Criterios y bases para la ingenieria de detalle

BUSINESS MODEL

SPECIALISED IN A

CERTAIN MARKET

SEGMENT

26%

74%

USG People actively promotes employee development and investments were again made in various areas in 2013. A new Management Development Programme was set up in cooperation with Vlerick Business School in Leuven. The aim of this programme is to support talent management and succession planning within our organisation. In addition a training programme for senior management was successfully completed in June 2013.

A great deal of attention was paid to measuring the performance and potential of senior management objectively within the organisation in 2013. This involved implementing a web-based assessment process. This gives us a better handle on specific development needs and a better insight into succession issues. In 2014 USG People will continue to invest in the development of its employees. Courses will be accessible to both employees and line managers via web portals from 2014. This will lower possible hurdles. Furthermore the onboarding of new employees and important functional training courses need to deploy employees quickly and efficiently will also be facilitated in a web environment from 2014.

USG People is in regular consultation with employee representatives. In 2013 the Executive Board and the Central Works Council in the Netherlands met 15 times. Two of these meetings were also attended by a member of the Supervisory Board. During the meetings the parties consulted on matters such as the plans relating to the execution of the strategy, including the divestments made, changes to the governance structure and corporate organisation, and project United. Various matters relating to labour conditions were also discussed at the meetings, including pension arrangements and the 2014 remuneration policy. The Central Works Council in the Netherlands met a total of 24 times in 2013.

In the coming years we want to focus even more on the sustainable deployment of all our employees, with specific attention throughout for training and development opportunities for our staff.

Composition of staff SEGMENT General Staffing Specialist Staffing Professionals COUNTRY Netherlands Belgium France Germany other AGE < 30 31-40 41-50 51-60 > 61 YEARS OF SERVICE < 1 1-2 3-5 6-10 11-20 > 21

OUR OFFICES

Branches

The number of branches decreased considerably in 2013 due to the various organisational changes and the execution of the distribution policy. Divestments meant that the number of group branches declined by 193. And the restructuring of the organisation and execution of the distribution policy led to the consolidation of a number of branches. The total number of branches in the ongoing operations has consequently been reduced by 156 branches in 2013 and the network consisted of 797 branches at the end of the year. This number will drop further in the coming years due to the merging of the brands and the implementation of the distribution model. This will not impact the geographic reach of our activities. The function of the physical branches has changes in recent years, due in part to the increased use of technology. The internet and mobile devices are increasingly used to make contact. USG People is adapting its organisation to this trend by using technology more in combination with ‘new’ types of branches. The large branches are increasingly serving as specialist knowledge centres. Unlike the traditional branches, these branches are not located on the high street but in easily accessible locations. The functions of these branches are aligned to the current needs of clients and candidates alike.

In 2013 USG People also combined its headquarters in Almere in one building. The Dutch organisation was previously located in two buildings, meaning that both costs and CO₂ emissions have now been reduced.

Shared service centers

USG People uses shared service for the facility support and back office activities of the operations in each core country. The shared service centers provide efficient, high-quality, knowledge- intensive support for the field operations. This is achieved by constantly improving, by using lean processes and by sharing best practices. The satisfaction of the operating companies that use shared service centers is measured annually. Satisfaction improved across the board in 2013, resulting in a very high score. Quality improvements were again made within the shared service centers in 2013. The level of automation and the knowledge level of the employees were further increased. And the flexibility of

the cost structure was increased further, enabling expenses at the shared services to effectively be aligned to the volumes at the operating companies.

Large projects were executed in a wide range of areas in 2013. In the Netherlands the organisation signed the Horizontal Supervision Covenant with the tax authorities. The covenant supports USG People’s tax control framework. 2013 was also a year in which the head offices in Almere were merged, the USG Professionals locations were rebranded and the revised distribution policy of the operating companies was facilitated by the shared service centers. In Germany the centralisation process was completely finalised in 2013, meaning that all operating companies now use one shared service center in Munich.

USG People also reshaped its procurement policy in 2013, embedding sustainability into the processes. For example, USG People already purchased green energy for its head offices and for a large number of its branches in the Netherlands, and in 2013 this was expanded to the entire branch network. This is also being done in the other countries. And in the course of the year more than 90% of the office supplies were purchased sustainably. While focusing on energy usage and lighting, we launched an initiative at the end of 2013 to substantially reduce the CO2 footprint of our furniture.

OUR TECHNOLOGY

The use of technology plays an increasingly central role in the services provided by USG People. That is why we are constantly investing in the development of technical applications in our business processes and in the services we provide to clients and candidates. In 2013 there were many developments in our online and mobile capabilities and an innovative communication platform was rolled out within the organisation.

In April USG People acquired a majority stake in Adver-Online, a Dutch company active in the field of online labour market communications and recruitment software. The acquisition expands USG People’s capabilities to further develop its online HR services. Subsequently Unique in the Netherlands already expanded its services in 2013 with the introduction of HROffice – the first full cloud solution for all HR-related matters.

USG People also invested in accessibility in 2013. The telephony infrastructure in the Netherlands and Belgium was replaced by an innovative multimedia communication platform that is purchased as a service and is therefore easy to scale and flexible in costs. This new platform brings USG People in line with the latest trends and enables it to set itself apart from its competitors when it comes to communication. The abovementioned investments provide potential for our services throughout the organisation to develop.

2013 2012 DECLINE Start People 423 530 -107 Unique 292 328 -36 Secretary Plus 44 55 -11 USG Professionals 38 40 -2 USG People 797 953 -156

Unifying the brands and innovations throughout the organisation – in the distribution network and in the application of technology – result in higher returns on our expertise and growth. This makes it possible to translate our expertise better into added value for all of our stakeholders. And it helps make our organisation more efficient.

ORGANISATIONAL EXPENSES

In 2013 the expenses incurred by the organisation were reduced further. Underlying operating costs before depreciation from continuing operations were reduced by € 33.6 million, a drop of 8% compared to 2012. Due to the fact that the reduction in expenses was larger than the decline in revenue, the expense ratio improved from 18.2% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 16.9% in the final quarter of 2013.

Upon completion in 2014, project United (which was announced in the second quarter of 2013) will provide annual cost savings of a total of € 38.0 million. A large portion of these savings were achieved in 2013, reducing the annual cost base of the continuing operations by € 16.8 million at the start of 2014 compared to the second quarter of 2013 (underlying expenses in the fourth quarter of 2013 were reduced by € 4.2 million compared to the second quarter). year 403.6 17.9% 437.2 18.4% -33.6 1st quarter 103.1 19.7% 113.7 19.3% -10.6 2nd quarter 102.2 18.6% 112.2 18.7% -10.0 3rd quarter 100.4 16.7% 106.7 17.4% -6.3 4th quarter 98.0 16.9% 104.6 18.2% -6.6 DECLINE € MILLION 2012 REVENUE 2012 € MILLION 2013 REVENUE 2013 € MILLION

THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY