As business manager of a small ensemble, Annelies de Bruine also became an employer. And that turned out to be more work than she expected. “I’m expected to know about HR, payroll tax, pensions and collective labour agreements. I have to figure that out on my own. A knowledgeable sparring partner is no unnecessary luxury.”

The reason was clear: Annelies wanted to convince her board that employment contracts work better than continuing with self-employed professionals. “It’s not just about the Wet DBA, it’s mainly about taking good care of your people. But the costs are much higher than hiring freelancers, so I needed someone who could help me with solid arguments.”

Through Zekere Zaak Advies, she applied for a contribution towards an advisory conversation. “Easy and fast”, is how she describes the application. The result was concrete: Touki Delphine has since taken on self-employed professionals as staff and is now building out an HR cycle. “I’m finally on an employment contract myself, too.”

Not all freelancers want to take that step, Annelies notes. “Some choose to keep working as freelancers. But for us, it was the right choice.”

Café Theater Festival had traditionally worked with freelancers. The step towards employment contracts felt big. “The starting point was working only with freelancers. That’s why the first step towards hiring people felt big and risky”, says Christiaan Uytdehaage. Pressure from the Wet DBA played a role, but so did the organisation’s own wish to set this up better.

Through Zekere Zaak Advies, Christiaan applied for a contribution towards advice. The advisory conversation delivered practical tools: insight into the current situation, an analysis of the risks, and a step-by-step plan for the shift to employment contracts.

The result? Café Theater Festival has hired all people identified as risk cases. “The advice was clear and guided us through it. It also helped when presenting the case to the board.”

Looking back, Christiaan is clear: “Without this scheme, we would have kept putting this off.”

With enforcement of the Wet DBA on the horizon, Stichting Digital Playground wanted to check whether its freelancer policy complied with the rules. Lisa Walraven applied for a contribution towards an advisory conversation through Zekere Zaak Advies. “A quick, simple application, everything was very clear.”

The advisory conversation delivered a clear overview of all the options. Based on that, the organisation offered a number of self-employed professionals a contract. “We factored the advice into our decision-making.”

Lisa sums up the outcome concisely: “The scheme helped us get a clear picture of the relevant legislation, so we could make a well-informed decision.”

Stichting Free-DOM faced significant challenges around false self-employment. Marieke wanted to get a clear picture of how, and at what cost, self-employed professionals could be hired as staff. She applied for a contribution through Zekere Zaak Advies.

The process delivered a big step forward in insight, both financially and organisationally. The shift to employment contracts is now on the agenda. “The scheme gave us the room to tackle things, instead of continuing to put them off. We were able to switch our priorities and call in the help we so badly needed.”

When Bureau Vergezicht wanted to put out a new assignment to a self-employed professional, Lene Grooten wanted to be well informed beforehand. “We wanted to know what to look out for.” She applied for a contribution towards an advisory conversation through Zekere Zaak Advies. It went smoothly. “Fast and very clear, no hassle.”

The conversation delivered concrete insights: a risk analysis and a clear picture of the points to watch when engaging a self-employed professional. Based on that, Bureau Vergezicht ultimately hired the self-employed professional as staff. “The advice helped us make this choice consciously and with a solid basis.”

Her tip for other employers and clients: “Ask for advice upfront and be aware of the risks. I’d definitely recommend other employers and clients to take this step too.”

The then-announced Wet DBA was the reason Muzelinck Centrum voor de Kunsten sought advice; a lot was unclear, and different interpretations of the law and its implementation were circulating. The application to Zekere Zaak Advies went, in Ingrid van der Sanden’s words, “really smoothly.”

The advisory conversation delivered concrete tools. “As an organisation, we knew which steps to take, when we’d be entering the danger zone, and how best to communicate with self-employed professionals.” The organisation also received clear guidelines for practice.

In the end, Muzelinck chose to keep working mainly with self-employed professionals, but continues to monitor on a case-by-case basis whether a self-employed professional should be hired as staff instead. “The advice we received has definitely helped us keep making that assessment, over and over.”