Agencies place a larger share of Dutch hires than they do in most European countries, and for an international with no local network they are frequently the shortest route into a first job.
They are also widely misunderstood, starting with the most basic question, which is who is paying whom.
The rule that settles that question
Article 9 of the Waadi, the Dutch act governing labour intermediaries, prohibits asking a worker who is being placed for money or any other consideration in return for the placement.
No legitimate agency in this country charges a candidate a fee, for registration, for CV work, for introductions or for anything else.
An agency asking you for money is breaking the law, not offering a premium service.
Article 9a adds the belemmeringsverbod: once a placement ends, the agency may not obstruct you from being taken on directly by the company you were placed with.
Clauses that try to penalise you for going permanent are unenforceable against you, whatever the paperwork says.
The three business models, which behave very differently
Uitzenden is temping, and the important detail is that the agency is your legal employer.
Your payslip comes from them, your contract is with them, and the company where you actually work is the client.
Agency work is covered by its own collective agreement, and a new CAO voor Uitzendkrachten runs from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028.
It changes something substantial: for the first time, agency workers have a right to equivalent terms and conditions with the client’s own employees rather than only equivalent pay.
Werving en selectie is permanent placement.
The agency introduces you, the employer hires you directly, and the employer pays a fee, usually a percentage of your first-year salary.
Your contract is with the employer and the recruiter disappears after the probation period.
This is the model behind most of the professional roles advertised in English here.
Detachering, secondment, sits between the two.
The agency employs you on a proper contract, often permanent, and places you with a sequence of clients.
It suits specialists, and it means your employment protections sit with the agency rather than with whoever you happen to be working for this quarter.
Payrolling and employer-of-record services are a fourth thing again: the client chose you, and the provider only carries the employment administration.
It is common for international organisations and foreign companies with no Dutch entity, and it is worth asking which of these four you are actually being offered, because the answer determines everything in Dutch employment contracts and what you are entitled to.
The agencies with an office in The Hague
Three multilingual specialists publish a Hague address on their own sites.
There are others, including branches of the national chains, but these are the ones whose presence here can be verified rather than assumed.
Blue Lynx is at Koninginnegracht 19, 2514 AB, on the canal between the centre and the Scheveningseweg.
It recruits multilingual internationals across finance and accountancy, business development and sales, IT and software development, engineering, logistics, customer service, HR, marketing and communications, administrative support and executive roles, and it also has an Amsterdam office and offices in Bulgaria and Colombia.
Undutchables is at Noordeinde 202-I, 2514 GS, a short walk from the palace end of the Noordeinde.
It is the longest-established name aimed specifically at internationals in the Netherlands, and it runs offices in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven alongside the Hague one, with its head office in Amstelveen.
Visits are by appointment.
Octagon Professionals is at Maanweg 174, 2516 AB, out towards the Binckhorst.
It is the one with the deepest roots in the international corridor, describing itself as an international workforce partner built on nearly four decades of work, and it covers aerospace, defence, technology and innovation, and international organisations.
Alongside recruitment it offers employer-of-record and payroll services, which is exactly what an overseas institution with no Dutch entity needs.
The Hague International Centre, the municipal desk for internationals, names Undutchables, Octagon, Adams Multilingual Recruitment, Randstad Multilingual and Hays when asked for local options at its own counter, which is as close to an official list as this city produces.
What they will and will not do for you
A recruiter works for the client.
This is not cynicism, it is the commercial structure, and understanding it makes the relationship far more productive.
They are not your careers adviser and they are not obliged to find you anything.
What they will do, if you fit a brief they are currently working on, is move very fast.
The corollary is that being a poor fit produces silence rather than feedback.
Two agencies not returning your calls is not a verdict on your employability; it means neither has an open role that matches you this month.
The answer is breadth and patience rather than more emails to the same two people.
Most placements here go through the same handful of sectors: multilingual customer service and sales, finance and accounting, IT, logistics, and administrative support for international employers.
If your field is Dutch-language professional work, agencies are far less useful, and the argument in whether you actually need Dutch here applies with force.
How to work with them properly
Register with several.
There is no exclusivity in this market and no advantage in loyalty, but there is one real rule: never let two agencies submit you to the same employer.
Duplicate submissions create a fee dispute, and the employer’s simplest resolution is to drop the candidate.
Ask which company a role is with before agreeing to be put forward, and keep your own list.
Be specific about what you want, including the salary.
Dutch recruiters ask for a number early and expect one, and refusing to give a range mostly results in you being matched against nothing.
The figures that anchor a sensible answer are in the cost of living in The Hague.
Say your permit situation out loud in the first conversation.
Whether you need a sponsor, whether you are in an orientation year, whether you hold an EU passport: all of it changes which clients can hire you, and a recruiter who discovers it at offer stage will be annoyed and you will have lost a month.
The thresholds and the sponsor requirement are set out in finding work in The Hague as an international.
Ask about the 30% ruling explicitly rather than assuming a quoted package includes it, because the ruling has its own salary test and its own conditions and a recruiter’s net estimate is not a tax opinion.
And check the CAO.
A temping contract is not a lesser thing under the 2026 agreement, but the terms it carries are the client’s terms, so ask which collective agreement applies before comparing an agency offer with a direct one.
Where agencies are not the answer
The international institutions recruit through their own systems, on their own grades, with their own nationality rules, and an agency generally cannot help you into a staff post there.
The exceptions are contractor, interim and support roles, which is precisely the space Octagon works in.
The rest is in the international organisations.
Diplomatic missions almost always hire directly, advertising on their own sites and LinkedIn pages, as described in embassies and diplomatic employment.
Academic and research posts run through AcademicTransfer.
NGO and social-enterprise work in this city circulates through the Humanity Hub’s board and through networks rather than through agencies.
And if what you actually want is to work for yourself, the agencies are a detour.
Registering as a zzp’er takes an afternoon, the tax consequences are real, and both are covered in going zzp and freelancing.
Coworking spaces in The Hague are where most of that work gets done and where a good deal of it gets found.
For anything else, the counter at The Hague International Centre will talk through the options without a placement fee at stake, and the recruitment agencies in The Hague are best approached after you have decided what you are asking them for.
Sources
- Wet allocatie arbeidskrachten door intermediairs, article 9: it is prohibited to stipulate any consideration from a worker who is made available, so no fee may be charged to a jobseeker for a placement; article 9a, the belemmeringsverbod, prevents an agency obstructing a worker being taken on directly by the client after a placement ends
- ABU, CAO voor Uitzendkrachten: in force from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028, introducing for the first time a right for agency workers to equivalent terms and conditions with employees of the client
- Blue Lynx contact page: The Hague office at Koninginnegracht 19, 2514 AB, an Amsterdam office at John M. Keynesplein 10, further offices in Varna, Sofia, Plovdiv and Bogotá, and the sectors listed
- Undutchables contact page: Den Haag office at Noordeinde 202-I, 2514 GS, telephone +31 (0)70 711 83 00, offices also in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven with head office in Amstelveen, and visits by appointment
- Octagon Professionals contact page: The Hague office at Maanweg 174, 2516 AB, telephone +31 (0)70 324 9300, services covering talent acquisition, employer of record and payroll, embedded specialist teams and workforce intelligence, across aerospace, defence, technology and innovation and international organisations
- The Hague International Centre, finding a job: names Undutchables, Octagon, Adams Multilingual Recruitment, Randstad Multilingual and Hays as local recruitment options
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