? Speaker is not using a microphone.

Yes. As for ESG. We have ESG Scope 1, 2 and 3. Scope 1 isn't very complicated. Let me propose to cover ESG and any other business. But isn't that something the auditor should audit? It's an introduction to a question to the auditor. Yes, please go on. So we have ESG 1,2 and 3. One isn't difficult, 2 is more difficult. And 3 is the most difficult issue. So how do you deal with this? How does the auditor deal with this?

This is a general question that all companies see that they have a lot of impact on the Scope 1 and 2 and where Scope 3 is a real challenge. The auditor, as you have seen in the limited assurance statement, we review a number of pages of the annual Board that contains ESG information. And in the light of this, we have indicated some elements including Scope 1, 2 and 3, we assess this based on the information provided by Randstad. And then we come to a conclusion in our auditor statement. Maybe it's a very general reply, but that's simply what we do.

Yes, but is Randstad dealing with this properly? The whole scope issue covers a lot of matters. Are there any issues where your view improvements are possible, for the future as well?

Well, Randstad in the criteria explains how they deal with Scope 1, 2 and 3 and we conduct our audit based on that definition. And this does not lead to any different conclusion than issuing a limited assurance statement without any other additional comments or remarks. And this is where I would like to conclude my answer.

Maybe as a roadmap to achieve its target by 2030, of which indeed the largest component is Scope 3. And if you look at that plan, and we are quite open about it. We are progressing. We are down versus where we were into '19. At the same time, we are working with our suppliers because Scope 3 is about what we purchase. At the moment, we're working with them to reduce the emissions on what we actually purchased goods and services and also start moving from just a spend mechanism, which we currently use to an actual one-by-one supplier metric of CO2 emissions. So personally, I think we are quite focused on Scope 3 and continue to improve towards reduction of it.

Thank you for the question. And knowing that for all companies, it is both an obligation and the start of a journey. I think it's validly stated that you need to see where the real impact occurs. And I expect this to be a standard element of our debate in the years to come at the AGMs. Let's now turn to agenda item 2E, explanation of the reservation and dividend policy. This has been already explained by Jorge Vazquez. Any further questions on 2E? Well, you just lost your microphone.

Thank you. In respect of the dividend, let me see Randstad is facing something specific, and that is cash flow. I sometimes work with via Randstad or [ via Tempo-Team ]. And you noticed that on 1 has worked the whole week, including Sundays, that the money is in your account on Monday morning. And that means that you still have to send the invoice to the client. And that means that the Temp employees are prefinanced. Now when there's a higher demand for Temp workers, it means that you need to have more prefinancing and you have a lower cash flow. And when the economy shrinks and you have a little prefinancing your cash flow increase. How do you match this because the dividend -- the additional dividend is based on this as well. And I think you're doing a great job by disconnecting the additional dividends from the real dividend and by paying it out 6 months later because then it becomes clear what the real dividend is and what the additional dividend is. But how do you match this? How do you make sure that the 2 are in balance?

Your analysis is very familiar before I give the floor to [ George ]. We have seen for several years that there is a certain volatility in our business model. You've seen the shocks on the top line when something major happens abroad. And you often see that the cash flow is surprisingly stable. This is something we have communicated several times. So your analysis is valid. It's a pretty robust business model, but now about the dividend.

Exactly what -- how we said. We had a year where we did a decline compared to last year. And therefore, we unwind working capital, as I talked about it in the beginning. That does render an year with more cash flow than the year before, even though the profit decline. Then when we look at our dividend and what we're going to propose every year, we basically have our capital allocation policy, and we always consider a few points. We have an ordinary cash dividend. That's just the traditional 40% to 50% dividend. And then we look basically how the company stands in terms of leverage, in terms of how much debt we have. And if we feel that the company is below 1, we then consider, okay, can we provide or not an extra capital return? To repeat. That's exactly what we've done this year. We provided an actual capital return because we are operating in a stable environment. The company has a quite low leverage ratio at the end of the year, and we are in a position to propose to our shareholders an extra cash return. Next year, we will therefore make again a similar decision. We are not, how are we looking into it. So in terms of a capital cash in policy, it's pretty clear and stable throughout the year. And I think this dividend is just a natural reflection of the strength of the business when we go up, but also the strength of the business when we decline.

Then I have a question about Sundays. Does it depend on clients? Isn't it the case that some clients pay the Sundays for the previous week, and some clients include the Sunday into the next week?

That depends, it's a very global company with many clients, with many agreements -- with many collective labor agreements. That depends at the aggregated level, everything you just said and how you described our business model when it goes up and down and cash flow generation holds. That is -- I think it's impossible to not determine what happens on every Sunday and how we actually reconcile. Yes.

And we also have clients in some areas that respect Sunday as a day of rest. Then 2F, the proposal to declare a regular dividend for the financial year 2023. It's proposed to pay out a regular cash dividend for the financial year 2023, amounting to EUR 2.28 per ordinary share, corresponding to a payout percentage payout rate of 50% of the underlying adjusted net profit. The dividend payment on preference shares, B and C amounts to a total of EUR 8.2 million. Do we have any questions about this? No. Then we turn to agenda item 2G, the proposal to declare a special dividend for the financial year 2023. Due to our strong balance sheet at the year-end, 2023 is proposed to declare a special dividend of EUR 1.27 per ordinary share in addition to the regular dividend. Do we have any questions about this? No. I then invite you to cast your votes on the agenda Item 2. If you haven't done so. And in the meantime, we turn to 3A, which is discharge of the members of the Executive Board from liability of the performance of their duties. And I propose you the following discharge resolution. The AGM grants discharge to the members of the Executive Board for the performance of their duties in the financial year 2023, to the extent evidenced by the financial statements, the annual report, other information submitted to the AGM and the explanation given in the course of this meeting. Any questions about this? If not, we turn to 3B, discharge of liability of the members of the Supervisory Board for the exercise of their duties. I propose the following discharge resolution. The AGM grants discharge to the members of the Supervisory Board for the performance of their duties in the financial year 2023. To the extent, this was evidenced by the financial statements, the annual report, the other information submitted to the AGM, as well as the explanations given in the course of this AGM. Any questions? If not, I invite you to cast your votes on agenda items 3A and 3B to the extent you have not done so far. Now assuming that the discharge from liability has been granted. Let us turn to agenda item 4. But before we do so, I would like to dwell on the retirement of Frank Dorjee as a member of our Supervisory Board. Frank, you joined in 2014 as Chairman of our Audit Committee. And for 10 years, you have been actively involved around particular year in the strategic and financial course of the company. You have done so in a very pleasant and committed way. You have played a crucial role in the changes in Randstad's financial leadership. Also, you made an important contribution to the financial strategy, the capital allocation, the dividend policy and internal risk management with Randstad on behalf of all those concerned with Randstad, with whom you work together, I would like to thank you for your exceptional contribution, and we wish you all the best for the future Frank. Thank you.

Thank you, [ Bart ], for your beautiful words. I'll be brief. After 10 years, I'm saying goodbye as Chair of the Audit Committee of Randstad. I'm saying goodbye to one of the most beautiful companies in the Netherlands, and I'm very proud that for 10 years, I was part of this beautiful company and that I was able to contribute to it. I am convinced that Randstad, who is facing a beautiful and successful future, and I wish the Executive Board and Supervisory Board and the company as a whole, all possible success in the future. Thank you.

Before we move to agenda Item 4A, First of all, I would like to dwell at a little mission on our side. The first term of Helene Auriol Potier expires at the end of this AGM on 26 March and '24. However, by mistake, her reappointment has not been put on the agenda of this meeting. We have, in the meantime, posted a notice for an extraordinary AGM to [indiscernible]. This will take place on 26 April next at 10 a.m. during the period from 26 March 2024 to 26 April 2024. Helene Auriol Potier will remain a member of the Supervisory Board in accordance with Article 17 of the Articles of Association of Randstad entity and Elena once again, apologies. I now turn to the following point, we are pleased to propose 2 new supervisory directors today for appointment. We will start with agenda Item 4A, the proposal to appoint Dimitra Manis, as member of the Supervisory Board. You can read the explanations of this agenda item in the agenda where you also find her CV. The Supervisory Board proposes to a point for an initial term of 4 years. Dimitra, can I give you the floor?

Thank you, Matt. And I'm delighted to be joining with your support at the Randstad Board. As you can see, I'm the Chief Purpose Officer of S&P Global in New York, I have over 30 years' experience in the talent space, people space, that is a passion of mine personally. And I'm delighted to be joining Randstad because it has an exceptional reputation. And as you said -- as someone said earlier, a magnificent company fantastic brand and, of course, a brilliant team of exceptional people who I'm pleased and proud to be working with. So thank you so much, and that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Dimitra. Do we have any questions? Mr. Stevenson.

For both supervisory directors, I have the same question. Let me raise it once and then we can cover them for each agenda item. We would like to know -- how you contacted both supervisory directors that you start looking around yourself that you use headhunters, executive search agencies? And if so, what was their assignment? Did you have a bucket list, what's the procedure to become candidate for the position of Supervisory Director? This result in a short list. And what was the length of the short list has the short list been discussed in a smaller committee. If so, whom was that smaller committee composed of? Does it lead to the selection of a limited number of candidates. Did you then subsequently conduct interviews with these candidates? And recently, an issue was raised with the Municipal Council. And the question was, whether the questions raised with the candidates have been sent to them beforehand? How was the process conducted? And were you speaking immediately with 2 candidates? Or that you finally decide to invite or to nominate a third candidate? That is part E of my question.

Thank you. I propose we give the floor to the second candidate first, and then I'll come back to your question. Is that agreed?

Well, I still have some questions to both candidates. And these questions are basically the same for both.

In that case. Let us first introduce the second candidate, then I'll give you a general reply to your first question and you can raise specific questions with the candidates. We now turn to 4B, the proposal to appoint Philippe Vimard as a member of the Supervisory Board you can find an explanation on this item in the agenda, where you also find a CV, the Supervisory Board proposes to appoint him for an initial term of 4 years. Philippe, the floor is low.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Philippe Vimard. I'm very pleased to be with you today. So a little bit about my background. So I'm Canadian, currently living in France. I have a computer science background. I've been a tech entrepreneur and tech executive for more than 25 years, operating both in North America and Europe. Had the opportunity to contribute to some of the transformation of large industries, disruption, some may say in the space of travel, health care and banking. And I have been as an executive focusing on technology, product development and general operations. I currently focus my time on board work. So I'm on the board already today of Schibsted, which is a large Nordic media company. And on the Board of [indiscernible], which is Real Estate Asset Management in Germany, amongst others. I have -- I'm very pleased and very honored to be considered for the Supervisory Board of Randstad. This is a company which has an amazing track record of success following the vision of a great entrepreneur, and this is something which is very important personally. But at the same time, it's also an industry, the talent industry, which is poised for some transformation, in the future, like we've seen in some other industries. And I would be happy and I would say, stimulated to have a chance to participate to it in this role. Thank you.

Thank you. Now first, [indiscernible] succession planning is 1 of the major tasks of any Supervisory Board obviously, for the company as such and for the company leadership, but also for its own membership as Supervisory Board. And in addition to the Remuneration Committee, Chaired by Annet, we have a Nominations Committee that I as Chair. I'm also the Chair of. As you know, conduct regular assessments of our operations. And at least once every 3 years, we do it with an external party working with the competencies we have in the Supervisory Board and at individual profiles. And at a meeting such as today, we see how quickly the world is changing, how quickly governance is changing and we hear more frequent use of the word to transition as a requirement. That's something we take on board in succession planning, where we identify specific profiles not only about the obligations we have today, but also in terms of the challenges of the future. So yes, indeed, we looked around in our own network. We always do. And you know the CVs of my colleagues. I'm so happy we have the opportunity to look around in several kitchens as we say to get lists from headhunters. And then together with the specialized headhunter, we have conducted a very international search. We as a nominations committee conducted interviews with several candidates always extending the invitation to all colleagues here to participate in the candidate. And then the all supervisory directors spoke with all the final candidates and obviously, candidates want to speak with the leadership of the company. So that's been done as well. So yes, indeed, we are very, very glad that these 2 outstanding candidates were found after a very thorough and lengthy process. A last remark. This is about the future. This is my last performance among you. So as the incoming Chair, Mr. [indiscernible] has been a leading figure in the process. And then I have questions to the candidates themselves. Our question is the following: how carefully was the procedure prepared that you went through? How well prepared were the conversations with the Executive Board and with the Supervisory Board? If you look at the expectations, the strategic outlook of the Board, how detailed were the discussions of these issues? What value you think you can add to Randstad? Did you speak with the auditor? And I think both of you have already expressed your motivation. So if you wish to add something to that, then you may.

Thank you for your questions. I hope that I already covered some of the issues. So please, the request to both of you to add something to the question is raised. So thank you for your question first. So yes, I must say that I have been participating to a few process for Supervisory Board or Board member. And the process has been very thorough. Obviously, we don't get any questions in advance of what we'll be discussing. But as Randstad as a public company, there's a lot of information that is available for us to try to better understand the context of the role, the challenges that are ahead and also should our contribution be meaningful. So those are the things that we, me, as a candidate, obviously takes into account before considering such a role. And the process has been thorough also in the sense that prior to meeting a lot of the people actually -- most of the people that you see standing there. That's also a process with headhunter to make sure that there's a good match between the candidate and the opportunity. And as of the auditor no, there's no discussion that has happened prior to the other. You have to remember that also, for us, prior to being appointed up to this point, we are not insiders to any peculiar information of the company. So everything that would be relevant could be found in the public space for us.

Can I just add -- thank you for the question. Just a couple of things. I totally support what Philippe said. There was absolutely no prior information provided to us, to me personally as well. And I have met every single member of the Supervisory Board. The process was almost a year ago. And so very extensive, very thoughtful. And I'd just like to add also reference checks were completed on us. with other Board members that we've served with or with CEOs or others that we've worked with in other prior companies. So it's a 2-way process, right? Obviously, the company Randstad wants to see what we're like and what we're going to participate in, but also we need to also make sure we're committed to contributing to the success of the company moving forward. Thank you.

Then -- then we now turn to agenda Item 5, 3 proposals, 5A, the proposal to designate the Executive Board as the authorized corporate body to issue shares and to restrict or exclude the preemptive right to any issue of shares. 5B, the proposal to authorize the Executive Board to repurchase shares. And 5C, the proposal to cancel repurchased shares. You can see the comments in the explanatory notes of the agenda. Any questions about either of these 3 proposals, about.. Yes, one question online from Mr. Ruaf, why we give preference to the possibility to buy back shares so to buy shares for and not paying out dividend? Thank you.

Why the option is given to share buyback instead of paying a special dividend. So why -- what do we consider a better solution?

No. So every year, like I just answered earlier on to Stevenson, every year, we consider what is the logical way to distribute capital to our shareholders. Randstad has a traditional always of distributing a cash dividend. So if there was any additional actual return was done typically by cash. Last year, we announced for the first time a program to buy back shares for EUR 100 million request, that extended for 2 years. So part of that problem is still ongoing in 2024. So we're still not basically busy with the last tranche. And as we now finish that program, and we are in that process. This year, we've just chosen as we do every year, we can choose, we chose to just give a normal cash return. There's no more to it.

Thanks, George, for this explanation. I would now like to request you to cast your last vote about the agenda items under 5B. And before we turn to the next agenda item, I now close the vote and Jelle Miedema will communicate the outcomes of the vote after the meeting. That brings me to agenda item 6, any other business. Any issues for any other business? 2 hands up.

Thank you, Mr. Keynar on behalf of the VEB. One question that came to mind at the previous agenda item. If you look at the structure of Randstad from blue collar and office setting, you made the remark, don't forget how important the people are who kept things going during COVID, that was a very relevant comment. We -- you keep becoming more specialized in different fields. There's still something above that, which is the search for executives and non-executives. Has Randstad has ever considered becoming an executive recruiter because I believe that the margins there would be extremely attractive. And you also cover the entire life cycle from young talent to senior talent.

Sander. Let me tell you the following. We have quite a bit of work with the 4 specializations that generate significant business for all of us. So we'll remain focused on those for the time being. And I'm exceptionally happy that the 4 points that Sander mentioned started with operations. Let's not forget the roots of this company. And all the studies we conducted later on we feel that this is rightly one of our pillars in our new strategy.

I believe I get to the last question. Mr. Decker, we've known each other at meetings over the years. I'd like to thank you very much for everything you've done for Randstad. Thank you.

Are you ready? I'm pleased to give the floor to our Secretary for the voting results. Before sharing the voting results, I would also like to tell you that according to the attendance list, we have a total of 2,175 shareholders registered, most of them with authorizations and representing 233 -- excuse me, 233,990,428 shares carrying votings, including 25,200,000 preference shares B, and over 50,000 -- excuse me, over 50 million preference shares C and may cast a total 167,86,076 votes, which is nearly a record of the total number of votes, i.e. 89.45%. The voting results. Let me start with 2C, that with the remuneration report, which is an advisory vote. And that was carried with 88.71% of the vote. 2D which is the adoption of the financial statements for 2023 was carried with 99.95%. Agenda Item 2F, the regular dividend was carried with 98.56%. And agenda Item 2G, the special dividend that was carried with 98.56%. Next agenda Item 3A, the discharge of the Executive Board that was adopted with 99.65% of the vote. Agenda item 3B, the discharge of the Supervisory Board also adopted 99.65%. Next the appointment of Dimitra Manis to the Supervisory Board that was approved with 99.8% of the vote. And the appointment of Philippe Vimard was approved with 99.73% of the vote. Next agenda Items 5A through C. First of all, the issue of shares was approved with 99.33%. Agenda Item 5B, the authorization to repurchase shares, 99.95% in favor. And finally, Agenda Item 5C cancellation was approved with 100% of the vote and now. I'm not going to give the floor back to you. I'll give the floor to Kajetan now.

Thank you, Jelle. If the Chair would allow me, I'd like to use this moment to thank you [indiscernible] for your excellent leadership over the past 12 years, ordinarily in the Netherlands. We do this in the evening. But today, I'll say it with figures. If we look at your cherished page in the annual report. Extrapolating the 10-year results, let's do it for 12 years, and then we can say that revenue has doubled from EUR 17 billion to EUR 25 billion. You probably know all the figures off the top of your head. I won't test you today. EBITDA increased from EUR 464 million to EUR 923 million. And the earnings per share doubled from [ EUR 2.13 to EUR 4.39 ], and net debt decreased from EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 306 million. And Randstad ranked first globally all under your ages. So we know that with good and bad results. We always highlight the CEO of the firm, but especially with good results, of course, with a company of over 40,000. We have an excellent executive Board as well as a Chair of the Supervisory Board and the Head of the Audit Committee, who have certainly left their imprint on the excellent results over the past 12 years. So thank you very, very much. On behalf of the Executive Board, and thank you on behalf of the Supervisory Board. We have a new Supervisory Board, and we're going to miss both of you. We're very grateful for your legacy. And especially with the new members, we will be carrying that forward. So I'd like -- thank you, and I'd like to hear a wonderful round of applause. So on behalf of the audience for these gentlemen.

Then I will close this meeting, and I'm pleased to invite you to enjoy lunch here, but I would like to take this opportunity to address you for the very last time. In our performance evaluations, we always wanted very much to be a learning organization. The same holds true for the Supervisory Board. You've heard Sander, who divides everything into quarters. So I've tried to highlight 4 reasons why I -- 12 and Frank for 10 years, so greatly enjoyed serving in our respective capacities for this wonderful company. So respectively, 12 and 10 years first [ goals ] meeting, started 64 years ago. In 1960, he set up this unique company as a pioneer in the industry, which before that had been highly amateurish. With a select group among us, we celebrated Frits 90th birthday last year, and Robert Jan van de Kraats has been representing Randstad and our Shareholders' Meeting for several years because what's unique about Frits and Sander rightly noted the values in the legacy of Frits. If we continue Frits's values, Frits was a very committed shareholder over the long-term. So that gave as the best of both the worlds. You keep us on our tooth, but we also have a shareholder who is delighted to speak with us and has a clear opinion and view of the company. So the best of both worlds. Second, this is about work as noted. It's about development. It's a bad income labor markets and mismatches and the transitions and competencies that this world needs. So I never objected to discussing the purpose of this company, and we will continue doing that. That's the second element. See, the human orientation culture of this company. There are 40,000 employees and every year, we help 2 million people find work. What's wonderful about the human orientation and culture of the company is that if you speak with the current 40,000 people, and of course, were, by no means perfect. And that was crystal clear here. But if you talk with the present people and the people from the past, a great many people worked for Randstad in the past, and I noticed that most of them have remained and best lifetime ambassadors. This is a human-oriented company, and that's something that we must never forget. Finally, you as shareholders. You're a very important stakeholder. And if I reflect on all the questions asked here, I have learned that each bird sings it's own tune, but the type of questions are relatively complete. If you review them, you'll see the same for previous years. Thank you for participating and for your discerning questions and for your huge contribution to this company. And I'd like to thank my fellow Supervisory Board members as well as the Executive Board. And if I think about Randstad and the aim for perfection. I always think of Jelle and his people who, as you can see, have done an outstanding job and all organized to a beautiful -- they always do a beautiful job organizing these meetings. Thank you so much, Jelle, and I invite you all to come join us for lunch. Thank you for listening.