Randstad support for Ukrainian refugees.

No. Randstad does not have recruiting operations in Ukraine or Russia. Our outplacement business, Randstad Risesmart, provides career coaching and outplacement services through a partner to a limited number of international companies based in Russia and Belarus. In line with our decision, we will no longer engage with partners to deliver access to outplacement in Russia or Belarus.

While Randstad does not have operations in Ukraine or Russia, some of our clients do. In some cases our clients have contracted with third parties for HR services in these markets and we may include updates on these services in client reports. We are currently reviewing these arrangements and reaching out to relevant clients.

Randstad maintains an affiliate partner network all over the world in markets where we do not have a local presence and business entity. Ancor was part of this network but we do not have any current outstanding activity through that arrangement and we have mutually agreed to terminate this affiliation. 

As you will be aware from the news, sanctions regimes have been significantly tightened in the U.S., the U.K. and EU, casting a wider net to prevent dealings with Russian and Belarussian linked suppliers, clients and financial institutions. It is likely that there will be further developments in this area. We are currently assessing the implications of these sanctions and will adhere to all applicable sanctions.

We are committed to supporting the critical needs of our affected employees, their families and the wider community. This includes providing direct financial support for our employees’ families who are fleeing and reuniting in Poland and other border regions, as well as psychological support and employment opportunities for those who seek it.

There are already over 2 million refugees of this conflict and they are in urgent need of health services, water, and sanitation. We are very concerned with this deteriorating situation and have made an immediate €250,000 contribution to UNICEF to provide aid to those in need. Further to this donation, we launched a two-week fundraising appeal for all colleagues to support as many affected children and their families as possible. Randstad will match all donations made by our employees up to €100,000.

For any employees from Ukraine working at client sites, we recommend contacting their dedicated Randstad representative or local office in the first instance for support. Communications have been mobilized across our business and our teams have been provided with the necessary information to support our employees working with clients.

In Poland, where we have the majority of Ukraine nationals working at client sites as temporary employees, we have provided the following helplines: 

• A helpline +48 22 391 12 11 addressed to Randstad temporary employees; at this telephone number we provide information about the support we offer and give tips that may be needed in the event that employees want to bring their families to Poland.
   
• We have provided an additional helpline +48 22 391 12 10, through which employees can arrange a meeting with a psychologist (in Ukrainian or Russian) and get support in coping with stress, uncertainty and emotions that may accompany them during this period. The helpline number was provided to all Ukrainian Randstad temporary employees.

Randstad is closely monitoring the current situation. We have reviewed the correct configuration of our security controls like WAF, IDS and IPS to ensure protection from any rise in malicious attacks. We have also taken the additional measure to block traffic from high-risk regions to reduce the risk of getting impacted by blanket attacks. Meanwhile, our SOC is on high-alert and monitoring for malicious activities.

In parallel, we are conducting additional reviews of our critical incident and business continuity plans to make sure we are prepared, should we encounter major disruptions of our systems as a result of the situation. At the same time, we have increased our internal communications with our employees to be vigilant of and protected from phishing.

We do see heightened malicious activity like probing, denial of service and phishing/spam. These can be either directly related to the current situation or can be from malicious actors increasing their activities in the guise of the situation. These are handled by the security controls we already have in place.