Sign InStart free
ZZP · Freelance · Interim

Hiring at the Dutch government

The Dutch government — central government, provinces and municipalities — hires billions of euros worth of external professionals every year: IT specialists, lawyers, consultants, interim managers and specialists. At central government, procurement is organised centrally through three category plans; municipalities and provinces often work with their own framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems (DPS). Here you can see live where the market is moving.

Hiring tenders

1,004

last 12 months

Estimated market value

€ 13.5 mrd

sum of reported values · median € 374k per assignment

Largest buyer

Gemeente Rotterdam

187 tenders

Three government-wide category plans for hiring

The central government has organised external hiring into three categories, each with a central category manager.

Inhuur Professionals
Externe inhuur van professionals: interim-management, audit, financieel advies, inkoopadvies, juridische capaciteit en specialistische consultancy voor ministeries.

Category manager: Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties

ICT Professionals
Inhuur van ICT-specialisten: software-ontwikkelaars, infra-engineers, projectleiders, business analisten en architecten voor Rijksprojecten.

Category manager: Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties

Uitzendkrachten en Arbeidsparticipanten
Uitzendkrachten voor reguliere functies en arbeidsparticipanten (mensen met afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt, Participatiewet-doelgroepen).

Category manager: Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties

The market at a glance

Top 20 buyers (hiring)
Click on an organisation for its hiring strategy: DPS, framework agreement or preferred supplier.
  1. 1Gemeente Rotterdam
    187
  2. 2Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten
    60
  3. 3Inkoopsamenwerking Noord Veluwe (ISNV)
    50
  4. 4Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid
    46
  5. 5Provincie Zuid-Holland
    36
  6. 6Zorginstituut Nederland
    32
  7. 7Ministerie van Defensie
    15
  8. 8Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL)
    14
  9. 9Provincie Limburg
    13
  10. 10Gemeente Den Haag
    12

For freelancers and self-employed professionals

Bidding directly is rarely possible — intermediaries are the way in

At the government, almost all hiring runs through framework agreements with intermediaries (brokers) such as Yacht, Brunel, HeadFirst and Between, and specialist agencies per field. Self-employed professionals register with these intermediaries; the intermediary places you on concrete assignments through a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS).

How does a DPS work?

A Dynamic Purchasing System is a digital platform on which intermediaries qualify. When a government organisation has a concrete assignment, all qualified intermediaries receive an invitation to tender. The lead time is usually short (1-2 weeks) compared with a classic tender.

Model agreement and the VAR history

Since 2016 the government has used model agreements (after the VAR was abolished). For self-employed professionals it is important to work with an intermediary that uses a model agreement approved by the Dutch Tax Administration — this avoids disputes about bogus self-employment.

Tip: register for alerts on hiring requests

With a free TenderView account you receive alerts as soon as a new hiring tender is published in your field — handy for self-employed professionals who want to engage with the intermediary right away.

Create a free account

Full Hiring market analysis

Deep signals, distribution by province, trends and all deep-dives on a single page.

View market analysis

All government-wide category plans

An overview of the 22 procurement categories where the central government purchases centrally on behalf of all ministries.

View category plans