meerwerc X Finqle

"At employment agency meerwerc, it's all about being involved with your staff and working just as hard for them as they do for us. We do this by following current trends and taking innovative approaches. Finqle is a great example of that." – Tijs Vetjens.

We spoke with Tijs Vetjens, the founder of meerwerc.

From Hotelschool to the Arena

Vetjens is a co-founder of meerwerc. In 2017, he started the company Meer Hotello’s while he was still a student at the Hotelschool in The Hague. He shares:

"Like other Hotelschool students, I have a passion for hospitality. I gained a lot of early experience in hospitality, interning at some of the most exclusive hotels. I wanted to centralize that motivation, knowledge, and experience."

He met Gawein Hamers, Jeffrey Hooi, and Mirza van Meerwijk through their company barproducties.

Barproducties has been providing hospitality staff and management for events ranging from 500 to 50,000 attendees for years. They also handle bar placement and sizing, innovative sponsorship deals with drink brands, procurement, and on-site execution.

Together, they now run Mangrove Group. Currently, this group consists of four companies.

Four companies that complement each other

The company barproducties focuses on bar services at events. Previously, they hired staff from external agencies.

To ensure the quality of the bar staff, they decided to create meerwerc. "This way, we can guarantee the quality of our bar staff."

The third company is cupstack, specializing in sustainable packaging and the logistics surrounding it. cupstack offers reusable packaging solutions and supplies to hundreds of clients in over four sectors, including event venues, football stadiums, fast food chains, and corporate offices.

The fourth company is gravitating events, an event organization with a social and community focus. They co-organize Pride Amstelveld and annually host ONE during ADE at the Hollandsche Manege.

"Together, the companies offer a logical and complete proposition. Moreover, barproducties now has in-house hospitality talent, and our staff knows exactly how to handle sustainable packaging. The companies strengthen each other."

We’ve been told that a fifth company is on the horizon. It's worth keeping an eye on these entrepreneurs, as their next venture is likely to elevate Mangrove Group even further.

Above-average pay and just a lot of fun

When asked about the success of meerwerc, Vetjens explains that what the agency achieves is quite remarkable. "I think people just really enjoy working with us." And despite his modesty, that's a huge achievement.

"We pay above average because we focus on effort rather than age. Someone who's 18 can easily earn more than the minimum wage for a 23-year-old. We think that’s fair."

Despite having a workforce of 1,500 people (900 of whom are freelancers), the atmosphere remains friendly and cozy.

"I notice that many employees know each other and meet up at events. They know their bar managers and runners, and we’re always around too. Maybe not at every event in the Johan Cruijff ArenA, but definitely at bigger festivals and hospitality venues."

meerwerc counts the Johan Cruijff ArenA (including all concerts) and festivals like The Crave Festival, Nooit Meer Naar Huis, and No Art Festival among its regular clients. They also supply staff to various hospitality venues in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

"We work for a number of nightclubs and more and more hospitality venues, including Soho House and The Rooftop in Rotterdam," Vetjens adds.

What makes meerwerc special for Vetjens within Mangrove Group is working with people. "We aim for maximum sustainability. For us, that’s not just about reusable cups, but also about maintaining good, long-term relationships with both our salaried employees and freelancers."

Finqle x meerwerc: faster and fully compliant

This summer, meerwerc started using Finqle for the first time.

Vetjens explains that partnering with Finqle just felt natural because he wanted to make things easier for freelancers. He says: "We want to offer our freelancers a safe invoicing experience, not through a platform, but through a reliable and high-quality employment agency."

The advantages of Finqle

Finqle combines direct payments with automatic invoicing. "This makes a big difference for many freelancers, as being self-employed often feels like being thrown in the deep end when it comes to administration," Vetjens explains. Thanks to this partnership, freelancers get paid quickly and no longer need to worry about invoicing meerwerc.

meerwerc has been a long-time client of personnel planner Fleks and contributed ideas for the partnership with Finqle to make things even easier for freelancers.

"Our staff have long appreciated the smooth scheduling of Fleks. Thanks to Finqle, they also get paid quickly, and the invoices they submit are accurate. It costs them little time and effort, while everything is done by the book."

This last point is perhaps the most important for Vetjens:

"With Finqle, we make it as easy as possible for them so they can work safely and efficiently at events and in hospitality. If freelancers are happy with what we’ve arranged for them, then we’ve done our job well. Finqle makes that happen, so we’re very pleased with the collaboration."