Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are. Welcome to Randstad's 2021 Capital Markets Day. We're happy to host this day today and take you through who we are as a company, our strategy, what happened through COVID, and how we look into the future. We're doing it virtual, and in hindsight, that was a good decision because COVID is flaring up in this country as we speak. We've got a program today which is mostly based on the questions we got from you throughout the whole year. We hope you find all the answers you would ever wanna know about Randstad and the strategy. Next to that, you will also hear the whole EB.
I'm gonna start with market trends and strategy, and then, the EB, the whole team, will be in there, sharing more insights in their respective fields of responsibility. Let me take you through the market trends and the strategy. This is what I'm gonna talk about, and I hope that really sets the scene for today. Why are we here? Why are we in this beautiful branch that we converted into a studio today? That is symbolic. We still, and you're gonna see that today, we know that there's still a lot of touch going on. There are still a lot of meetings. There are still a lot of touching moments wherever people are. We saw that seven, eight years ago. It's still the case today .
Also, it's quite symbolic because Chris Heutink started his career at Randstad as a consultant a few hundred meters from here in beautiful Utrecht. What has happened through COVID and even before that? I think as an industry, not just Randstad, we really showed how relevant we are. We, with the total sector worldwide in 26 markets, created the Safely Back to Work project, where working with governments, trade unions, employers, we helped to keep people as much as possible into a job and also made them come back very quickly. A very important development we wanna share with you is the fact that given the fact that the labor market is gonna be structurally scarce and tense, the traditional model of recruitment is gonna change. It's gonna be under pressure.
Traditional meaning you need someone as an employer, you put out a job posting or whatever, people react, you make a choice. That is gonna be tougher and tougher. We saw that coming, and that is why we are creating the biggest talent engine of all so that we can still engage people to maybe work for our clients, and at the same time, share the data out of that data lake, out of that biggest talent engine to share what is still possible with our clients. We're well positioned. We're well positioned in an attractive market. Something interesting is going on. If you look 10 years back, we and the market grew around 5%, and we outgrew that market. We wanna share with you why we believe this will remain an attractive, growing market forward . Within that market, we're very well positioned.
On the one hand, through increasing data insights, data availability, which is very much the asset, our asset for the future, and then combining tech and touch in the business models that our clients and our talent appreciate most. Let's talk about some trends, some structural trends as we are seeing in the labor market of today and also of tomorrow. Change is the new norm, meaning that not everybody will be in the same job going forward. We need to change. People need to change. Mostly from white-collar jobs in governments, insurance companies, banks, towards the sectors which we believe are gonna be structural, asking for people in education, in healthcare, anything around e-commerce and anything around tech. You really need to start bringing people to those sectors through reskilling, otherwise you're gonna be very structurally short. A job for life with a question mark.
We're quite sure that less and less people will be in a job for life with the same employer, let alone, or even in the same job. We hope and we can help people face the music and work towards a proactive job change. It's not gonna be about the job. It's gonna be about work. We firmly believe the change in the labor market is gonna go from fixed jobs, not flexible jobs. No, it's gonna be about work, from jobs to work. Then technology plays a huge role, and we're happy we started early, 8 years ago, with founding our innovation fund. There is no technical HR-related startup that surprises us anymore.
We've seen tech in HR services going from point solutions, an assessment solution, and a training testing solution to whole suites of tech, which we will show in the labor markets going forward. Lastly, the role of work is still very important for people. If they work, it should be with a certain dignity, a certain security, and a certain purpose. What has COVID done to all this? It has accelerated this trend. We are positioned for growth, but what do we want to achieve? When do we really think we've done our job? We, by 2030, wanna connect to 500 million people in their working life. We want to connect to them. We wanna touch them in their working life. What does that mean? We're now formulating what a touch is.
A touch is not looking at one of our websites. A touch might be an employability scan, will definitely be a job, will be a coaching conversation, will be a training course. We're gonna, show that to you. We're gonna be very transparent on where we are on that mission in the next coming years. this, we've been sustainable at heart for 40 years. We've created our own sustainability model, and we adhere to the four Sustainable Development Goals you see here on the slide. He formulated the values to know, to serve, to trust, and the simultaneous promotion of interests. We adhere to all that with the ultimate goal of supporting and touching 500 million people. Having said that, we also know it's about green.
Less of importance for a service company like ours, but we announced this morning that we want to commit to the Science Based Targets initiative and more to follow striving for net zero by 2050. This weekend it was announced that again, we are in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for many years already as the only player in our sector, and we're very proud of that. This is the slide, which is our strategy in one goal, and you'll see it coming back with all the colleagues this afternoon. It's building on our strong foundation, our values, our concepts. The portfolio, changing towards where we see more momentum, and then further differentiation through tech and touch.
How do we use technology to build a lasting added value to competition and certainly to our stakeholders, ultimately leading to the 500 million people, again? We can do basically everything. We are this one-stop shop powered by data. Being market leader in MSP and RPO, which are, the vehicles we use with our clients to organize work in the broad sense of the word. Rebecca will talk about our enterprise clients, where we do this throughout the globe, really organizing work. We also do it for the company around the corner that's having trouble finding a person, and we help them with it. Something's not in there, and that's training. We don't aspire to be a training company. Training for us is a means to get someone from job A to B.
We give access to training, we organize the platform, but for us it's very much knowing people, knowing where the job is, and helping them to get there, and training might be a vehicle again to help. Are we big? No, we're not big. You see the markets and the size of those markets. On average, if we add it all up, we have a 6% market share. I don't think I need to explain to you about all the possibilities to grow in this market. We certainly see through enterprise, working with less and less suppliers, a consolidation in the markets going forward where not a lot of people can play. Then there's a new element in the market today, the gig economy. In driving, in food delivery, what have you.
It is already a very big market with EUR 61 billion in 2020. In the U.K., one in ten people works in the gig economy. there's a societal debate. How do we take care of people, and how do you organize all this, that people, in a respectable way work for or in the gig economy? Let's look at the vision of Jitse Groen, CEO and founder of Just Eat Takeaway.com. What's his vision on employing people at Just Eat?
justeattakeaway.com. It is one of the largest food delivery companies on the planet. For us, the main challenge is to get enough people. That sounds maybe paradoxical, but locally you have different circumstances. It might be quite easy for us to get staff in a country like Canada, but it's actually very difficult in countries with very low unemployment, such as Germany and Holland. Randstad has scale. Randstad is able to provide us with thousands and tens of thousands of people. Of course, if you have to do it by yourself, it's a very complex organization. We want people to be able to make a living wage, and we want people to be insured. They drive around very busy city centers and, they might get into accidents and therefore, they need to be protected.
What we're doing also with Randstad with the couriers. The couriers, they have either e-bikes or they have regular bikes. It's important for us, for instance, to reduce waste. It's important for us to reduce the carbon emissions. Obviously, hiring a lot of people in so many different markets is difficult for us and therefore parties like Randstad help us set those contracts up and get us those people. I think Randstad shares the same values that we have as an organization.
Thank you, Jitse. Jitse mentioned a few things. The first one, very important with any client, we share the same values. Jitse's mantra is he wants to offer the best place on a bike in terms of job content, but also insurance, that sort of thing. That's the first one. The second one is he talks about finding a lot of people, and the third one is how do you organize that in many countries? That is why Monster is so important. We acquired Monster a few years ago because we had the ambition to create this biggest talent engine of all. Due to the increasing new technology we're rolling out, we have the biggest front door in the world for talent, having some 160 million people that enter our universe today.
More on that from Rebecca, but we're well on our way to be again what Monster, used to be. Still the very strong brand, very attractive to people who then not only look at jobs, but become part of this Randstad universe where we'll take care of them for their whole job life. Differentiating through tech and touch. What you see here is all our services and, just to show a bit how much tech or how much touch we put in there. We firmly believe, again, that's why we're in the branch symbolically today, that there will be a lot of branch-based staffing, a lot of base, branch-based professional staffing and perm going on. When you move to the left, you get the statement of work, very consultative with hard to find people, so still a lot of touch.
All the way on the left, you see automated self-service platforms. Well, we already had the first one in the industry eight years ago. It's still not flying at scale. If it does, we'll be big. We just launched a new initiative in Texas in the U.S., so time will tell. But just to give a bit more clarity on that topic. If you would take a large client in the logistics area, what are they looking for? You see the client's challenges, you see the talent's challenges, and then based on in-house, we create a business model fully geared towards that sector, that client. What does it look like? Looks like this. You see the talent coming in, all the process steps to get to work.
Two are still touch moments, and the others are automated features of the service geared towards individual stakeholders. We develop this together with the client. If it works really well, we roll it out throughout the world for similar clients. Where are we today? This is a summary before I hand over. We're outperforming today. We're very happy with our performance today, and I wanna thank all the colleagues who logged in today for their spectacular performance. On that basis, we know we will be able to delight all our stakeholders going forward with our vision and the way we set up the business, ultimately leading to, it already has, the number one position in HR services, and we expect to go from strength to strength.
Of course, you being mostly the financial audience, you're now, anxious to hear a bit about model and results and added value and sustainable value. We've got Henry Schirmer to take you through that. Henry, the floor is yours. Thank you.
Excited to spend time with you about value creation at Randstad. It's about ambition of more than 40,000 Randstad colleagues to deliver the best performance in the eyes of clients and talents. It's about attractive, sustainable returns for our shareholders. As you would expect, I will talk you through our long-term financial objectives, and how our capital allocation policy provides the appropriate support to achieve those. It's now close to four years since I joined this amazing company, and in reflection, I like to call out three topics which have been more defining for our successful journey than others. Firstly, let me start with our uncompromising will to win in the marketplace. There is simply no substitute for quality growth, client by client, country by country, and week by week. This requires us to be in the right markets with winning concepts and the right commercial intensity.
Secondly, our healthy sense of paranoia. It's a driver to transform the business with speed and impact. Not an easy task in the technology-driven world, redefining the skills needed in the labor market, and also how work is being done in our industry. Thirdly, our sense of responsibility towards all stakeholders to keep the business in as healthy financial shape as possible. This includes delivering best-in-class profitability and cash flow also or especially in times of significant transformation. In the program, you will hear a lot of talking about the amazing growth prospects we see for Randstad for many years to come. Hence, this growth chart will not come as a surprise, but I really want to make sure that you see how proud we are delivering best-in-class top-line growth over quite a long time now. My job today is not about dwelling in yesterday's successes.
It's all about our ambition and capability to continue this success into the future. It's about redefining the size of the prize and to pick new points on the horizon which are even bolder and more ambitious than those in the past. The future has already started. We have already boldly invested into winning digital capabilities in order to lay foundations for future success. Investments into systems and data infrastructure, data security, AI engines, and of course, not to forget, programmatic talent sourcing capabilities already helping us winning. In the years 2018 to 2021, we've increased our IT spend by more than EUR 130 million annually without allowing this to deteriorate our ambition of overall profitability. In fact, we have financed those investments by radically eliminating non-productive spend through our Cost Connect program.
It will not come as a surprise that this approach will play a prominent role in many years to come. If anything, it feels we have just started to scratch the surface. Let me also provide a bit of a health warning here. Going forward, we will not always be able to fully synchronize investments into the future with productivity gains in the same quarter. That being said, we will never lose sight of our ambition to structurally set us up for higher profit margins. Since I've already introduced the world of value creation, plus profit, cash flow, let me now take you a bit deeper into the how we are going about it. Firstly, it is differentiated winning concepts with tangible value add for our clients. That is especially powerful when those concepts are being delivered in repeatable ways across geographies and end markets.
Nothing is proving that point better than our in-house concept growing from strength to strength with remarkable conversion into EBITDA. Our in-house business is far from reaching its point of maturity. If anything, we are deploying a range of concepts enriched with the same winning principles, helping our business to grow in an accelerated fashion. My board colleagues will provide you with an extensive list of winning approaches in their respective parts, which we are very excited about. Secondly, in order to secure market-winning growth, it is crucially important to navigate our commercial activities into the most attractive pockets of the market. A winning portfolio is a choice, something which can and must be strategically built over time based on market insights, fitting into the capabilities to successfully compete. We call it the right to win.
Here on this chart, we like to bring to life our ability to draw insights from our powerful data sources in such a way that it informs where and how to best deploy our commercial resources, basically, utilizing the full value of our portfolio with the help of data insights. What we can also demonstrate is our ability to understand the very detail of how talent pools evolve, an extremely valuable insight into the matching process. Thirdly, really quite basic, but not easy to maintain over long periods of time, is bringing the highest commercial intensity to the marketplace. During COVID, and in fact, as we speak, markets are more in transition than ever before.
When markets are in transition, new buying decisions are being made from clients who look at the market in new, different ways, and talents who decide to give their career just a different turn, more and more often inspired by one of our chatbots reaching out with a compelling job opportunity. All right. Before getting to the next chapter, profitability, I like to reiterate the sheer unlimited potential to grow our business. Finding the right talent is by far the number one challenge for every company out there. The impact of technology has created an even bigger shift of skill sets needed to succeed. At the same time, we are experiencing a reinvention of how people want to work. In all that change, we are very well positioned to help our clients and talents to navigate those significant shifts in the world of work.
In short, there's just plenty of opportunity for accelerated growth for many years to come. As I mentioned in the beginning, we are all committed to turning market leading growth into higher profitability. Hence, our confirmation to strive for structurally improved EBITDA margin beyond 5% is just a logical consequence. Let me be clear here. There's neither guidance nor promise as we don't have a crystal ball to see what the future holds. However, it is a clear articulation of our ambition to turn a growing top line into higher EBITDA margins. The way we go about it has actually three layers, which can be easily derived from our P&L's biggest spend categories. The first is about field productivity. Nearly two-thirds of our total spend sits with the field.
Again, with the help of data, AI, and frankly, quite old-fashioned steering principles, it is always the first port of call. Secondly, we are taking the remaining third of the cost base by turning every stone, but doing it different ways than before. Creating valuable insights into spend patterns or just simply connecting the company in ways we never did before is helping us to get more for less and provides us with valuable insight into our contractual positions, informing crucial decisions with regards to risk management and pricing. Which brings me to a topic which is in very high demand, inflation and the ability to price. Let me start by confirming that we currently do experience inflation in some parts of our business. It is still anecdotal rather than across the board, and we are watching it very closely.
Inflation is a good thing for us, as we have demonstrated in the past that we are capable to protect our margins, which provide for some benefit in the absolute profitability in the business. We thought we wanted to shed some light into inflation and how we are able to monitor this. What you can see on this chart is a representation of 40 important occupation-country combinations and the connection of billing rate and wage increases per hour. What you can see that overall, we're doing very well to keep pricing in line with increasing wages per hour. But more importantly, I like to bring to life our ability to steer the business with the power of data and facts. To round out the profitability angle, we must talk about mix. Orchestrating capital allocation into higher-growing, better converting businesses is paying back over time.
Also here, portfolio is a choice. Applying a structural programmatic approach provides very welcome boost for top and bottom line, and it's a gift never ends up giving. Selectively, it does make sense to build a winning portfolio with the help of programmatic bolt-on M&A. That already brings me to my third lever of value creation, cash conversion. Driving cash conversion involves a highly disciplined approach with regards to overdue management. When it comes to risk management, we increasingly using advanced analytics to create proper internal pricing models to support decision-making and commercial negotiations. Our business has come a long way and prides itself to run an advanced, fully integrated treasury management approach with a fit-for-purpose funding structure. That approach will also serve us well through the next strategic phase.
While we would not claim that our cash management is a rich source of competitive advantage, it does provide sufficient flexibility to execute our strategy, even in a wider set of financial scenarios. Talking about financial scenarios is the perfect segue to confirm our longer term financial ambition. As already mentioned, we would strive to deliver market-leading growth and in the context of a growing top line, deliver a 5%-6% EBITDA margin. We confirm our ambition to win organically and will seek opportunities to accelerate our portfolio development through bolt-on programmatic acquisitions. We do confirm our strong focus on ROIC, optimizing our economic value add, applying a disciplined investment approach, however, with an accelerated speed and impact. We do strive to maintain a sound financial position, applying a disciplined risk management at all times.
Lastly, simultaneously promoting our stakeholders is deeply embedded in our values, and we will be able to deliver against it, providing attractive returns to our long-term shareholders. With that, let's go to my last topic, our capital allocation policy. This chart is very familiar to you. It lays out clearly how we approach capital allocation in service of long-term value creation for all stakeholders involved. It states that we confirm our belief in organic growth as main source of value creation and our commitment to pay 40%-50% of net adjusted earnings with a floor cash dividend of EUR 1.62 per share. It also shows our interest in bolt-on acquisitions, and it is fair to say that it is likely that we will spend more time looking into M&A going forward than what we did in the last few years.
We can also confirm that we seek to operate our business in the longer run below 1x leverage, which might create space for optional additional cash returns, either a special cash dividend or share buybacks. While we are confident in our strategy and our strength to execute on our plans, we are still operating in an uncertain macroeconomic environment, where a certain degree of financial flexibility is key to be able to drive value creation for all our stakeholders today, but also into the future. Please have a look at this chart where we're clearly laying out our capital allocation principles in service of our strategy. It reiterates the use of discipline and EVA principles in investment decisions and a clear line of sight towards EVA increasing when it comes to M&A.
With this in mind, we will update the market on our proposed dividend over 2021 when we publish our quarter four and full year results in February next year. Now, let me end my part with a few final remarks. We've shown throughout the COVID crisis the resilience and strength of our business model also being reflected in our market outperformance. The accelerated speed of market transformation is providing an excellent backdrop for even more commercial opportunity. It feels like we are at an inflection point, utilizing the full power of One Randstad, creating sustainable long-term value to all our stakeholders, ultimately also leading to optimized shareholder returns over time. My journey with Randstad started close to four years ago, and it is a privilege to be part of this fantastic company, shaping the future of work and helping our clients and talents reach their full potential.
There is a spark in the company that is very hard to describe. However, Chris will put his best foot forward to give it a try. Thanks for listening, and it's my pleasure now to ask René to take us into the world of technology and digitization.
Thank you, Jacques, and thank you, Henry. Also, from my side, of course, a very warm welcome to all of you. We're very pleased that you can join us today. My name is René Steenvoorden, and I'm the Chief Digital Officer of Randstad. The combination of tech and touch is our differentiator. That means that digital is an integral part of Randstad's strategy. We consistently invest in digital capabilities and add new solutions to our strong heritage. Today, I would like to give you a better insight into these digital efforts. Let me take you back a few years in time. We started our global digital journey when we decided to digitize all of our processes and harmonize them across our 38 countries. I describe our digital transformation as a three-step process. First, we build a strong foundation. Next, we improve our existing processes.
Third, and finally, we unlock the future value that we see in the world of work. Okay. Now, let's discuss these three steps in a bit more detail. When we started the digital transformation, Randstad was still based on a very successful decentralized strategy. However, the demand for more digital solutions kept increasing, and we wanted to transform faster. To further improve our ability to innovate at speed and scale, we moved to a more globalized approach. We started with creating a solid foundation consisting of a digital architecture, global IT services, and data management. They formed the groundwork to launch our global digital solutions fast across all of our markets. Transforming a global company with a decentralized history means that you start with a very diverse systems landscape, so you need a clear vision to navigate this. In IT terms, we called it our digital architecture.
We strongly believe in a microservices-based architecture, and in non-technical terms, that kind of architecture enables you to build global capabilities that you then combine differently per market. You can think about it as pieces of Lego, standard bricks that you can use in different ways. To give an example, we created a global parsing service solution that translates resumes and jobs into structured data. Just this year alone, we already translated 6.7 million resumes and 2.7 million jobs across the various markets. That's a good example of how our architecture enables scale, speed, and agility. Now, our next big building block of the foundations are our global IT services. We applied cloud as our global infrastructure, and completing our global cloud migration in 2019 was a major milestone.
It was not easy, but we migrated 925 applications across the 38 countries and 50 data centers into our cloud solution in under 30 months. This award-winning accomplishment gave us more agility across our footprint, again, bringing speed and scale. Our cloud infrastructure is also the basis for our investments in cybersecurity, and those investments are critical for every organization that applies digital at scale. Okay, let's continue with the third building block of our foundation, our global data asset, or, as we call it, our global data ocean. One digital location where we store data in a standardized way. As Jacques already mentioned, data helps us to solve the current mismatch in the labor market. But it also steers all of our. Therefore data is key in the Randstad strategy. To build relations and friendships by getting to know each other.
Remember details from every conversation helps you to give more valuable advice the next time around. Well, the same goes for Randstad. Every connection is a possibility to get to know you better. It's the case for talent and for clients walking into one of these beautiful branches. We also connect massively online. You already heard Jacques say last year, 160 million people connected with us via the Randstad or Monster websites or apps. That creates great opportunities to learn more about the talent or client. The better we know them, the better we can serve them and become their valued working life partner. Data-driven insights creates value on two different levels. First, it helps us to better understand the individual needs and ambitions of talent and clients. We can go much further than just matching a job description to a resume.
We advise talent on skills that can be beneficial for them in the next steps of their career. We can help clients to redeploy their workforce when their business strategy is changing. Secondly, on an aggregated level, data from all of the Randstad countries provides us with a constant view of the world of work at large. It helps us to recognize trends, opportunities, and challenges for our clients and talent. We also use the power of data to recognize new opportunities for Randstad itself. For example, data helped us in the pandemic to quickly pivot to sectors and industries where demand and supply were high. Bringing the data from all these markets together creates tremendous value. Today, 21 of our 38 countries are connected to the Global Data Ocean. Very importantly, this gives us also the base to protect the privacy of our clients and our talent.
Today, we benefit from our decision to build these strong digital foundations and with speed, scale, and agility at our disposal. We can now bring digital capabilities to all of our markets at an increasing pace. Okay. Now, with the right architecture, solid infrastructure, and data management in place, we started the second step in our digital journey to improve our existing processes. Digitally improved processes deliver a better experience to our clients and our own 40,000 consultants, but also especially to our talent. Now, I already want to point out to you the story of Chris later today regarding our core values and the importance of focus on talent. Digital makes our processes smart, simple, and efficient. For example, when we are building one global front office that helps our consultants to work in a harmonized way.
At the same time, we also recognize these digital improvements for what they are, a means to an end. Digital solutions helps us to free up time to focus on the real strong point of our consultants, the personal connection. Let me give you two concrete examples of how we are creating a better user experience. We have millions of applicants to our jobs annually, and some of these jobs have over 200 applicants. We want to make sure we respond to 100% of these applicants. We want to support them even when there's no successful match at that time. To create a better experience for talent, we developed a pre-screening and scheduling chatbot using AI technology.
Since 2020, our chatbot already completed over 2 million conversations, and in the U.S. alone, this already resulted in the completion of more than 750,000 self-scheduled interviews. Jacques already showed that it also led to 200,000 placements. That's a great example of the power of second touch. Planning interviews is a very time-consuming task for our consultants. Adding digital capabilities with the chatbot brought us speed and skill. What we also saw, a 70% rise in talent satisfaction score since we started using the chatbot. This kind of digital capabilities also answers clients' needs to match talent at a very high speed. That fits very well with the logistics example that Jacques gave earlier.
We are now starting to scale that chatbot around the world, and please feel free to have a further look at the demo that we created for you, showing the power of our conversation engine. Okay, let's have a look at another example. We want to help clients and talent to plan their work in the best possible way. Therefore, we created Workforce Scheduling. That provides consultants and clients with a platform where they can manage a pool of available talent and fulfill the planning requirements. Workforce Scheduling also provides talents with a mobile application where they can find their shifts and new opportunities, request time off, and clock their working hours. We already scaled Workforce Scheduling across 23 countries. Every day, thousands of clients actively use this digital service, resulting in more than 500,000 shifts that are fulfilled each week.
Workforce Scheduling and the chatbot are both part of our integrated suite of digital solutions, and we call that Relevate. With Relevate, you can choose and personalize the service offerings that you need all in one place from a centralized Relevate portal. Okay. Now it's time to look at our last and final step of the digitization journey to unlock future value. We constantly look at new opportunities for the world of work. Randstad's own digital factory builds innovative global capabilities such as the Global Data Ocean and scales best practices such as Workforce Scheduling. But we also keep a sharp eye on the market and buy or acquire innovations when applicable. As Jacques mentioned, through our own Randstad Innovation Fund, we actively invest in multiple startups in the HR tech world.
I actually dare to say that there are no significant HR tech startups in the world that we have not analyzed over the past few years. We have seen and tested more than 3,200 HR startups, and till now, that resulted in a portfolio of 21 investments and a number of successful exits this year. Let me also show you one of our latest innovations, Randstad Market Insights. Randstad Market Insights pools aggregated data from our Global Data Ocean and then processes it into valuable insights for our clients. To give you an example, when we spot a rise in demand in a specific skill at an early stage, that gives clients the opportunity to reskill their employees. We can also identify scarcity, and that way, we help clients to tailor their vacancies in the market, so they can fulfill them these jobs faster.
At this moment, Randstad Market Insights is live in seven countries, and we are expanding it to 10 by the end of the year and then the remainder planned for next year. It's fully integrated in the market approach of enterprise clients, as Rebecca will elaborate on later in this program. We also use it in our staffing and professional markets. We have multiple other innovations, such as digital staffing, job and talent matching, and also in skilling. To illustrate that, we have built a GPS for careers, and that helps talent to make better actionable career decisions. We guide them through jobs with a bright market outlook and a strong fit with their skills and personal interests. This kind of data-driven approach, coupled with coaching, reflects our unique human-centered approach to skilling.
Also very interesting, driving these digital innovations is our data asset, as both Randstad Market Insights and our skilling solutions leverage the same kind of market data. Unlocking future value also means creating a more transparent, equal, and fair world of work. We invest in our ability to rule out bias and apply artificial intelligence and ethics to create diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workspace. We take this very seriously, and we have a clear set of AI principles to ensure that we use technology in a responsible way. Now, lastly, let me share what we have learned since we embarked on this digital journey, the importance of change management, or as we sometimes say, "Tech is easy, change is hard." The key to this, though, is to make it a joint integrated effort.
At Randstad, we are fully aligned on the approach, and we drive success with all of our countries and functions together. Building systems at scale has become easier, but the main focus is on harvesting the benefits out of our investments. We achieve this with a tight collaboration between business, IT, and other functions. Our change approach builds on this integrated way of working, and together, we make sure that digital is fully integrated into the daily life of all of our employees. The size and diversity of the Randstad Group helps us here. For example, when building our IT organization, we benefit from our own Randstad RT, OC, and job professionals. Moreover, we leverage the skills of our group by combining investments of the countries and of Monster. Rebecca will talk more about these opportunities later, and I've come to the conclusion of my contribution.
I hope you have taken from our digital story that we create the best mix of tech and touch. Based on strong digital foundations, we improve existing processes and unlock future value at speed and scale. That way, we can respond faster to changes in the market, help people, and really build sustainable work-life relationships with them. Don't take my word for it. Have a look at our demos and see our tech in action. However, don't do it yet because you don't wanna miss Rebecca, and she will give you more detail on Monster, as well as some great examples of where tech helps our business to grow. Thank you for coming along in our journey. Rebecca, the floor is yours.
Thank you, René. Hello, everyone. I'm Rebecca Henderson, CEO of Randstad's Global Businesses. I'm here to update on two key areas around Monster and Randstad Enterprise Group. First, a little bit on what we will cover today. I'll give some further color into Monster as a critical enabler of technology for the talent experience. For Randstad Enterprise, we'll see that we are accelerating market share in the enterprise segment across our diverse portfolio. We're gonna take a look at two case studies on what we've actually been doing there. Now, let's take a look at how global businesses contribute to Randstad's differentiation. Bringing together Randstad Enterprise Group, Sourceright, RiseSmart, and Monster, our global businesses are critical to driving Randstad's growth across the whole portfolio.
We do this by moving beyond more traditional talent silos and building more holistic talent models across workforce attraction, engagement, development, and retention. We access the C-suite of the world's largest enterprise organizations, and we've been elevating conversations and thought leadership. This is absolutely working. We are driving market share and creating deep partnerships. While Monster is playing a key role in enabling access and connection to talent through innovating the job platform with a focus on prioritizing the talent experience. This is especially impactful when connected to our concepts. Let's start with Monster. When you reflect back on Jack's welcome, he introduced our differentiating strategy and our goal to become the world's most valued work-life partner. To achieve this ambition, we need to drive exponential conversations in the world of work and bring to life an engaging talent experience across the entire group.
We are rolling out the same technologies globally and inventing them once, and we are lifting the capabilities of a digitally native business across the entire Randstad organization. We envision a future where Monster plays a key role in our digital staffing strategy. You will hear my colleague, Chris Heutink, later talk to you about our right to win in this space. After the session today, you'll receive an in-depth view from Monster's global CEO, Scott Gutz, providing a deeper dive into what's ahead for Monster and the group. Now, Monster participates in a $28 billion global job market that's growing about 10% annually. To get back to our own growth, we have focused the transformation on technology, experience, and ultimately, the business model changes that impact both our talent and customers.
We have taken significant steps and are on track to complete the full transformation in 2022. I am super pleased to report that in Q3 this year, we are back to growth, and our conversion KPIs are improving every quarter. We have the confidence in our ambition to become a leading destination job board and positioned well to take advantage of greater marketing investments to drive further growth. Now for talent, we have a strong foundation in place with the Monster Next platform. The focus is on optimizing the talent journey and the experience. For customers, we have deployed a modern ad tech solution in all markets to support real-time auctions and determine rank and recommendations. We've launched Monster+ to provide guidance on optimizing job postings together with substantial improvements in self-service.
Work continues on building out additional self-service, more robust subscription offerings, enhanced reporting, and access to Monster talent. Now today, all Randstad jobs are hosted on Monster, and on an annual basis, Monster's contributing more than 500,000 applications. Looking across all of our markets and sourcing channels, between 5%-10% of Monster applications end up in a hire. Together with Randstad, Monster is focused on talent-centric journeys that accelerate the work-life career experience. We need to lead more talent to Randstad jobs. We have optimized workflows between Monster and Randstad, and they include Easy Apply, where candidates can use their Monster profile to apply to a Randstad job. Better branding for Randstad jobs. Posting Monster jobs on Randstad websites and platforms, and really sharing underutilized talent between our organizations to help people get more meaningful jobs.
We are bringing together the data engines of Monster and Randstad. This gives us the ambition to create the world's largest data and predictive insights engine in the world of work. This is what's powering Randstad Market Insights, our data platform that René talked about earlier. We'll be involved in more job conversations underpinned by Monster tech and experience. Our collective future includes introducing Randstad-branded job boards in key markets, as well as experimenting with digital staffing platforms and other new business models. Based on Monster's job board tech and functionality, we will be able to significantly grow our global databases with engaged talent. Our aim is to have 30%-50% of the working population in relevant markets connected to Randstad. Imagine having 50% of the working population getting their job through Monster and Randstad. Certainly something to be proud of.
Speaking of being proud, I am especially proud of the Monster team. They have undertaken a huge role in delivering the newest global job board platform in the marketplace. Lots of hard work and dedication by all of the employees and a strong discipline from the leadership team. As mentioned, that's a quick view into the rapid developments at Monster. Moving forward, how do we unlock the full potential of Randstad and the relevance and influence with customers? By combining our number one position and breadth of services with our tech and touch strategy. With this winning combination, we are in a position to serve the largest companies in the world in an unparalleled way.
It's now two years since I had the opportunity to share with you the launch of Randstad Enterprise Group, our global sales and account management model for Randstad's top 130 accounts. Over the last 18 months, we have seen accelerating globalization of enterprise customers seeking more creative solutions to access talent and mobilize across worker types and geographic borders. In fact, today, our customers benefit from one partner to spar with on workforce advisory, orchestrate work across the full spectrum of talent, and deliver the right talent in the right modes of employment and ultimately in the right location, which is even more critical in today's borderless world of work. We have certainly seen that during the pandemic. You also heard René's update on Randstad Market Insights, and you saw the millions of conversations we can have through our channels.
By rolling out a global technology stack and data platform, we are giving our large enterprise clients the peace of mind that our services are coherently delivered and that we can provide predictive insights into what's coming next. Fundamental to our ongoing strategy is clearly continuing to strengthen the entry point to the C-suite with key enablers. Relevate tech and touch customer value propositions to set new standards for client and candidate experiences. The use of the largest data engine to help co-create with clients on new workforce models, invest in market-leading employment brand and consultancy. Lastly, execute world-class global account management models and bringing the best practices to the group based on our new way of working. Moving forward, let's talk about accelerating client development and this top ten view and this view into our top ten clients.
I'm excited to share that we are delivering on our enterprise customer segment promise, and our investment here is paying off. As you can see, we have increased the number of concepts sold into our top ten by 31%, and we've actually increased revenue by 81%. On average, we do business with enterprise accounts in about 12 countries each and deliver 6 concepts. In fact, with our global footprint and governance models for customers, our enterprise revenue grows 3 times faster. Our integrated sales and account management a competitive advantage. I've heard this from multiple clients. They are open to sharing and collaborating on their biggest challenges to drive joint innovation in investments and deliver the best of the best across.
Let me share with you two examples with you on how we are helping to transform the global contingent FMCG with Randstad Sourceright. This is the first of two examples. The first one, which is one of our biggest highlights to share with you, is a EUR 35 billion FMCG client, really one of the most exciting developments in the enterprise portfolio in 2021. In April, we were awarded a large global MSP with EUR 750 million in spend and 30% of the total employee population as contingent talent. They came to us with a big challenge. They had been advised that they had been losing their competitive advantage because they were unable to create a global organization and global governance around their contingent workforce. At the same time, the client was going through their own digital transformation.
They had to meet the changing demands of their consumers, while also the need to upgrade their internal skills for that transformation. We worked in strong collaboration with Sourceright. We created a solid business case for working with one global partner, and we were awarded what was a highly competitive bid. Our ability to deliver value consistently across the world, complemented with global subject matter expertise on a variety of topics, set us apart from the competition, and the alignment of cultures and values cemented the new partnership. The partnership is kicked off with an ambitious go live. Operating our global to local model, we have the potential to take 30% wallet share in the professional space in key markets. Karen will talk about why that's critical to the strategy.
You don't have to win a lot of big MSP deals if you can deliver 30% market share on EUR 750 million in spend. Our current partnership with this client mostly centers around a $50 million blue-collar staffing in three countries and provided the platform to win this MSP with professional delivery opportunities globally. It's a very good example of when we collaborate together in the field and sell together what's actually possible. This is where Randstad Enterprise Group truly becomes the proactive workforce advisor and orchestrator of talent. An orchestrator of talent, creating opportunities to integrate talent solutions across the full spectrum of Randstad's portfolio and services. Now let's move on to Cisco. This client is near and dear to my heart. I'm the executive sponsor, and I've spent a lot of time with them.
In 2019, I watched Cisco really begin to rethink their talent strategy. They were moving from a hardware organization to a software organization. They wanted to protect their consumers, their employer brand, and they had to prepare for their new long-term success. They needed a partner who could assist through the entire employee life cycle. With a partnership spanning 25+ years and an existing global RPO and multiple services from across the group in place, together, we implemented a comprehensive career mobility program that incorporates career development, internal mobility and outplacement all within a single total talent platform. There's no one better than Jason Phillips, Senior Vice President of People Experiences at Cisco, to share how our partnership has evolved and what this means to Cisco.
Here at Cisco, we firmly believe that we exist to power an inclusive future for all. To power an inclusive future for all, you have to have market-leading and competitive solutions around how you acquire talent. To do that, you have to have relationships and partnerships that allow you to play in that space. Randstad is that position for us. It has been a bedrock for us for the last 2.5 decades, but over the last 5 years, it has moved to an absolutely different level. That different level plays out in 2 areas in my mind. First, around innovation, second, around quality. Around innovation, we have been able to be at the ground floor in partnership not only with Randstad but with RiseSmart on being able to step back and rethink what does it mean to go after skills in the marketplace.
We just scratched the surface, but the territory that's coming in front of us is going to be market-leading. The second piece is around quality. We sit across 89 different countries. We hire well over 20,000 people a year. We could not do that without Randstad being not only just an equal partner, but sometimes being at the front end of how we solve this. In summary, if you think about the big picture of where Cisco is going to power an inclusive future for all. Owning the talent, owning the skills, owning the solutions that enable you to do that, we couldn't do without a partnership with Randstad.
That wraps up our update on high-value client partnerships and our continued focus on increasing enterprise market share as a critical growth accelerator for Randstad. You can see how this particular customer segment keeps us sharp, constantly stretching our ambitions and capabilities. I'll now hand it over to Karen, where you will also hear that the enterprise segment is, again, part of her story as a major driver of organic growth for our professional businesses across the world.
Thanks, Rebecca, and hi, everyone. Welcome. I'm Karen Fichuk, responsible for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. I will explain today how we are bringing our strategy to life, creating value through our portfolio by expanding our presence in North America and our focus on professionals. I will talk about the structural tailwinds that are behind the growth in the North American market, especially IT, and why we believe that professionals is a long-term attractive market opportunity. I will also share some real-life examples of our tech and touch approach and strategy. Jacques said, a critical component of value creation is how we bring more structure around the concepts. In addition to leading the North American region, I'm proud to serve as the executive sponsor of the Global Professionals Business Concept team. Let's start and look at the global professionals market.
It's over EUR 140 billion and steadily growing due to talent scarcity, the shift to statement of work engagements, and the increase of remote work. All of these trends play well to Randstad's strength and scale. As Jacques also mentioned, Randstad has only 3% global market share today, but we intend to become a major contender in the professional space in the coming years by putting our clients and our talent first. Clients are looking for an advisor who can provide scarce professional talent and innovative technology solutions. As you'll see today, we've proven we can be that advisor. Professional talent are also looking for an advisor to help connect them with the right opportunities to advance their career and to achieve personal growth. We've proven we can be that advisor too. Professionals is a really broad term describing highly skilled, educated talent.
It represents an incredibly diverse market in terms of skill sets. Across the world, our professional businesses naturally mirror the local demand. For example, we cover IT and engineering, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, healthcare, and even education in some markets. This breadth has worked well for us through the years. Under the concept structure, we are more focused on expertise areas and prioritizing investments to scale the business. Today, the majority of the business is in the IT and engineering spaces, and these specialties are the focus for our future. Here's the good news. We already have an excellent foundation to build on with a multi-country footprint and roughly 40,000 consultants delivering IT and engineering solutions and expertise. Don't just take my word for it. Let's take a look at what our clients say.
Renault is working to modernize the European automotive industry, and they trust Randstad Ausy to deliver the technology they need to bring their vision to life. Our four-year partnership, building high-tech onboard systems, is a testament to the talent quality and the customer service they are receiving. You'll notice that they refer to us as a partner, not as a supplier. I have to say, Randstad Ausy is leading some really innovative projects. Just last week, I learned about an archiving automation tool that they're building for a major aerospace client. They're using technologies like RPA to archive, secure, and analyze the thousands of documents for this client. Another example, closer to home, is our work with a fast-growing multinational apparel company. Our relationship with this client started about eight years ago in Canada, and now we are helping to build their e-commerce headquarters in Seattle.
Recently, I spoke with our local leader there, and she's so proud of how her team has been able to grow that account and attract hard-to-find IT talent. We've really become an extension of the client's HR team. Our fill rates are more than double the IT industry average, and our ratio of female IT professionals is much higher than the industry as well. These are just a few examples of the client partnerships we are building every single day. As we look to create value by expanding our geographic presence, North America's addressable market is just massive. The total staffing market is roughly EUR 140 billion. For every 1 point of market share that we gain, that's $1.5 million of growth.
Today, despite contributing 38% of Randstad's global professionals revenue, we only have about 2% of the North America professionals' market share. Much of that pie to go get. The U.S. market is very fragmented, so focus is key. Understanding where we wanna play and how we will differentiate is critical to our success, and we use our data and our proprietary sales targeting algorithms to help make these decisions. We know one of the largest addressable opportunities for profitable growth is in IT services. It's already the largest segment in our professionals portfolio today. The U.S. IT staffing market represents $34 billion of opportunity, and that doesn't even include the more than $120 billion in IT solutions and consulting market. EBITDA margins are typically higher in this segment, and the IT sector is growing.
It's been incredibly resilient during the pandemic. In 2020, for the first time ever, the U.S. IT staffing market revenue surpassed industrial staffing. We believe organic growth will be achieved through very targeted producer investments, as well as fully optimizing our enterprise account relationships. We also anticipate growth coming from selective bolt-on acquisitions that strengthen and expand our IT staffing and solutions portfolio. Our recent acquisition of Cella is a great example of this. Cella brings new digital marketing and creative solutions to our portfolio, which will enable us to better meet the needs of our enterprise and our existing IT clients. Let's take a look at Cella.
We're all searching for meaning. We all want to be part of something. To channel our unique talents and perspectives. To pioneer a brighter, more colorful future. That's why we're here. We help creative professionals find meaningful work and build careers they love. We partner with organizations to help them innovate and create meaningful change, because we believe passion comes from doing meaningful work, the kind that makes waves. After all, it's what drives us too. We create, consult, inspire, connect, listen, design, teach, deliver. We are Cella. Because when we work with you, we see what's at your core, your passion, and it inspires us every day. Let's put that passion to work.
We are very excited to have Cella in our family of professional brands. Before we talk a bit more about some of our other differentiators and professionals, I'd like to spend just a few minutes on the North American macro landscape. We think it's important to highlight some of the headwinds and the tailwinds in the market. The reality is that we are still operating in a dynamic world right now. Let's start with the government. President Biden's infrastructure bill passed earlier this month, although it was a scaled-back version of the initial Build Back Better plan. The approved bill focuses on investments in roads, railways, bridges, and broadband internet. There are still many questions out there. How will it get paid for? Is there more to come?
I want you to know that we monitor all of this very closely, and we're ready to act on the policy changes that could impact our industry. Despite the enhanced federal unemployment benefits ending in September, talent scarcity remains the number 1 topic right now with clients. We saw a positive jobs report this month, and labor force participation is slowly improving. We're seeing increases in our talent working, and the gap to 2019 continues to narrow. In some areas of the business, we see very strong fill rates in recent weeks, and I'm encouraged by these positive indicators. Talent scarcity is very real, but our market, our performance is proof that we are solving for it. Our large talent database, complemented by Monster, gives us an advantage here.
I also want to point out that while talent scarcity has presented challenges, we are benefiting from it in several ways. First, from pay rate increases. Our Randstad Market Insights tools, as presented by René, provide some compelling data for clients to increase pay rates, and this data has been an important enabler of our pricing discipline. Talent scarcity has also positively impacted our perm business in both professionals and in staffing. In fact, demand for our perm services across many skill sets is at an all-time high. In IT, where we go to market with an end-to-end strategy, meaning we sell and deliver temp and perm and solutions, we made history with the highest recorded perm quarter this year. Our performance is strong and the North American IT opportunity is clear. It's also nice to see external validation on how we're winning beyond simply the numbers.
The Everest Group produces the industry's most trusted analysis of service provider capabilities. For the first time this year, they assessed more than 20 U.S. IT staffing firms based on strategic vision and service capabilities, among other factors. I am so proud to say that Randstad was named a leader, the highest rating possible, primarily due to our portfolio mix, our vision and strategy, innovation and investment, and our delivery footprint. How do we continue to win? I believe there are four keys to our success, specialization, our customer relationships, innovation, and staying talent-driven. We are specialists. Specialization matters and focus wins. We specialize by customer, by industry, and we align to market demand. There are specific expertise categories within IT, like AI and machine learning, and even certain roles like cloud engineers or full stack and mobile app developers, to name a few.
Customer relationships and our sales approach enable more strategic partnerships. Large customers are a reliable source of revenue. In fact, our top 25 IT clients represent 54% of our revenue. Again, we are continuously pushing to maximize wallet share in current enterprise accounts. MSP clients provide great access for us to sell high-margin professionals and statement of work, as illustrated by Rebecca's example. I have a data point here that I'd like to share on that. If we look at the MSPs managed by Randstad Sourceright, our relative share of wallet increased substantially over the past 3 years by almost 20%. As we get better and the market moves more towards integrated, contingent, and statement of work solutions, we feel we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth in the enterprise segment. The second area is innovation.
A few examples of this I'd like to highlight as René presented. Number one, our proprietary AI-based job matching remains one of the top sources of traffic to the Randstad U.S. website and a top source of talent interviews. Next, according to the Everest Group, Randstad is leading its peers in this category, thanks to how we use technologies to create seamless experiences for both candidates and clients. Lastly, we have the ability to map supply for a specific client demand. We can show our client in Paris the total global talent pool for software developers. We can also show that the talent in that pool that is French speaking. Lastly, we can show where those talents are located. The most important thing is that we stay talent- driven. We're using talent scarcity to our advantage by positioning Randstad as a career partner of choice.
For example, now, after 30 days working with Randstad, all of our temporary IT workers in the U.S. have free access to courses for the top in-demand jobs. How do we know what the jobs are? How do we advise on the skills that are needed for those in-demand jobs? Our data, of course. In the end, I always like to bring it back to the people. It's at the core of everything we do and why I joined Randstad. Take a look at what our IT talents say about Randstad and why they choose us to be their career partner. In the first quote, transparency, one of our brand promises. In the next quote, "They truly care about me," validation of our tech and touch strategy. Lastly, "They saw my potential." We couldn't have said it better. It is our mission.
Of course, our success wouldn't be possible without the internal associates on the front lines every single day. We have over 6,000 employees in North America who are bringing our tech and touch strategy to life. I can't say enough about how proud I am of our team's agility and perseverance over the past 2 years. We've achieved above-market growth in North America, and our employee engagement scores are best in class. I attribute that to our great culture. Now I will turn it over to my colleague and the keeper of our culture, Chris. Thank you.
Thanks, Karen, for the nice intro, and great to be here today in the Utrecht branch, our flagship store, where it all started for me 30 years ago. I worked here as a consultant and also as a branch manager. It is actually here where I experienced what the meaning of work is for an individual, for a person. It is here where I saw what kind of impact we as Randstad can have on people's working lives. In the coming 15 minutes, I will touch upon the staffing concept and on the influence of digitization in the concept. You will see, as you saw earlier today, testimonials of our clients, one on in-house and one on workforce management. I will also spend time on our talent strategy and on our foundation.
In this branch, as said, I started as a consultant, doing what I like to do most, giving people a job, to support talent in finding the best job for a person and to support clients in finding the best person for a job. All those hundreds of thousands, who through that effort, have developed themselves as individuals and as professionals. Some of them making first steps into the labor markets, some of them are making next steps in their career. We created a culture, a company that led to today's number one position in the world of work, a number one position in the HR service industry. Today's culture of service, knowledge, and trust is allowing us to grow faster than anyone else, time and time again.
We proudly coin the work as the best job in the world, and for more than 60 years, we've been growing this job globally, attracting passionate people to do what we do day by day, serving our clients, serving our talent, and building sustainable relationships long term. We developed the best team of 40,000 HR professionals in 38 geographies to do so. All that work and its meaning fuels our growth based on our tech and touch strategy. Staffing is at the core of what we do. It is about delivering the right talent at the right time in the right amount and quality. We are integrating this model with digital solutions in order to provide even more value for our clients and talent. Over the last decade, the industry shows a resilient 5% CAGR.
Randstad has outgrown that pace at 6%, and our current global market share is 7% in this very dynamic market, and we are focused on growing and leading the space for years to come. The staffing industry evolved significantly over the years. Change is the new norm. Our role in supporting economic activity by providing talent and the role of work in people's lives remains a constant. We add value to clients in deeper and more embedded ways. We add value to talent in more personalized ways, helping them to navigate this complex world of work. The pace of change and the need for agility and flexibility will continue to increase. Combined with the ability to deliver more through the digitization of our services, we can help clients and candidates even more.
How we leverage our foundation through our concept and digitization is changing, but it's allowing us to grow faster. Our goal is to serve our customers on all levels, as shown in this graph, which enables us to increase our share of wallet. We are evolving our business model from transaction services to long-term partnerships, offering matching portfolio concepts to our clients' needs. A great way to show what we mean by long-term partnership is through two client videos. Scania Leasing House and Bosch in Staffing. Both will talk to you about long-term relationships and the value of it, the power of labor market knowledge, showing the evolving business model over time from delivery of the right talent to data-driven advice on total workforce management. Let's have a look.
Scania is a heavy truck company. Here we produce the components, the painted components. If you stand in front of a Scania, you see only the parts produced here in Meppel. Meppel gives Scania the face. One of the challenges is, of course, to have enough personnel. Randstad can provide us with good personnel, and we have to do this together. They have an internal office here in our service, so they take care of the intake of personnel, the selection of personnel. That's completely handled by Randstad. Over the years, we built a good relationship, and that's also necessary because we have to give them insight in our market, which is company confidential. Over the years, we built a kind of trust. We keep Randstad very well informed about our specific market.
We predict, let's say, an increase of the market or a fall of the market. On the other hand, Randstad can help us with the local labor market, and we don't have that knowledge. If you add it all together, then we have a complete picture. They anticipate and provide us in due time with personnel. What I see is we have a lot of people with potential, so I see growth for them in the future.
Bosch is a multinational company. Our main activities are in the mobility sector, so mobility solution, but we are also present in other sectors like consumer goods and of course, also in the industrial technology. We need to react very fast. I think what Randstad offer us is a kind of preparation for all the associates with technological training in order then to be ready immediately where the needs of workforce is demanding. One of the positive aspect of the collaboration with Randstad has been the proactivity from all the Randstad associates, of course, in the different sector. Proactivity is one of the strategic asset of our collaboration and cooperation. Last but not least, the human touch is fundamental. It's one of the aspect why we selected Randstad as a partner.
In all the testimonials you saw today, clients said that the model is evolving more digitized in many parts of our delivery models. It is evolving and expanding to new forms of work. Digitization is improving our services. We will be even faster and better and enable client and talent customization at scale. The unique combination of the largest talent pool, our broad and large client network, the long-term relationships, all combined with digital solutions, gives us the opportunity to be in the front, leading also in digital staffing. Going forward and talking about differentiators, we elected a few priorities. First, we want to leverage collaboration. Secondly, high priority on digitization and data, unlocking the power of data. Thirdly, we will have a relentless focus on talent and the talent experience. The expectations of our talent are clear, personalized, relevant, faster, multi-channel experience throughout their careers.
Learn and perform and be ready for the next opportunity at any time. We are creating the best talents experience in the world, and we will be the biggest talent engine in that world. Scale in combination with quality and speed. The world of work and talent is an exciting space to be in. It is dynamic and changing every day. We are lucky to operate in that space, and we lead through helping talent and clients daily. We are convinced that in a world of work, changing every day, there's one thing which remains a constant. I said this before, but it is the relevance of what we do, the relevance of work and the responsibility that comes with it. That responsibility is our source of energy.
It is why I still wake up every morning and come to work to try to contribute to all those individuals we impact, and it never stops. Conversation by conversation, job by job, person by person, client by client, talent by talent, until we reach the 500 million. I see this word cloud as a long-lasting inspiration of what we do. At the same time, it shows how our digital capabilities enable us to get insight into trends. We talked today about this branch we're in. We talked about the market. We talked about clients. We talked about talent. We want to finish with the one truly differentiator in a people service business. We have onboarded close to 5,000 new colleagues this year.
Talent is top of mind in every company, but in our company, it is who we are, a people's business operated by our talent. For over 60 years, we have communicated we have the best job in the world. Our reason for success is down to every single person that contributed to this, our consultants, our clients, our talent. We have more than 40,000 colleagues, and that makes a culture, and that culture enables us to know more, to trust more, and to serve more. We've done that for the last 60 years by not cutting corners, being honest to ourselves, simultaneously promoting all interests of those we interact with. It is with this culture that we can attract more people. We did this in the past, we do this today, we will do this tomorrow. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris, and thank you to all our board members for today's insightful and inspiring presentations. Now it's time for a very short break of around five minutes before we go to the Q&A. We invite analysts and investors to present with us today to ask your questions live on screen in this virtual meeting. If you have a question, please use the Raise Hand button on your screen. One of our colleagues will then put you in a queue. You can use the Raise Hand button as of now. For those joining us through Zoom, you can now use the conference call line to join the queue. We will see you back in 5 minutes. Thank you.
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the second part of the Capital Markets Day, the Q&A.
All our board members have joined us here on the stage, as you can see. As I mentioned earlier, we invite analysts and investors to ask your questions live on screen. If you have a question, please use the Raise Hand button. When it is your turn, we will open your line, and we kindly ask you to turn your camera on when speaking so we can make this virtual session as interactive as possible. For those on conference call line, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad now. We will take questions from the conference call line once we've completed the questions through the online platform. Let's start with the first question, and that comes from George Gregory, BNP Paribas. George, please go ahead.
Thanks, Bisera, and thank you, everyone, for your presentations. I had two questions, please. I hope that's okay. My first question is about Monster. Keen to know how you think about Monster and what you really think Monster looks like in the longer term. Do you think a traditional job board is relevant, given in the long term, that is, given the increasing use of targeted marketing? Or rather do you think Monster evolves into more of a jobs marketplace? My second question really links into the first, which is how do you think about the longer term potential for end-to-end digital staffing platforms?
Do they become more relevant, or do you think the current balance of tech and touch remains broadly constant? Thanks.
Thank you, George. Jacques, l et me hand it over to you.
Thank you. Hi, George. Good to see you. Your hair is long.
On Monster, I'd like to pass that one to Rebecca.
Thank you. Thank you, George. Look, we've had a significant investment, in Monster, to be relevant in the job board market as it is. We do believe in the job board platform as a job board and a growing marketplace. That market is growing. Monster's begun to grow as well. I think as a job platform, it remains relevant, and I think job seekers will continue to go to these platforms, look for jobs. Employers will continue to post jobs there.
Now, the expansion of that, I think, also exists as a community for individuals to come together, get content, get more information on looking for a job, and ultimately be connected just on a higher connection level, potentially, using one of our consultants, to get their next job. I believe that will also continue to evolve, bringing together the tech and touch, kind of that second part of your question. Certainly it could evolve to additional capabilities where there's far more part of the matching taking place in that platform, all the way to the end result of getting a job? Certainly, that's something we're gonna start experimenting with, as I mentioned, in my prepared comments.
Thank you. Rebecca, spot on. We're not just Monster. We didn't acquire Monster for Monster. It is a front door to get into the Randstad family, where we support you and help you throughout their working life. I think if you're just a job board going forward, it might be tough over time, but again, we'll see. On digital staffing, we're watching this space. We already 7 years ago had Ploy, fully handheld mobile enabled temporary solution in the Belgian hospitality space. It didn't fly, although it worked seamlessly. We're still doing experiments. Maybe, Karen, you can elaborate a bit on what we just started in Texas in the U.S.
Thanks, Jacques. We just launched our experiment in the U.S. this week in the Dallas market in one branch. This is an omni-channel solution, so it's a bit different, I think, than some of the other previous marketplaces that we brought to market. It's really all about testing what is the value of tech and touch in the experiment. Like I said, it's in one branch. It's in our general staffing area. We just onboarded our first talent today, so we're super excited about that. I think the difference in this one is it's truly omni-channel in that clients and talent have a choice in terms of do they want a digital transaction or do they prefer the human touch approach.
That's really what we're gonna learn from that. I think the other big difference is obviously speed is a component of anything that's digital, and convenience because you can do it on your own time. Lastly, the right to choose or the option to choose and for both the talent in terms of choosing the job, but also the employer choosing the talent. That is, a true marketplace experiment that we're really excited to learn from.
Thank you.
Thank you, Karen, and thank you, George, for asking the question. I understand that we have a couple of people waiting also in the conference call. Let me now turn over to the operator. Operator, please put through the first question.
Our first question comes from Anvesh Agrawal from Morgan Stanley.
Hi. I got three questions, actually. The first one, Henry, you said at the beginning that we need to be cautioned that there will not be an offset of the investment for the margin in the same quarter. Are we expecting an increase in any sort of IT or digital expenditure going forward in FY 2022, 2023, that we need to be thinking about? Maybe we can take all the questions one by one, if that's easier.
Thanks, Anvesh. Let me just expand a little bit on it. What I really wanted to bring across is that for us it's really important to stay healthy in our business, meaning it really future fit. At times, whilst we are having the philosophy that we want to find actually the funds in our own productivity to make those investments, it will not always in the future be a very simple thing to do that. We will not actually cut corners of not making investments if we don't have the productivity as such. Therefore, nothing concrete in the pipeline, but in a context of a capital market say, I just wanted to make that point. Long-term investment is really taking priority.
Okay, that's clear. Then, just on the enterprise's net, which clearly shows some success, and as I understand, Sourceright is pretty much MSP and RPO, but is there a VMS integration somewhere in there that is giving you some advantage? We know that one of your peers sold their VMS business some time back, and maybe you're doing it slightly differently, which is giving you some advantage.
Thank you, Anvesh.
I think this is very much, Rebecca's call.
Yes. Randstad Sourceright's primarily RPO and MSP. We have integrations to all of the large VMSs. We don't have our own proprietary VMS. What has been a competitive advantage is Randstad Market Insights. That does help our clients make some decisions around talent. Connected to Randstad Market Insights, our Talent UX platform creates proprietary talent pools, which gives our MSP clients access to more curated talent, possibly using their brand, possibly using our brand, and then allowing us to source from that and really improving the hiring manager's experience and the candidate's experience. That's certainly giving us a competitive advantage, as I'm sure you already know, we're the market leader in that space in both RPO and MSP, and we think Randstad Market Insights and Talent UX will continue to bring us that advantage.
Anvesh, we made a few calls.
Okay, thank you.
We made a few calls historically, and René alluded to it in his presentation on make or buy. We historically always saw that the VMS as such was not a distinguishing factor. Because what we saw is that, you might have this big VMS with all the features, but over time, if you watched the actual way of working, it was a limited amount of functionality that was being used. We knew it was all about our data. It was all about getting to, not neutral MSPs. I think the space has moved on now very much to direct delivery even, so very happy we don't own a proprietary VMS system.
Fair enough. Just finally on this ambition of 5%-6% margin longer term, I mean, this is not a level which has been hit since global financial crisis. We are in a situation where your revenues are well above pre-pandemic level. What do you really need to see to get to even the bottom end of that range? Is that, I mean, how should we think about the timeframe around it, really?
Absolutely. There's mainly two things if I might take that. A growing top line will bring economies of scale. It does take a bit of discipline to grind those economies of scale out, but we are here as a team committed to do exactly that. The second, probably even more important layer is that we see tremendous opportunity for self-help in the business. The combination of the two things with the support of really very well-built digital tools will definitely make us believe that we can achieve that. That is what we go out of bed every morning and say a growing business need to find higher structural profitability. That is what we are here for.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Henry. Thanks, Anvesh. Before we turn to the next question, let me remind you to ask a question on the online platform, please raise your hand. Of course, if you're in the conference call, press star 1. Operator, let's move to the next question, please.
We now turn to Oscar Val Mas from J.P. Morgan.
Yes, good afternoon, everyone, and apologies for not being there in video. I have three questions as well. I'll take them one by one. The first one, going back to digital staffing, and Karen, I think you mentioned you're looking to trial this market in the U.S., but it seems like in Europe you already have a big customer like Just Eat. Clearly, that those types of businesses operate in the U.S. with independent contractors. I think W2 and 1099. Can you just explain, is there an ambition to enter this more independent contractor market for digital staffing like you do in Europe? Or is it just still the industrial market in the U.S.?
Thank you, Oscar. We'll hand over to Jacques.
I'll take that one, and then Karen will comment on the American angle. We work with Jet in like, what is it, 12 countries now in Europe. As you see, Jet is very vocal about being a real employer and taking care of people, meaning that we, from a values perspective, we don't really like the independent contractor business. It's also very tough to operate in that sense, taking it to a more regulated a temp employership. Maybe, Karen, you can elaborate a bit on-
I think.
What are the complexities there?
I think that that's a great way to explain it, Jacques, that there are more complexities in the American market when it comes to independent contractors. First, in terms of classification, 1099 versus W2. In addition to that, when you look at our general staffing business, many of the jobs that are done by freelancers or independent contractors in the U.S. are at a risk level where we don't really operate today. I think it's just a little bit difference in terms of the nuance of the market. We're focused on contingent or temporary employees with the digital staffing experiment that's underway right now.
Okay, that's very clear. The second question is, again, maybe focused on the U.S., but U.S. IT staffing. Can you just explain? It seems like it's growing very strongly. Is that more permanent or is it more temporary or are both growing equally?
I said we go to market in the U.S. with our end strategy in IT especially. That means that when we work with a client and we're very focused on our large clients in the professionals business, we deliver and sell in temp and perm and solutions, which is really more outcome-based deliverables. That's kind of our sales strategy and our goal in terms of client penetration. We're trying to grow all three of those, right? Especially with our largest clients. Also taking advantage of the MSPs and growing our share of wallet within our enterprise clients as well. This year particularly, we did have nice growth in our perm business in professionals.
I think we see that across the board, in the industry and also in our RPO business as well.
By the way, this is not just a specific U.S. or even IT question. We do see the lines of perm or contingent or freelance or whatever blurring. Back to the One Randstad strategy, which is an excellent term we're using actually in all our markets, as Rebecca said, not just in enterprise. We give clients always a choice. Using the data, using the profiles of the people that are in our database, we give clients a choice. We talk to them about the ups and downs and the pros and cons about those choices. Again, of course, with talent. We do see the market coming, developing from fixed jobs into work in general in whatever shape and form, as long, as everything is well regulated.
That's very clear. Finally on M&A, I think, you pointed out that maybe you'd be more open to M&A in the future than you have been in the past couple of years. Can you remind me which areas would you be looking at to do M&A?
Thanks, Oscar. I'll hand it to Henry.
No, no, for sure. Actually, you picked that up correctly also in my text. We are prepared to spend a bit more time on M&A, I'd say to kind of notch it up a little bit. We feel we're performing very well, and we've earned the right to support some of our winning business with even more bolt-on programmatic M&A. Look, we've always been relatively open about it. We find the U.S. market very attractive. Professionals, IT professionals, especially in geographies like Japan, we find very attractive. In general, wherever we find an opportunity to support our market position, to kind of cement it even more, to get us to number 1 or 2 position, we're interested in. Always in service and support of an organic growth strategy.
That's really important. Applying discipline, looking at EVA and clear road to value creation. That's important for us.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Oscar. We can move to the next question, operator.
Our next question comes from Marc Zwartsenburg from ING.
Hi, Mark. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you also. I'm in Zoom, so unfortunately you can't see me. A couple of questions from my side. First on the M&A, to come back on that one, Henry. Why don't you? You have a strong cash flow. You have a strong balance sheet. Why not go organically after these white spots like in the U.S., the IT pros, like Japan to roll it out yourself? That's my first question.
Actually, we do. We're not excluding that. We have a very active capital allocation policy. We're orchestrating actually higher growth in those attractive regions, and we try to maximize that first organically. Then in the event we see an opportunity, we will add up and boost that with M&A. We predominantly absolutely channel more growth investment into those regions we find attractive.
Now, two add-ons to that. For example, Cella, the acquisition we made, they has capabilities that we don't have, and we can't organically grow them. It just takes too much time. There's also a maximum to organic growth. I don't know exactly what it is, but let's say 25%-30%. We've had those periods for the whole company years ago, and when it's above that, you see that stuff like induction, Chris talked about, culture, management support, it all starts to creak a bit. We know in our long-term models that this will only get us so much. Karen said, what 1% market share in the IT business is, let alone in the American business as a whole. Ideally, we do both.
Let me add one more point. When you look at the addition of people this year, 4,000-5,000 additional people has been predominantly deployed in actually margin-accretive, attractive geographies. That is actually testament to our active capital allocation we're doing.
By the way, it's 5,000 net, which is not to say we hired 5,000 people because we also have turnover of staff. This means that we added more than 1,000, to replace and grow. That is quite an achievement actually.
That's very clear. Thank you very much. Maybe over to Global Businesses. What is the margin potential of that business? 'Cause currently we're in investment mode. You see high growth. Rebecca showed a few examples of large clients like Cisco. What kind of margins can you make in that business and maybe even more important, the ROIC of the business?
Rebecca.
Do you want to lead in?
Let me maybe.
Okay
start with it, and then I'll
It's you.
I'll give it to you, Rebecca. First of all, we see a lot of synergy between our different business models. Quite often we see actually what we offer and where we grow fast in support of the rest of the business. Looking just singularly at margins doesn't make too much sense. Important to know is whatever we do is actually converting very well into EBITDA margins. Where we see those businesses growing, we find a way actually to design a process to get us into margin accretion. I don't want to go into detail of that, what that would be. Do you want to ?
Just maybe re-
Margin aside, we certainly don't think the large enterprise accounts are dilutive to our current performance and to our longer-term ambition. Having said that, we're using that entire enterprise strategy to really drive our higher margin businesses. You heard Karen talk about, wallet share and focusing in on enterprise customers to drive professional. The 70%, or even greater, probably closer to 80% of the spend that we manage in Sourceright is professional. Lots of upside there for us, and as that's higher margin business for us. We're also focused on selling things like RPO, outplacement. Again, those are things with higher margin profiles. Within the enterprise portfolio, certainly don't, like I said, expect any dilution and really just upside from there.
Do I then understand correctly that part of the revenues are booked in the professional segment and part is booked in the RPO business and therefore we can't, like Henry says, single it out? Is that-
Correct.
Is that how I should look at it?
That's correct.
That's right.
Let me make a quick point, then one for Henry. In the second half of this year, without looking today or the guidance given at Q3, the trends we've seen over October into November, we're pretty close to the 5% already, I think. Should we be able to see that 5% bottom end already next year then with a small uplift for where we are now?
I will definitely not leave that. Good question though. Look, we keep on investing into growth of our business. We will see good profit margins coming through going forward. We still need to see a little bit the current trading environment. We gave a trading update. We have a very strong confirmation of the current trend, but we are not declaring victory too early here. Let us take it quarter by quarter. I've said it many times. I learned from the great man next to me that there's a kind of a certain visibility. For the rest of it, we play out scenarios and keep it agile. We're not maximizing for profitability next year.
If it comes through naturally, we will deliver on it. Otherwise, we just take a little more time.
Thank you very much. That was my question. Thank you for the presentations.
Pleasure.
Thank you.
Thanks for your questions.
Thank you, Marc Zwartsenburg. Before we move to the next question, I would like to remind everybody on analysts and investors on our platform, you can ask a question by raising your hand, and in the conference call, you can press star one. Operator, let's move to the next question, please.
We now turn to Andy Grobler from Credit Suisse.
Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Apologies I'm not on video. Three questions from me, if I may. Firstly, Henry, you talked earlier about capital allocation and M&A, which you've discussed to an extent, but also within that, the dividend. I wondered whether that policy was evolving a little bit. You sounded a bit more cautious about taking the business up to kind of that one times net debt to EBITDA. Is that fair or not? I'll come back with the other two questions after.
look, we've, I think we are here today confirming that, the current capital allocation policy we have is supporting our strategy. That's a very, very important point to make. That strategy we're also confirming is predominantly an organic one. We've said we'd want to notch out a little bit, notch up a little bit our M&A activity. That is being done. We're also recognizing that we want to be an attractive dividend payer. That is also very, very important. We're living in a world where actually it's pretty VUCA out there. In that we say operating in the longer term, the business below 1 times leverage is still being seen as the right thing to do.
Let us finish the year in a strong fashion, quarter four, and then for quarter four numbers, we come out with a proposal who tries to find the right balance in all those things I've just mentioned, and I'm sure we will come out with an attractive proposal.
Okay, thank you. Secondly, on IT spend, which you've ramped up in the past few years as the market has been changing. Some of that has been kind of front end, and some of it has been about efficiency and cost saving. Where do you think you are on a net basis now? Are you spending more or saving more? How do you expect that to evolve over the next few years?
Shall I take it?
Sure. Sounds financial.
Look, I think we are still in investment mode, to be perfectly honest. We've decided we want to disclose the increase of IT spend in service of our transformation. You've seen in all our presentations that actually Randstad business is powered by digital capabilities. We also wanted to bring across that investment, we as a team are committed to mainly find this in our productivity. I think that's our responsibility as a good leadership team. It's fair to say that we're still investment case and probably also for some time to come.
René, you can elaborate a bit, not so much on the numbers, but how you are, in a way, organizing and reorganizing Randstad from what you mentioned, a decentralized IT organization and spender to a more global spender while still having local stuff in place.
Yep. Oh, thank you, Jacques and Henry. Indeed, the starting point was that decentralized history, which was very successful, but it also led us to having 38 different setups, different systems combinations. By applying those digital foundations and the architecture vision, it allows us then to make investments per market in a different way. Depending on the maturity of the market, the maturity of our services and the legacy that we started with, you can accelerate specifically where it makes sense, but still applying the same Lego bricks, the same solutions. We see it as one big joint investment.
We run it as a joint investment fund, but we very much together with, of course, the business partners determine where to invest and where to harvest, if you want, eventually leading to a very mature and future-proof situation across all of our markets.
The earliest initiative was what we call global IT services and moving the 9, what was it, 925 applications.
9 applications t o the cloud.
That was sort of a saving exercise basically, apart from security and all the upgrades we got from it.
That started with very hard work lifting all your local applications. The cost of course always comes first. Now we harvest the benefits because we can scale faster solutions like Randstad Market Insights. There's a time lag on your investments and your savings. Overall, I would say it's fair to say, yeah, we balance it out pretty well together.
Okay. Thank you very much. If I could ask one more just on the U.S., and kind of the return to work and the increased participation rate, given how much focus there is from all companies and equity markets too. Could you just give us your views on how quickly that is evolving, and how you think it might shape up in the next few weeks and few months? And maybe which industries you are seeing the fastest return to work from those people that were kind of furloughed, if you like?
Well, I don't know that many are furloughed right now, so I think it's more.
That's probably the wrong term, but.
You do get it. sorry.
It's more about scarcity and encouraging people to go back to work. We definitely advise our clients, on this topic. We do research on this topic. Some of it is about pay rates, and some of it was involved with the subsidies that people were getting from the government. I think that noise is behind us, and we are starting to see a nice, uptick in our applies both on our website but also clearly through Monster. It's not only about pay rates, and that's what we advise our clients on. It's also about flexibility. I think this next phase, of work has changed everyone. Every talent, regardless of their skill set level or the type of job, is looking for some sort of flexibility.
Benefits is also another big topic that employers can use to entice talent back to work. In general, I would say we always have had talent scarcity in the professional IT space, and we actually were able to maneuver quite nicely through that because of the remote work throughout the pandemic. It's really the lower skill set, the blue-collar jobs that have been the hardest to attract talent back, and safety is the last reason for that. We also advise and coach our clients on that one. We are starting to see that uptick.
I had mentioned some exciting trends in our fill rates over the last couple of weeks, starting with the in-house business, which can often be a bellwether of the rest of the business. We're encouraged by that but cautiously encouraged because it's been a long road. I think we all had hoped that when the government subsidies ended in early September, that we would see this faucet kind of go back on and our applies go way up, and that has happened a little bit slower than we thought. , the teams are working really hard. We're leveraging those digital tools. I know you'd all like to see productivity one for one on the digital tools, but we would not be outperforming the market right now if we didn't have the tools that we've developed.
Everybody's working really hard to get people back to work.
If you think about the speed at which those fill rates are going up, can you give us any kind of sense of how fast the change is?
Nah. It's of course quite granular. It's not like what we're doing. We're still outperforming, as Karen said, the U.S. market. it's very tough to say the fill rates are going up in this. That's a bit too transparent, I would say.
Now what do-
Okay, thank you very much.
Okay.
Thanks, Andy Grobler.
Thank you. Yeah.
Thanks. This was the last question from the conference call line, so we will now go back to the virtual questions through the platform. We have Rory McKenzie from UBS. Rory, good afternoon. Go ahead.
Good afternoon. Hopefully, you all can hear me. Thanks very much for the presentations. Two firstly around this margin topic. Given all the digital tools you've described, obviously it might be a bit of a surprise that your FTE count is now 7% above 2019, while organic revenues are 5% above 2019. I was just wondering if there are any areas that you need to do more cost adjustment, as maybe the picture is now a little clearer, or whether it's more about driving a higher incremental margin in the years ahead. Almost on the other side of margins, can you talk more about pricing? Mix moves around the numbers a lot from the outside, so can you talk about how your like-for-like fee rates, margins have evolved over the past strategy cycle?
I'm interested to hear how the new tools you've talked about, like Relevate, or Randstad Market Insights, get valued and priced into contracts. Thank you.
Those are a lot of questions. Let me first give the general sense. We wanted to benefit from the upturn of the market. , our job is an art, it's not science, so you just put in people. What we saw, for example, was that perm came back way quicker than I would have expected on a normal cycle. We're happy that we put in all these people, because otherwise we would be too late. , if a choice, too early or too late, we always do the too early, as you can see in our performance. It sort of matures once we, are shooting for a higher ICR whenever we see the market tapering off a bit.
Andy, maybe a bit more color, you mentioned in your presentation here on its not a like-for-like every day and on pricing also.
Maybe just kind of one.
Maybe, and then Chris on pricing, maybe, because we're driving this quite a bit.
Maybe if
It's always nice. Jacques is always giving me business.
Let me maybe kind of make a remark to all three points. First of all, I think it's fair to say that we're very, very happy with our decision to early invest, and it's also fair to say that we probably, as we speak, still carry a little bit of extra capacity to grow with us. Are we happy about it? Yes, we absolutely are happy. I mean, talked to many entrepreneurs, businesses who are really struggling to find people now, and we are in a very, very good position to still have capacity on board to grow further. As far as pricing is concerned, we really take that super seriously. Gross margin is the machine room of our P&L. I would say that maybe too often that machine is very, very well oiled.
What we wanted to demonstrate today with a chart I had in my presentation, that we actually track more than 300 combinations of jobs in countries where we measure bill rates, revenue we get out of it, literally all 300 every week. We put that on a line. When the line is on the diagonal line, then we are actually pricing for margin. Sometimes we're actually pricing a little bit more, sometimes a little bit below. Then we go back to the business and say, "Hey, there's an action here." Chris, it's probably. Do you want to talk about our gross margin program a little bit more?
Yes.
Yes, of course, we started a growth margin program, I think, beginning this year because we want to leverage also the scarcity. We have to do more to find the talent and to bring the talent to the client. For sure we are pricing this. That's also accepted by the market. That's a good sign that this is a reasonable thing we are asking for. Coming back to your questions on digital tooling and can we bring it into our contracts and price it also. It's more about value-based pricing, I think, and we use this tooling to show clients that it's very difficult to get a profile in a certain geography, and in a certain sector or segment.
By using those data, we can really show them that it's quite difficult to find people and therefore, we always try also to price it. That's what we're doing. Of course, the mix is favorable because perm is growing, as Jacques said. That's driving up our gross margin actually.
If I may, sometimes we do it, provide our tools with a different brand name to the client, but it's not our objective. We are good at staffing and professionals. That's our core, and we build the solutions around it. It's not our aim to price those kind of solutions. It should be part of the total way of business. Yeah. As I mentioned, Relevate is not a profit center, if I want to elaborate on what you're saying, René. But what I mentioned in my presentation is that, when we started all this five, six years ago, we were very excited about individual tech tools. Now we say, "No, actually it's a suite." We help you with whatever you're struggling with as a client.
We’ve given this overall name, Relevate, relevant elevate, to you know improve people's lives, our talents and our clients. That's why we call it that way, to give it a bit of oomph and a bit of recognizability.
Thank you, Jacques. Rory, do you have any further questions?
No, that's great. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Rory. This was also the last question for today, which brings me to the end of our virtual Capital Markets Day event. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. Of course, thank you also to all our board members for today's presentations. In case you have any further questions, please contact our IR team, myself, and Akshay, and we are happy to assist. I would now like to conclude the official part and hand it over to Jacques for his final remarks. Thank you.
Yes. Well, thank you. That was all we prepared for you. I think as you can see, we had fun doing it. Ideally, not in a virtual way, but I think we tried our best to connect with you. What did we try to, show you today, back to my first slide. As a sector, we're more than ever relevant in today and tomorrow's labor market, where people are unsure about their future in the labor market, where clients are increasingly unsure about where they're going with their own workforce and how to get the right workforce in future. We talked a lot about the traditional recruitment model. We do see, for the first time ever, structural scarcity and mismatch. This is not gonna go away. This is gonna be worse.
We actually think, and I mentioned it when I presented Q3, that economic growth might stall because of the lack of available people. We are very much advocating to put everything we wanna do as a society, climate change, Karen mentioned the infrastructure bill, to have a paragraph and a plan on how to fuel this with people. Market is a growth market. We have shown that in the last few years and it's gonna continue. We hope to have shown you that not just on our Relevate, still small position, but also in what we're seeing in the gig economy and all sorts of things that will drive growth for the market. We're well positioned. Data is our big asset. It's never finished, and René, you can.
Well, he mentioned a few great results, but we think we're at the beginning of all this. Marrying that with our, call it working core processes, our concept. Henry just called that self-help. There's still so much more we can do. I think that motivates us all to take the second step. Lastly, very important, culture eats strategy for breakfast. We're a value-driven company. We're at the core, a family-based company, and I think that at the long term is what makes us compete and competitive and winning in this space. I'd like to point you at some, stuff, demos, extra depth presentations that you can look at leisure in your own time. On Monster with Scott Gutz, our CEO. Scott, well done. Thank you very much.
Randstad Market Insights, impressive presentation, really showing you what we're doing with clients and helping them in this rather intransparent labor market. The gig economy, what does it mean? It's a little bit of elaboration on what I showed you on one slide. The conversation engine, René talked about it. Finally, our talent sourcing strategy. Because talent is really at the heart of what we do, and if you win with talent, you win in the market. Yeah. Then, on a personal note, I'm stepping down, as you might see. It's not because I'm not enjoying myself, but we are the best company in the sector with the best management team in the sector. I've got a great successor in Sander van 't Noordende, who knows. He comes from Accenture, so we think that's a space which is very closely aligned to where we're going.
I'm very happy to be working and handing over to Sander not too soon, huh? I'm still with you at the end of March. Sander's gonna join us beginning of January. We're gonna work all together for the next three months, and then I'm still gonna be with you for Q4, presenting this whole year, which is shaping up to be a great year. I wanna thank you for all the fun we had. Some of you I've known for 15 years. We went to London, we went to Paris. Now we're doing stuff virtual. That's not as fun as it used to be. Thank you also for your comments you gave when I announced my retirement. I wanna leave you with a final video which is all about talent.
Again, if you win with talent, you win in the marketplace. Thank you very much.