Branding Building Blocks Capital structure Copy & Paste Model Corporate social responsibility Dividend policy Gross margin differentials Historic performance Debt Facility Deregulation EBITA development HR Solutions Industry perspective Inhouse services Legislation

Lily pad model Managing through the cycle Mission Operating working capital Penetration rates Productivity Recruitment Revenue split Risk management Specialties Strategy Shareholder base Staff turnover Strategic growth drivers Unit steering model

Strategic building blocks

Strong concepts

All our service concepts are based on best practice and proven procedures, ensuring efficient working methods and excellence in service delivery. They can rapidly be replicated and leveraged in other markets, and are relatively easy to adapt to meet specific needs. The consistency of our service concepts and quality around the world means our international clients know they can trust Randstad to meet their needs anywhere.

Staffing

In many countries our staffing consultants have a dual role, not only serving their clients but also recruiting the candidates and making the match. This sets us apart from many competitors with separate sales and recruitment forces. Furthermore, we preserve and document knowledge in our business concepts, in order to ensure that clients receive an offering that has been proven to work.

The merger with Vedior has strengthened our network significantly and has improved our market position in almost all European countries. We have become a key player in the UK and France, the two largest European markets. The merger also provided a strong business in Australia. While continuing to focus on the market, the integration in staffing has been a clear priority in order to preserve the synergies.

Professionals and Search & Selection

The combination with Vedior has broadened and deepened our activities in a wide range of professionals sectors and geographies. We now have a broader offering than any of our competitors. This diversified business mix is extremely helpful, especially in the worsening economic climate. Most of our operating companies offer both professionals on a temporary basis as well as through permanent positions (Search & Selection).

In line with our strategy we are defining best practices for our service offerings in the professional segment as well, enabling to apply these across our markets. We completed the process of defining best practices in the important engineering sector with our major operating companies by the end of the year. After a period of testing the concepts we have developed together, we aim to roll them out in a ?copy-and-paste? process later in 2009. Definition of best practices in the IT and finance & accounting sectors is scheduled for early 2009, with the other sectors following later. Through this approach we aim to speed up expansion. The creation of a brand family (see ?Superior brands?) and the possibility of establishing shared service centers ? an option we are studying in the UK for example ? can help to increase profitability going forward.

Inhouse services

The inhouse concept we developed at Randstad is growing rapidly throughout our markets. While clients want flexibility and improved productivity in their workforce, they also need to guarantee continuity. Inhouse services meet the structural needs of clients for large numbers of temporary staff with a limited number of defined job profiles. As the name suggests, we provide these services on site. Although the working processes are standardized, the inhouse solution is always tailored to each individual client. Most of our clients operate in highly competitive sectors, such as logistics, manufacturing and the food industry, but demand for inhouse services is growing in contact centers and back-office administration settings. The productivity improvements we introduce in these labor-intensive industries translate directly into better business results for our clients.

As we have a very high market share at the clients we serve, in most cases our volumes breathe with their output. The latter decreased on average in 2008, and this impacts our productivity. The only country where our market share decreased was the US, where we lost a few large clients at the start of the year. New clients, where as usual volume ramped up only gradually, were won during the year.

We see good potential for the roll out the inhouse offering among the client base of Vedior, and this will be a focus area for 2009.

Specialties

Specialties are the specific market segments on which dedicated units in our mass-customized service focus, such as healthcare, transport, airports and contact centers. The knowledge, experience and expertise we gain by focusing on these specialties translate into added value for clients, flexworkers and candidates. In turn, specialties leverage our extensive branch network, our brands and our front and back-office processes to make an above-average contribution to EBITA. The rollout and international expansion of specialties remains a key part of our operating companies? organic growth planning. Specialties already contribute substantially to revenue in the Netherlands and Belgium for instance, but less so in Germany.

Best people

"Best people&qout; acknowledges the importance of our people in maintaining and building on our success and position in the market. The true value of any business is in its people and we are very proud of our employees. It therefore goes without saying that at all times, even the difficult ones, we continue to invest in them and create the circumstances in which they can provide their best performance.

Talent management

The need for a local and global approach to the flow of staff and talent management is all the greater given our continued ambition to fill 80% of management positions from within. Talent management initiatives also include global management reviews, enabling us to track the management pipeline from a Group perspective and to address possible issues early on. To retain and develop specialized talent, 2008 saw the launch of the finance fast track program, a dedicated set of initiatives to grow financial talent from within.

Randstad Institute

Over 300 top managers from around the world participated in 15 different talent development programs at the Randstad Institute, our internal business school, throughout the year. The new programs are created in cooperation with leading business schools such as INSEAD in France and TiasNimbas in the Netherlands. The number of senior executive Randstad Institute programs will be expanded next year to accommodate for the growth of the Group, to share the wealth of knowledge we have within it and to ensure we retain senior talent. These global programs are new for many of the senior Vedior executives.

Career development We encourage employees to take charge of their own career development. Tools include regular individual development planning meetings and the intranet is used to communicate training and development opportunities to staff at all levels. A global internal vacancy database was introduced in 2008, enabling employees to quickly learn about local and international career opportunities.

Employee engagement

We hold a global employee engagement survey each year to support retention. The survey measures key engagement drivers such as satisfaction, pride, intention to stay and likelihood to recommend. The outcomes help management determine which factors will most effectively raise engagement levels in each employee group. In 2008 the survey showed that, while there is room for improvement, engagement is high, scoring a 7.5 on a scale of 10. Employees also indicate that they are proud to work at Randstad, with 41% giving pride a score of 9 or higher. Survey reports are treated as an opportunity for further dialogue about engagement at all levels within the organization. Engagement was further stimulated in 2008 with the extension of the share purchase plan to all employees and the performance share plan to a larger group of senior managers.

Employee integration

A key factor behind the unique success of the first phase of the integration were the specially-designed ?get to know you? sessions held around the world to introduce the Randstad and Vedior employees to each other. They focused on building trust between them and helping them understand both the professional and personal side of the integration.

Candidate selection

&qout;Best people&qout; also means attracting, selecting and providing the best candidates. Randstad needs to be top-of-mind when a potential candidate or client thinks about work in general. The Internet has become an increasingly important channel for attracting candidates and communicating vacancies. We took a major step forward in maximizing its potential in 2008 with the launch of an advanced online job network codenamed &qout;Blue 2&qout;. Incorporating &qout;DOVA&qout;, the innovative proprietary database application developed by Vedior, the new network has already been implemented in some countries and will be rolled out across all Randstad&qout;s major markets in 2009. Blue 2 will generate more traffic by leveraging search engine optimization techniques developed in cooperation with Google, via Randstad-branded applications on third-party sites and by its integration with complementary social networks. More candidates will be attracted for selection through the use of intuitive search and application processes, the prominent use of client names and logos, rich media and an increasingly personalized experience. It will also provide multiple opportunities for our consultants to interact with prospective clients who, when approved, will be offered a complimentary job posting service.

Excellent execution

All of our activities are supported by standardized work processes, based on best practices, that enable us to spend more time with clients and candidates, provide clients with market-leading services, and thus gain market share. The excellent execution of our consultants is measured by the productivity of the unique units they work in. The unit steering model we employ is designed to optimize productivity as measured by employees working and/or gross profit per unit. Productivity measurement is key to generating strong conversion of gross profit growth into EBITA growth. Receivables management is standardized, which has enabled a reduction in DSO (days sales outstanding) of more than 10% over the period 2002-2007. Realizing the Randstad DSO over the Vedior mix could reduce overall working capital by € 50-70 million. We also strive for one back office per country as this helps to streamline the back office processes. Excellent execution has also played a key role in 2008 in capturing synergies beyond the savings. Our integrated risk and opportunity management processes, represent another component of this building block.

Superior brands

Our superior brands are our guarantee to our clients that they will receive the highest quality service and the best employees worldwide. They help us ensure that we attract the best candidates and corporate employees. Our superior brands give us better pricing options and the spontaneous awareness that facilitates selling, prospecting and the introduction of new products and services. They make it easier for us to recruit and retain the right people. They enhance our visibility and credibility with regulators and legislators. They provide us with more supportive investors and additional financing options.

A new family of excellent specialist and professionals brands joined us in 2008, but although they have given Randstad a leading position in the global professionals market, they lack the clear brand awareness and recognition that Randstad has developed in the staffing market. In order to preserve the value of these businesses, we decided not to make radical changes, and to re-brand only where opportune. A new professionals house style was developed before year-end however, in consultation with the major operating companies. By the end of 2009, all professionals businesses will have the look and feel of this new Randstad Professionals brand family and the existing brands will be endorsed with the tagline 'a Randstad company'. Considerable annual savings on the production costs of marketing materials, estimated at &qout; 25 million, can then be reinvested in supporting market presence. Combined with the re-branding of the acquired staffing businesses in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland already achieved in 2008 and being extended to France and elsewhere at the beginning of 2009, more than 95% of revenue will be within the Randstad brand family by the end of 2009. (please also see the item "branding")

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