Work happiness as a strategic choice

The content of this blog was written by Stigas

Work happiness as a strategic choice
Schenkeveld is the specialist in growing tomatoes. An ambitious family business with an inspiring and challenging working environment with room for personal initiative and employee development. They produce tomatoes all year round for retailers who value reliability, delivery reliability and consistent quality. Schenkeveld employs only quality-driven professionals who challenge each other. Taking personal responsibility is standard on the shop floor. Not for nothing are the organisation's core values: team-oriented, loyal and respectful of each other.

Flexible shell
Rokien Schenkeveld-Dijkshoorn, marketing manager at Schenkeveld says: "We are growing fast; in addition to the Netherlands, we also have a branch in Morocco. This is a combination of factors; one location we built from scratch in a short time. But merger and acquisition also mean we need a lot of new employees." Besides a core workforce of 70 employees, Schenkeveld has a flexible shell of schoolchildren and temporary workers for seasonal work. At least 80% more employees are at work during the peak season.

Strategic choice in recruitment
The rapid growth at Schenkeveld required strategic choices to manage the recruitment process smoothly. In doing so, the job happiness of all employees is at the top of the list. Rokien indicates: "We are committed to binding international employees. We have a permanent relationship with the employment agency and travel ourselves to the countries where recruitment takes place. There, we actively recruit from both the network of the employment agency and the network of our own employees."
"We believe that people who are happy perform better and you can retain these people for your own company," Rokien said. "Employees who stay or return after the winter you don't have to re-train them. You know each other and you know what you can gain from each other." Schenkeveld thus made the strategic choice to realise through work happiness, better job performance, better products and good returns.

Investing in the employment relationship with everyone
Schenkeveld makes no distinction in celebrating a birthday, the annual barbecue and, for example, the company party. Besides work, it's also about job satisfaction. In addition, each branch has its own coordinator. This coordinator speaks several Eastern European languages and maintains direct contact with the international employees. Through the coordinator, there is direct contact to ask questions such as: "How are you doing, What are you running into, and How can Schenkeveld help?". Questions about living and working are resolved by the coordinator. Even something practical like a pay slip can be explained by the coordinator. Answering questions directly is important. This way, the international employee can be sure that the salary payment is correct. This prevents distrust and feelings of unease.
Project Work Happiness
Schenkeveld wanted to gain more insight into what resonates with employees. What is needed to enjoy their work? What do employees themselves think about this? Rokien explains: "Two years ago, we started the Work Happiness project. We wanted to get a good insight into what is going on among our (international) employees. What makes them happy?" Schenkeveld herself developed a multilingual survey with the topics: talents, relationships, meaning and autonomy. The survey provides insight into what is going on among employees. The feedback distinguishes between branches and temping agency. Employees remain anonymous. However, the response is broken down by country of origin and age group. Last time, over 80% of employees completed the survey.

Structural commitment to 'work happiness'
Rokien explains, "We have moved from project-based to structural at work happiness. Now we have a target figure, we want at least 70% of employees to complete the survey. Last time, this turned out to be 80%. We are happy with this high percentage. It gives us good insights. We also think it is a sign of employees' commitment to our company. For us, the biggest problem is the high turnover among temporary workers. By focusing structurally on 'job happiness', we want to bring this down."
It also included the external Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS centres on the following question: "Would you recommend someone to come and work at Schenkeveld?" A large number of temporary workers promote Schenkeveld. "Something we are proud of!", says Rokien. "We use this knowledge again. For example, at the annual barbecue, many employees take photos. These photos are posted on facebook for the home front and make Schenkeveld visible in the network again."

Communicating with your employees
At Schenkeveld, a lot was done with schoolchildren in WhatsApp groups. Schoolchildren can be reached in an accessible way this way. Rokien says: "We would like the same easy contact with our temporary workers. Moreover, a Whatsapp helps with the language barrier. At least if you include a translation function." The key question for Schenkeveld was, when does the Whatsapp have value for the employee? For international employees, earning money plays a big role. Including the bonus to be earned in the app became the starting point. This way, the employee can immediately see if something extra is earned. Together with bQurius, the MyWorq app developed. The app is the front end. Rokien cautions, "You need a lot of links to get from a bonus in the app to a payment in the employee's bank account. But with the app, we now mainly have a direct line to communicate with our employees." Rokien concludes, "Work happiness as a strategic choice brings a lot to our employees and to our company. We continue to learn together with our employees, building on a great organisation that delivers first-quality tomatoes. We are giving hands and feet to our motto: Tomorrow better and happier than today."