Focus Areas

ARPN is a branch organization representing the interests of our members and clients in the relocation field in the Netherlands and is a non-profit organization. The ARPN goals are twofold; the first is to fully represent the interest of our customers and staff members in our negotiations with government and decision makers. The second goal is to ensure and develop the quality of services in the field of relocation.

If you need to speak with any of the ARPN Board members, please find them here:

Chair – Petra Hasselbach of AGS KHZ
Secretary – Esmée Mos – van der Straeten of Altair Global
Treasurer – Cristian van Breemen of i-Mobility Relocation

Government relations

When the Association of Relocation Professionals in the Netherlands (ARPN) was founded in 2006, the first goal was to become an evident discussion partner for the Dutch government on matters as policy development and execution regarding relocation and immigration. Nowadays we attend several structural and adventitious meetings with policy-deciders of the Ministry of Safety and Justice as well as decision-makers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service IND, the Employee Insurance Schemes Implementing Body UWV and the main Expat Centers throughout The Netherlands.

Measurable results

The participation of ARPN in discussions and meetings with governmental bodies has demonstrated to be quite successful on numerous occasions. One of the recent accomplishments of ARPN concerns the salary requirement for highly skilled migrants regarding parental leave (Dutch: ouderschapsverlof). According to the Dutch Labour & Care Law companies in The Netherlands have a legal obligation to allow parents of children – up to the age of eight – unpaid parental leave of absence with a maximum of 12 months and some additional conditions. In quite a number of cases this meant that the salary dropped below the minimum requirement. ARPN brought this legal gap to the attention of the Dutch government. The authorities took fair notice of ARPN’s remarks. Six weeks later IND was given a new adjusted guideline to make sure that highly skilled migrants would not suffer from this legislation.

Proven importance

The aforementioned example underlines the strength of ARPN’s lobby. The Dutch government – and the affiliate governmental bodies – considers ARPN as a respected partner on the broad field of relocation and immigration, including the development and adjustment of legal regulations. ARPN has a voice that is heard by decisive parties. The association has proved its importance and truly represents the quality majority of Dutch relocation and immigration specialists. ARPN stands for it members, because these same members have proven their value as well. They make sure that their clients get the best possible treatment; in perfect collaboration with ARPN.

Business Interaction

One of the many distinctive features of the Association of Relocation Professionals in the Netherlands is the mutual exchange of expertise by the associate members. They all make relevant knowledge and experience available to each other in order to improve the general level of relocation and immigration services in the Netherlands on a sustainable basis. The consequence of this vastly appreciated interaction is that all members benefit as a group and also elevate their own individual performance to the highest standard. This is a solid guarantee for innovative relocation and immigration solutions, marked by quality and reliability. Below are two summarized examples of earlier shared information, indicating the areas of interest. Of course there are many more.

Trends in Real Estate (2017)

The relocation market in the Netherlands is a dynamic industry that requires constant updates. The rental market, and its trends in particular, have changed in the recent past. There has been a slight reversal in market sales; the roles have shifted and the rental market is growing tighter. As the sales market is picking up again, an increasing number of people are taking their rental properties onto the sales market. There is a chance that the Amsterdam region will suffer from a shortage in rental properties.

The article continues with vital remarks on housing options, housing legislation and housing prices, thus providing a full insight in the matter of shortage in rental properties and ways to resolve the needs.

Trends in the international removal market

Within a relocation process the movement of the personal effects is a very important and delicate process. This has a high emotional impact on the moving family. Personal effects will need to be trusted to the care of a moving company who takes care of safe and timely movement to a new home. Peace of mind, throughout the whole process, is mandatory!

Performing a smooth move requires a logistic process involving some important parties. We mention for example a move manager and coordinator, packers, movers, air- and/or sea freight carriers, terminal agents and customs officials in both the origin country as well as the destination country.

In this case the article is completed by a number of concrete suggestions to ensure that the removal process is optimized while focusing on customer satisfaction.

Please contact us if you would like to learn more!

Quality Assurance

The Association of Relocation Professionals in the Netherlands strives for excellent quality in relocation and immigration services. Therefore ARPN-members need to prove the standard of their performance by providing ARPN with the EuRA Global Quality Seal to specify the organization process and Key Performance Indicators or the ISO 90001 certificate to outline the requirements the organization maintains in its quality system. This was approved by all members in the ARPN assembly in September 2014. ARPN has the right to terminate a membership when members do not have at least one of the mentioned certifications. Every other year the members are audited by the Quality Manager of ARPN.

Candidate members

ARPN does not only audit existing members to support and maintain the quality level, but also welcomes new members who are willing to comply with the terms of membership regarding quality and other codes of conduct. Therefore ARPN has determined normative KPI’s as a benchmark for both existing and candidate members, whose membership will be approved when they meet the demands as expressed in the KPI’s.

Auditing process

The biannual audit consists of desk research and field research. As a part of the desk research all English documents used for external communication will be reviewed. The final audit takes place at the premises of the member. The audits will be performed by Lanta Consultancy. The certificate will be handed over to the member when the audit is successfully completed and has a validity of two years from date of issue.

Further details about the auditing process can be acquired by sending an e-mail to info@lantaconsultancy.nl. Any other questions about the quality criteria will be answered by ARPN.

Arbitration Committee

Quality and professionalism are major topics for ARPN and its members. They do their utmost best to provide outstanding relocation and immigration services. In spite of all efforts it may however occur that clients disagree with members on the level of quality performance. When both parties are not able to resolve the situation themselves, ARPN turns to the Netherlands Arbitration Institute in Rotterdam for independent mediation.

Education & Training

The Association of Relocation Professionals in the Netherlands attaches great importance to the quality of rendered relocation and immigration services. The market is constantly changing and governmental legislation is developing according to the changes. ARPN has a logical responsibility to make sure that its members are ideally equipped to provide the very best relocation solutions. Education and training are absolutely necessary instruments to maintain the prominent position in their specific area of work, such as Immigration, Housing, Insurance and other major fields. To help them to accomplish this ARPN is cooperating with Worldwide ERC (also known as the Employee Relocation Council).

Management courses

ERC is a worldwide operating global relocation services industry trade group. The organization has an international network for both global and domestic corporate clients as well as the complete supply chain. Initiated by ARPN, ERC has recently brought the GMS (Global Mobility Specialist) and the GMS-T (Global Mobility Specialist-Talent) management courses to Amsterdam. Global Mobility Essentials (a training program for employees who join the international relocation arena with backgrounds in other industries) is currently being developed in cooperation with ARPN.

Human Resource Relocation Education

ARPN also meets the demands of corporate clients of its members. As a result of the desire of the corporate clients to be further educated in the area of relocation, ARPN is the intermediate for professional Human Resource Relocation Education in cooperation with several training partners. One of these partners is The Expatise Academy that recently joined forces with the Erasmus University in Rotterdam to provide the training program International Mobility Advisor, which is certified as a Post-master’s degree. The International Mobility Officer training is also available. Education, training and sharing knowledge and experience with members and their clients is a regular part of the quality programs of ARPN

Focus Areas

Government relations

Business Interaction

Quality Assurance

Education & Training

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