Total package, including housing and mobility

Specialist in foreign labor recruitment

For fifteen years Axintor Interim has been the West Flanders specialist for the recruitment of foreign workers. With correct remuneration according to Belgian legislation, and a total package including housing and mobility solutions for commuting. The economic and social aspects go hand in hand. A great story.

"We start from our customers' vacancy needs and then search for suitable candidates in Romania, Poland, Spain and Portugal, among others. To do this, we work with local selection partners who look for the right candidates for us, and we also use marketing tools to publicize our vacancies," says Kirke Hillewaere, responsible for sales and operations. "Once in Belgium, we surround our temps with the necessary care and guidance. Integration and on-boarding are an integral part of our business philosophy. We have accommodation under our own management, as well as cars, scooters and e-bikes. We make these available as long as our office employs the temporary workers."

Integration Process

Axintor, like any regular temp agency, starts with weekly, flexible contracts with an option for permanent employment. "You can say that the temp period lasts about six to seven months on average. During that period, the workers have time to set aside an amount of money to pay the deposit for a rental property, for example." 

"Once they have permanent work here, they often have their partners come over. We are then also happy to help them find work. Apart from our sales team, we have a coordination team that manages the entire integration process. We consciously choose to use employees who speak the language of the temporary workers. This is greatly appreciated and inspires confidence. For example, our colleagues help them with things like opening a bank account or putting a direct debit in order," Kirke continues.

Drivers and warehousing profiles

Due to the low number of technically skilled people in our country, two decades ago companies were finding it difficult to fill certain vacancies. With the creation of Axintor, Liselotte Rombaut and Klaas Vandendries wanted to provide an answer. The fact that our country opened up its labor market to workers from "new" EU countries made cooperation with Polish partners possible. Later Romania joined, and more recently Spain and Portugal. "Where at the beginning mainly drivers were sought, demand soon arose for various profiles within warehousing, such as warehouse work, forklift drivers and order pickers. Day shifts, night work or shift work, everything is possible." 

Correct Belgian wages

Because Axintor is a Belgian company, it may only invoice Belgian companies. Therefore, it works with Dimona, the electronic communication platform through which the employer declares every entry and exit of an employee to the NSSO. "This means that we respect the social legislation of our country and thus want to contribute to the Belgian economy," Kirke clarifies. "You can also choose to invoice a foreign company through subcontracting, using the wage conditions and social security of the country of origin. That's a completely different story, which we absolutely do not want to subscribe to. After all, we pay correct, prevailing wages in Belgium. Clients find this a very correct way of working. And if they notice that the rates we offer are very competitive and we also work according to the 'no cure no pay' principle, it's all set."

Digitization

In 2020, Axintor made a strong commitment to digitalization with the development of its own app. "This allows our temporary workers to see in advance where they will arrive in our country, where they will live, where the stores and doctor on duty are ... We look at this as a digital integration course. A big plus is that they get the information in the set language of their smartphone. We think this social component is super important."