Do you have to go looking for “someone junior” every six months? Then the cause is often not the hiring but what happens after day one. Bringing people in is one thing. Making sure they stay, grow and feel ownership of the work is another task.
Do you have a hiring problem or a retention problem?
If you recognise several of these signals, the problem isn't your job ad but what comes after it:
- Junior hires consistently leave within three to six months
- Leavers can't say what would have kept them, because nobody asks
- Every departing junior takes knowledge that was never written down
- Onboarding looks different for each person because there's no fixed plan
Give ownership, not loose tasks
If all you get is loose tasks, you feel like temporary staff, even on a one-year contract. So hand over a bounded piece of the company someone genuinely owns: a market, a customer segment, a process. At Hubby, a VOIDS client, working students worked as founder's associates: thinking along strategically instead of executing from the sidelines. A role like that asks something different of a person than a task list does.
Invest in the first month, not the job ad
Don't spend weeks on the job ad and an afternoon on onboarding. Flip it. In the first month, give someone a clear point of contact, realistic goals and fast feedback. Plan a weekly fifteen-minute check-in on whether the hours, the work and the study balance still work: it costs little and takes out a small annoyance before it becomes a resignation. Note that employees who resign must observe the notice period, and in a fixed-term contract that's only possible if early termination was agreed [1].
Pay like it's structural work, because it is
A fair hourly rate isn't a nice extra but the foundation. The statutory minimum wage is a floor [2], not a guideline. According to the CBS Youth Monitor, young employees (aged 15 to 27) name good managers, a good salary and job security as the most important working conditions; almost all young employees find those three (very) important [3].
Build the second and third role before the first one leaves
A pipeline that sticks doesn't come from one good hire but from an ongoing structure. When a working student is ready to grow, the next role is already lined up and, ideally, a new working student is already coming in. That way knowledge doesn't walk out the door with one departure, and someone who has spent two years building expertise has a reason to stay instead of looking for a starter contract elsewhere.
Look beyond your own network
Research shows personal networks are homogeneous: people have more contact with people who resemble them, including in age, education and background [4]. If you hire only through connections, you mostly meet people who look like those already on the team. VOIDS has its own WhatsApp community of 4,000+ students and starters [5]: that's the size of the community, not of the talent pool.
How long does a working student stay, and how do you plan for it?
In the cases on the VOIDS website, working-student roles run from six months to more than a year [6]. So plan a role with a ramp-up period, a growth path and an early conversation about what happens after graduation. Keep the chain rule in mind when extending repeatedly [7].
Sources
- wetten.overheid.nl: Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 7, artikel 667, geldend per 1 juli 2026, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Rijksoverheid (2026): Bedragen minimumloon 2026, accessed 11 October 2026.
- CBS (2025): Werk: Jaarrapport Landelijke Jeugdmonitor 2025, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Annual Review of Sociology (2001): Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks (McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook), Annual Review of Sociology 27, 415-444, accessed 11 October 2026.
- VOIDS: Community & jobboard, accessed 11 October 2026.
- VOIDS: Voor bedrijven: werkstudenten, cases en werkwijze, accessed 11 October 2026.
- wetten.overheid.nl: Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 7, artikel 668a (ketenregeling), geldend per 1 juli 2026, accessed 11 October 2026.
Transparency: VOIDS connects working students with organisations and therefore has an interest in this topic. We back up facts with sources and connect research and trends to our own experience from practice.
