1ocean final report team3 · 4/33 2. client description 1ocean was founded in rotterdam in 2015 as...
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Research Report
1OCEAN
Government Sector
Consultancy & Change Management
IBMCHM16R3
13th June 2018
By:
Lina Helgersson 0894653
Markus Akbaba 0957032 Luuk Abels 0907864
Jasper den Hoedt 0915128
Team 3
IBMS Coach:
Tony Jongebreur
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Executive Summary
Client description
1OCEAN is focusing on HRM within its operational business by offering an alternative way of working.
People are the most beneficial resource to enrich the organization when it comes to flexibility,
innovation and new projects. This is shown in its organizational structure: 1OCEAN does not have any
labour contracts with its partners and cannot make revenues without acquiring new clients.
Problem definition
The main research objective is to identify a strategy for 1OCEAN to enter the government‐sector.
‘Workplace‐Innovation’ being the key resource of the 1OCEAN, this report identifies how Workplace
Innovation and other potential resources can help the company entering the government sector.
Research findings
Research findings for the four sub‐research‐questions are based on the chosen models for each sub‐
question: ‘Simply Irresistible Organization’‐model (SQ1), ‘Workplace‐strategy for all generations’‐
model (SQ2), ‘Resource‐based‐view’‐model (SQ3) and the ‘Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning’‐
model (SQ4) were identified with the focus on both the government‐sector and the internal
capabilities of 1OCEAN. The research‐findings include:
HNW010 – the workplace‐innovation project recently implemented by the Municipality of
Rotterdam
Key‐Resources of 1OCEAN that have been identified while considering the government‐sector
as a target‐market to address
How 1OCEAN can position themselves and approach the government market according to
their capabilities and resources
Conclusion
HNW010 made the municipality a great workplace with a high degree of innovation. However, it also
shows room for improvement: the ineffective usage of facilities together with the observation of
employees not adapting to the new workplace and to digitalization shows that HNW010 did not reach
its potential at the Municipality of Rotterdam. This brings a negative consequence with it: a decrease
in productivity and employee satisfaction. In order to reach the full potential of HNW010, 1OCEAN can
step in by giving consultancy, training and assistance to management, so that HNW010 becomes
integral to the corporate‐culture.
Recommendation
It is recommended to enter the government‐sector with the given resources. 1OCEAN is recommended
to provide assistance, consultancy and training to top‐management of the Municipality of Rotterdam.
This recommendation matches the advice by 1OCEAN to focus on small‐scale projects when providing
services in the government sector. The Business Model Canvas summarizes all conclusions and derived
recommendations for 1OCEAN.
Implementation Plan
The implementation plan gives an overview on how 1OCEAN can build the right network and
connections to receive the opportunity to enter this bureaucratic and mechanistic sector. A detailed
description related to the Business Model Canvas elements is presented, together with a detailed
implementation plan‐table, timeline, and risk analysis.
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Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 1
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Client description ................................................................................................................................ 4
3. Problem Definition .............................................................................................................................. 7
3.1 Main Objective .............................................................................................................................. 7
3.2 Research Questions ....................................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Research Diagram .......................................................................................................................... 7
4. Research Findings ................................................................................................................................ 8
4.1 Research Sub‐Question 1............................................................................................................... 9
4.2. Research Sub‐Question 2 ........................................................................................................... 11
4.3. Research Sub‐Question 3 ........................................................................................................... 13
4.4 Research Sub‐Question 4............................................................................................................. 15
5. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 18
6. Recommendations............................................................................................................................. 22
6.1 Business Model Canvas ............................................................................................................... 23
7. Implementation Plan ......................................................................................................................... 24
7.1 Detailed process‐description of the implementation plan ......................................................... 25
7.2 Timeline of the implementation plan .......................................................................................... 25
7.3 Risk analysis ................................................................................................................................. 26
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 27
APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................................. 30
A. Findings Research Sub‐Question 1 ............................................................................................ 30
B. Findings Research Sub‐Question 2 ................................................................................................ 33
C. Findings Research Sub‐Question 3 ................................................................................................ 37
D. Findings Research Sub‐Question 4 ................................................................................................ 40
E. 1OCEAN Interview transcript ......................................................................................................... 43
F. Odette de Koning Interview Transcript ......................................................................................... 54
G. Ria Semil Interview Transcript ...................................................................................................... 65
H. Marco van Dongen Interview Transcript ...................................................................................... 67
I. Ishikawa Diagram ............................................................................................................................ 70
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1. Introduction Third‐year students from the Rotterdam Business School were asked to conduct a research which
focuses on generating an entry strategy for the Dutch consultancy‐firm 1OCEAN.
The purpose of this project is to support the Rotterdam‐based company 1OCEAN in the best possible
manner to develop a sustainable market entry strategy in the local government, and thus help the
company expand. 1OCEAN’s services include research, consultancy and action‐planning to implement
theoretical ideas into any organization’s daily operations. The unique selling point of the company is
their knowledge in workplace innovation and the resilience of their workforce.
This report investigates how 1OCEAN should enter the municipality of Rotterdam and whether its
current capabilities, with a strong focus on the unique selling point workplace innovation, are
appropriate for an entry in the above‐mentioned sector.
The proposal begins by describing the company; its core values, vision, mission, service, organizational
structure and innovation theory. It continues by defining the research problem and explaining the
objectives and sub objectives as well as the main research question and sub‐questions. This process is
visualized in an Ishikawa diagram (see Appendix I).
Further, it discusses the research findings by thoroughly evaluating each sub question. The report
concludes by summarizing the findings and presenting recommendations for 1OCEAN on how to enter
the governmental sector. The steps resulting in successful entry are presented in the implementation
plan.
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2. Client description 1OCEAN was founded In Rotterdam in 2015 as a cooperative. It consists of members called ‘partners’.
Partners are independent entrepreneurs and join the company for two purposes:
‐ To learn from each other and become more knowledgeable than before
‐ To create profit for themselves and the company
Vision To create both a physical space across the world and a global digital community in which knowledge,
ideas, innovations and personal feelings are shared in order to gain knowledge and data.
Mission To assist people and organizations through workplace innovation. 1OCEAN aims to change workplaces
in companies and governments in order to create more productivity, efficiency and profitability
(1OCEAN, 2017).
Service level The service of the company is the re‐organisation of the workplace in order to create a more efficient
Human Resource department.
The services 1OCEAN offers to its clients contain theory (consultancy) and practical implementation of
workplace innovation (coaching & training of functions from the client).
Organic structure At 1OCEAN, there is no specialization of operational tasks. The task is to identify clients within
industries and organizations that have potential to innovate their workplace. There is horizontal
communication between partners and supervisors, and authority is spread amongst partners. Loyalty
and prestige are based on an individual level (Mullins, 2016).
Figure 2.1: Overview of the Core Values (1OCEAN, 2017)
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Reward system Reward is generated through projects with clients. Partners agree with
clients and with the supervisor of 1OCEAN on the division of work
amongst each other and the division of revenue after the project. After
this agreement, the personal reward is based on contribution measured
in hours (Interview transcript, 2018). Revenue between the partner and
1OCEAN is divided according to the following ratios:
Innovation 1OCEAN is aiming towards a more sustainable and more flexible workplace. The company itself gives
a high degree of flexibility to its Partners, whereas 1OCEAN does not own any patents, technology or
services that competitors do not have. The only key‐resource of 1OCAN is its flexible portfolio of
partners with different expertise, therefore it has a wide range of services to offer to clients.
The innovation‐strategies model focus on markets, customers and technology. The model aims to
answer the question: is the company focused on acquiring customers, reading markets or leveraging
technology? (Schilling, 2013 ).
In the following, the model with the three different innovation strategies is illustrated:
Figure 2.3: Three Innovation Strategies (Schilling, 2013 )
Referring to the above‐mentioned innovation strategies, 1OCEAN is identified as a company that
‐ does not have superior technology, nor the capabilities to invent new technology
‐ is customer‐focused, and aims to become market‐focused
‐ is adapting to the continuous developments of business‐sectors and researches on gaps,
problems or challenges
Based on this outcome, the company 1OCEAN is evaluated as a need‐seeker, that is reading the
customers’ needs and wants, and then approaching the potential customer with the solution by its
unique and customized services (Robbert‐Jan, 2011).
Stakeholders Revenue
Ratio
1OCEAN 15%
Partner 85%
Total 100%
Figure 2.2: Division of Revenue
within 1OCEAN (1OCEAN,
2017)
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In addition to the above‐mentioned three strategies, 1OCEAN is also evaluated on the degree of
innovation and pace of adopting innovation.
According to Rogers, there are five different categories of adoption that differ in the degree that a
company reacts on and implements innovation into its own operations:
Figure 2.4: Diffusion of Innovation (Rogers, 1983)
If 1OCEAN is evaluated based on the adopter categories, it is stated that 1OCEAN adopts quickly at a
very early stage. Therefore, it is categorized into the segment “Early Adopters”. As an outlook, this
principle of 1OCEAN to adopt early to change and innovation, has a high potential in the future to
become a market leader in different business‐segments (Rogers, 1983).
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3. Problem Definition In any research it is key to define what problem is being dealt with (Verhoeven, 2015). This chapter
defines the problem that 1OCEAN is dealing with and states the research questions through which the
problem is to be tackled.
As 1OCEAN is a versatile consultancy firm, they can offer superior value to multiple industries.
However, one hurdle that comes with this is a lack of identity to any industry. Thus, finding a way into
distinct industries is crucial – once a portfolio is set up for a certain industry the firm can identify to
the industry.
3.1 Main Objective The main objective of the assignment that has been received from 1OCEAN is:
To identify what opportunities are present for a potential market‐entry strategy applicable to the
government.
3.1.2 Sub Objectives The sub‐objectives identified within the research‐project are:
➢ Gain knowledge on workplace‐innovation and understand its implementation
➢ Identify main resources of 1OCEAN that may result in competitive advantage
➢ Select specific segment to enter within local government
The outlook of the project‐group for developing this market‐entry is:
➢ Improve government functionality with Workplace Innovation
➢ Enhance employee satisfaction through adjustments in conventional ways of working
3.2 Research Questions The main research question is:
What entry strategy, if any, can 1OCEAN use to enter the ‘government consultancy market’ with
workplace innovation?
Sub‐research questions to this are:
1. What innovations have been implemented over the past 5 years?
2. What is the current functionality of the workplace in the local government?
3. What resources and capabilities (consultants, experiences) are necessary for 1OCEAN to enter
the government consultancy market?
4. What sectors within the local government can be identified for 1OCEAN to offer relevant
support and consultancy to?
3.3 Research Diagram The Ishikawa diagram, which displays the overall strategy of the research project containing the four
above‐mentioned sub‐research questions, can be found in Appendix I of the report.
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4. Research Findings In the following, the research‐findings for each sub‐question are presented. The findings refer mainly
to desk‐research (models used for each sub‐question) and interviews. Three out of four interviews
have been executed with people who have been/still are involved in HNW010, which is the realization
of workplace innovation at the Municipality of Rotterdam:
Figure 4.2: Workplace‐Innovation implemented in the Municipality building “De Rotterdam” (Abels, 2018)
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4.1 Research Sub‐Question 1 Sub‐research sub question 1 asks:
What innovations have been implemented over the past 5 years?
This sub‐question focuses on the Municipality of Rotterdam and especially on HNW010 (the
municipality’s implementation of Workplace Innovation). For more information on the Municipality
and its values, consult Appendix A of this report.
4.1.1 HNW010 HNW010 stands for (Rotterdam, 2018b):
o Working where Rotterdam needs you
o Being in charge of your own development and concrete results
o Being reachable
o Having access to information and knowledge necessary for work
o Taking responsibility and gaining confidence
As the first program‐manager of HNW010, Lucianne Boeman‐Vermeulen, mentions (Gemeente.nu,
2013), HNW010 is aimed at governing based on results, working time & place independently, sharing
knowledge and having modern terms of employment.
Implementation of HNW010
The initial plan of implementing Workplace Innovation at the Municipality of Rotterdam did not come
from the top of the organization (Koning, 2018). The top got interested in Workplace Innovation in the
aftermath of 2008’s crisis (Koning, 2018). For more information on what happened before its
implementation, see Appendix A.
Implementation of HNW010 at the Municipality of Rotterdam from start to finish can be seen as
follows (Koning, 2018):
Interest in Workplace
Innovation from Middle
Management
Top Management gains interest in
Workplace Innovation ‐
formal talks begin
Plan for HNW010 is made ‐ first
transition phase fails
Execution starts ‐8000/12000
people are moved
2008 2011 2013 2015
Figure 4.3: Timeline of HNW010 implementation at the Municipality of Rotterdam
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Once top management gained interest in 2011, talks began regarding implementation of Workplace
Innovation. For this, the municipality was in contact with specialized advisors and external consultancy
firms, for example the Center for People and Buildings (Koning, 2018).
From this, the municipality determined that 14 different types of workspaces were needed to cater to
all the needs of the employees (Semil, 2018).
In 2013, the municipality had the HNW010 plan ready. First, aim was on ‘agile change’: educating
employees through a ‘washing street’ (car wash) concept in which employees would receive
workshops, trainings and do games, after which they would be ready for HNW010 (Koning, 2018).
Two years later, in 2015, the municipality started execution of HNW010 – 8000 employees moved into
their new workspaces. As a result, the municipality went from 29 buildings to 4 buildings (Koning,
2018), this was a game changer in favor of HNW010 from a financial point of view.
4.1.2. HNW010 and the ‘Simply Irresistible’ Model The innovation, HNW010, is
measured according to the
‘Simply Irresistible’ model by
Deloitte (2015). Measurement
was done per individual
component. Within each
component there are 4 pillars. In
total there are 20 pillars from
which we concluded whether
HNW010 corresponds to the
Simply Irresistible Model.
Further explanation per pillar can
be found in Appendix A.
1. Meaningful Work – Work is made meaningful (responsibility, development, job‐life balance),
however, employees may not always fit their job well due to recruiting methods of the
municipality.
2. Hands‐on Management – Clear statement of principles – no goals though. Top management
is steady but not all managers are flexible (in HNW010).
3. Positive Work Environment – HNW010 created flexibility, fitting work into lifestyle is still
missing, missing social reward systems but recognition is motivated.
4. Growth Opportunity – Developmental systems for employees are in place, mobility is
important to the organization and learning possibilities are offered (however, utilization is
unclear).
5. Trust in Leadership – Rotterdam clearly states its core‐values, is transparent & open to the
public and creates trust with inspirational mayor.
Figure 4.4: Deloitte ‘Simply Irresistible’ Model (Deloitte, 2015)
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4.2. Research Sub‐Question 2 The “Workplace Strategy for all Generations” model is applied to answer the question:
What is the current functionality of the workplace in the local government?
The “Workplace Strategy for all Generations” Model has been used and applied to the municipality of
Rotterdam following the four guidelines (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013):
1. Understand workplace, work practices and technology needs
2. Know your generations
3. Follow best practices
4. Create a vision for the future
In the following section, a summary of the findings is provided. The complete findings can be found in
appendix B.
Understand workplace, work‐practices and technology‐needs The Municipality of Rotterdam uses innovative workplaces where employees do not have fixed
workspaces or working hours; more freedom is given to work independently. The activities undertaken
in HNW010 are aimed at ‘Activity Based Working’. The workplace is designed similarly in all locations
through a collaboration with the Center for People and Buildings (Koning, 2018).
The workplace has different areas that satisfy all the needs of the employees, such as smaller project
rooms for 6‐8 people, computer stations, open working spaces, and sitting areas. Some floors cover
special purposes such as a service point, restaurant, and larger meeting rooms that can host up to 50
people.
Know your generations However, the workplace does not take into consideration the generational mix as its design is based
on encouragement of moveable and open workspaces, independence and innovative technology,
which does not fit all generations.
According to the “Workplace Strategy for all Generations” model, different generation groups prefer
different ways of working, as shown in figure 4.4: while millennials prefer to communicate through e‐
mails or voicemails, and do not feel the need of being in an office, baby‐boomers prefer to collaborate
with others through face‐to‐face meetings (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013).
Figure 4.5: Generation – Work environment and mobility characteristics (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013)
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Furthermore, in 2015, a research was conducted concerning the happiness of employees under
HNW010 (Khalifa, et al., 2015). This research concluded that employees of the Municipality of
Rotterdam are indifferent about HNW010. HNW010 had a positive influence on travel‐times but did
not improve the work situation or satisfaction at work.
Follow best practices The innovative workplace is currently being evaluated by the municipality of Rotterdam. They have so
far interviewed 40 different managers to find out what they think is good about the workplace, and
what could be improved. Even though managers received special training, workshops and games to be
prepared for the changes, not everyone is convinced or prepared for the new way of working,
especially the older generation (van Dongen, 2018).
One major problem that has become visible is that there is a lack of larger project rooms that can host
between 10 and 15 people, and the lack of project rooms that can be assigned to a specific project that
lasts for a longer period. Additionally, some employees claim their fixed spots in the workspace, do not
want to have a new place every day and refuse an open agenda. They like to keep their routines, refuse
to commit to digital working and still prefer to use a lot of paper (van Dongen, 2018).
Create a vision for the future Finally, another problem that has become evident from research of the Center of People and Buildings
(2015) is that people feel that ‘Activity Based Working’ does not provide enough privacy for personal
conversations and communication with direct colleagues.
There is no longer a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but instead the workplace should be adjusted to ensure
that all generations to work successfully together (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013).
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4.3. Research Sub‐Question 3 Sub‐question 3 asks:
What resources and capabilities (consultants, experiences) are necessary for 1OCEAN to enter the
government consultancy market?
This research question is mainly answered through field research, as the municipality gave insight in
what resources and capabilities are essential in this market.
What 1Ocean Has / Hasn’t In the following, an overview is given about the resources that the company 1OCEAN currently has and
what is still lacking. The resources were identified through the interviews and the theory, on which the
methodology is based on, is the RBV‐model:
Figure 4.6: Possessed and Lacking Resources at 1OCEAN for Entering the Government Consultancy Market (Huisink, Resources and Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018)
There are resources that are already possessed by 1OCEAN that are believed to be important according
to the interview with Gert‐Jan. Moreover, several resources that are lacking have been identified
(Huisink, Resources and Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018).
1OCEAN has little experience with governments – up to this moment they have only worked
with the municipality of Zeeland on a regional level – and, thus, they do not have any inside
knowledge.
Further, due to the lack of experience there is also no network that is utilizable.
Any reputation that can be referred to also lacks. This makes it difficult to get in touch with
key people within the government that can help 1OCEAN get projects (Huisink, Resources and
Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018).
What 1 Ocean Needs The following points were indicated and are further elaborated in the Appendix
Economizing focus
Connections
Understand Workplace
Identify Needs and Wants
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Economizing Focus According to all interviewed governmental employees, the focus of the municipality of Rotterdam is
mainly on efficiency. After the interviews it was quite clear the government will do anything to cut
down costs, even if it is not beneficial for the employees. The whole HNW010 plan, which seems quite
innovative has been implemented to cut down costs. Even though the government focusses on cutting
costs, the government is prospering therefore creating additional budget. External consultancy firms
would cost money, however if it results in cutting costs for the government, funds are available.
Connections As stated before, one of the key resources missing is connections within the government. The
interviews with governmental officials have proofed the need for connections with employees in order
to enter the market. The municipality is prospering, and there is budget available for external
consultancy firms. However, there is no department that specifically hires external firms to help
Rotterdam.
Understand Current Workplace Rotterdam has already implemented a great workplace innovation plan which has been discussed
thoroughly, HNW010. The interviews made it clear there will be no deviation from this plan (this is
elaborated in 4.2.1). Therefore, it is very important for 1Ocean to understand what HNW010 exactly
is. Understanding the current workplace means knowing both what is done well and what could be
done better, therefore really understanding what is needed and what not.
Identify needs and wants In order to be relevant for the municipality, 1Ocean needs to understand what Rotterdam actually
needs and wants. This should give the ability to understand how to approach a certain
person/department, and how to create value.
According to the facility managers, at the time a problem is apparent, money will be available to
resolve the problem. A couple of important aspects were mentioned that are critical when 1OCEAN
makes an offer to the government:
Recognizable problem statement
A clear solution
A future‐focused solution
A renewing and innovative solution
Stand out from the rest (make the audience curious)
Back up your findings about the problem with facts
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4.4 Research Sub‐Question 4 The STP‐model is the most applicable model to answer the sub‐research question 4:
What sectors within the local government can be identified for 1OCEAN to offer relevant support and
consultancy to?
The STP analysis is conducted to get insight knowledge into the overall segments and functionality that
the government sector is currently presenting.
Segmentation The six clusters listed in the organogram are the main clusters that deal with civil servant and that
1OCEAN can have direct contact to, as these segments allow small‐scale projects:
Related to the above‐presented organogram, it can be derived from the interviews that there is no
single department that is lacking workplace‐innovation yet. The innovation‐project “HNW010”
incorporated all the different departments into one huge building. That is why all departments are
already involved in workplace‐innovation (Koning, 2018).
Figure 4.8: Six Clusters of Organogram Gemeente Rotterdam (GemeenteRotterdam, 2018d)
Figure 4.7: STP‐Model (MindTools, 2018)
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If the Rotterdam Municipality and its current functionality is now compared to the Municipality of
other cities in the Netherlands, it can be said that is belongs to the most developed and innovated
Municipalities of the Netherlands (Lewis, Ricard, Klijn, Figueras, 2017).
Nevertheless, the Municipality of Rotterdam faces still difficulties in certain segments:
not every employee adapts to changes in digitalization (working with electronic devices
instead of papers) and not everyone agrees on rotating workplaces and flex‐working
engineers’ needs at the workplace are not satisfied with the given facilities that the agenda and the action‐plan of the mangers did not change over the past four years
not sufficient training executed by the managers, which leads to an overall low awareness of
employees concerning the usage of the 40 different floors
This needs to be tackled in order to create a better workplace for that department, besides the fact
that the development of the “HNW010” is still in the middle stage (van Dongen, 2018).
This gives room for improvement, especially for an external consultant as 1OCEAN to create an added
value for the Municipality of Rotterdam in their new way of working: employees need to be taught and
well‐trained in order to work more efficient and be more comfortable with the new workplace.
Targeting Offering consultancy to the municipality, giving advices and teaching the top‐level management and
at the same time offering training to the employees in order to create a comfortable environment for
both employers and employees, can be a successful enter into the government‐sector for 1OCEAN.
The three variables for the selection of the segment are:
‐ Realistic: looking at the urgent situation and the problem‐solving, 1OCEAN can step in and offer its consultancy and training programmes to the municipality. It is also easy for the municipality to implement the consultancy into an action‐plan: 1OCEAN is immediately available for this project and shows interest in the service‐providing. It is not an expensive agreement between the municipality and 1OCEAN, because low equipment is needed and it is not an extensive programme.
‐ Short‐term‐oriented: as this business‐idea is not a large‐scale project, there will be no
bureaucratic steps to undertake first. It is quickly accessible for 1OCEAN and 1OCEAN aims to provide a solution for the ongoing situation. No tendering‐process in further needed in order to realize that project. Taking into account the employee‐training, it could become a long‐term agreement. That is why 1OCEAN may decide to first only offer support to the top‐managers.
‐ Profitable: the business‐idea is definitely profitable, as the municipality every time intends to save costs, cut costs and generate more productivity. If 1OCEAN implements its services into the Municipality of Rotterdam, it would encourage most employees again to work beyond the limits and to be more energetic, as the workplace is fully introduced to the employees and the awareness is high. This would overcome the psychological challenges that some employees may have now, due to the fact that they were not introduced to the new way of working and feel not comfortable yet.
The three above‐mentioned key‐factors are taken into consideration. The group recommends to 1OCEAN to see the opportunity in the service‐providing, which consists of consultancy first of all.
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Positioning In order to position the consultancy‐service at the right place at the right time, the models of the “Marketing‐Mix” and the “Unique‐Selling‐Proposition” are considered. The “Marketing‐Mix” (4P’s) model gives an overview about what is exactly offered. It answers
the question: what is offered, where and how and at which price?
Figure 4.9: Marketing‐Mix Model by Kotler (Kotler, 2017)
Furthermore, the “Unique‐Selling Proposition” model focuses on differentiation and points
out the outstanding and extraordinary resources of 1OCEAN.
It answers the question: Why should 1OCEAN get this job?
Figure 4.10: Unique‐Selling Proposition model (Hunter, 2015)
• Networking (Social Media, Events)
• "De Rotterdam" building
• depends on 1OCEAN
• consultancy offered to top‐management
Product Price
PromotionPlace
• different expertise Diversity
• quick in realizing project
• after‐sales serviceService‐level
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5. Conclusions
5.1 Conclusion Sub‐Question 1 Through desk research and interviews it was found that HNW010 is the main innovation regarding
workplace innovation that has been implemented over the past 5 years. In the table below, one can
see for each component how well the pillars are implemented and at the bottom how the component
scores in general.
According to the desk research and the ‘Simply Irresistible’ Model, the Municipality of Rotterdam is
innovative and is developing its workforce according to the latest developments in HRM. However, on
some critical points they are lacking:
Select to fit is essential for happiness of an employee because a job must fit with the social
side of a person, a more person‐aimed approach when hiring people must be implemented.
Humanistic workplace is key for the future as the pressure on workforces is big and people
need to be able to integrate work into their lives (Deloitte, 2015), the Municipality scores low
on this with barely any such facilities available in the workplace.
At this moment it seems the Municipality is scoring well. However, in the field research this must be
further assessed. The information mentioned on the internet can quite easily differ from the
employee’s experience in real life. The impression that the interviewees gave is that of being satisfied
with the innovations, however, not to the extent as was expected. More innovations must still be
implemented to make HNW010 completely worth the effort.
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5.2 Conclusion Sub‐Question 2 As was found through interviews with people who have been involved with HNW010, some employees
hold on to old routines, even though all work has shifted to Workplace Innovation. This works adversely
on the effectivity of HNW010 and is a practical example of why training of managers and employees
may be necessary.
Several aspects can and should still be improved to make HNW010 realize its potential, for instance
the communication and the number of available workplaces/sufficient workplaces (Khalifa, et al.,
2015) (Semil, 2018). It is important to note that the research by Khalifa, et al. was conducted shortly
after the implementation of HNW010. A similar research at this moment (2018) could have different
outcomes. Problems with available workspaces have been solved over time, the buildings now have a
digital screen on which employees can see what spots are still open and even, in some cases, who is
sitting at what spot (Koning, 2018).
Adjustments have been made throughout the period HNW010 has been in use, think of furniture that
was not useful for work activities performed and the lack of certain areas for specific types of work
(e.g. spaces with architecture drawing tables).
Figure 5.2: Digital Screen to find open spots (Koning, 2018)
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5.3 Conclusion Sub‐Question 3
Understand the necessity for the government to cut down costs is the first importance. 1OCEAN has
to be able to come up with plans that are economically beneficial for the government as an external
consultancy firm. Often the government likes to implement ideas that increase workplace efficiency.
With that also understand the influence of top management, as top management will in the end always
make money spending decisions. Currently the government is prospering, creating the availability of
additional funds to resolve inefficiencies in the workplace. This means more room is created for
external firms to implement ideas.
Also understanding the importance of connections is a second aspect of importance. No specific place
is present in order to show your ideas as an external firm. Therefore, it is important for 1Ocean to gain
connections with managerial employees of the municipality, of course gaining such connections is a
different topic.
The understanding of the workplace is also critical. Rotterdam has already implemented a huge
workplace innovation plan from which cannot be deviated. Therefore, only adding or improving the
HNW010 is a possibility for external firms.
At last it is important to know what the government wants. Even though every problem that needs to
be solved is different, the government has a base of expectations such as’
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5.4 Conclusion Sub‐Question 4 The outcome of the interviews (see interview transcript in the Appendix B‐D) emphasized that it is
currently not possible to fix a specific segment to tackle with workplace‐innovation, as basically the
“HNW010”‐project changed the whole setting of the workplace of employees at the Municipality of
Rotterdam and their current functionality (communication, localization of different departments,
interaction between employees).
The group came to the conclusion that 1OCEAN is
not able and not capable to offer a workplace‐
innovation to any segment of the
Municipality of Rotterdam.
The workplace‐innovation was
already implemented at the
Rotterdam Municipality. This
makes it almost impossible for
1OCEAN as a non‐experienced
company with low reputation to
add more value with their unique‐
selling point workplace‐innovation.
What can be offered by 1OCEAN are the consultancy and training‐services, as the Municipality of
Rotterdam is lacking expertise in that concern. This would help the Municipality to overcome the
current challenges and would increase the overall tolerance of the employees towards the new
workplace. This is, where 1OCEAN can add value:
Figure 5.4: Solution by 1OCEAN (Business Model Canvas)
Gain Creators
• boosting productivity
• ensuring a close relation between manager and employees
Pain Relievers
• the new workplace becomes a comfortable workplace
• employees adapt to new technology and flex‐work
Services offered by 1OCEAN
• Consultancy to top‐management (first of all)
• employee training (second step)
Customer Jobs
‐ administrative
‐ developing the city
‐ infrastructure
Pain: Employees
‐ inequal usage of space
‐ no adapting to new environment
Gains: Office
‐ workplace innovation
‐ new office building
Figure 5.3: Municipality Profile (Customer Profile Canvas)
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6. Recommendations As a result of the findings, it is recommended for 1OCEAN to explore the opportunities in entering the
government market with consultancy in the field of Workplace Innovation. These trainings would
include the development of knowledge amongst managers in workplaces which apply the principles of
Workplace Innovation.
Further, as HNW010 is still in development at the Municipality of Rotterdam, new input is always
sought after. If problems (e.g. space allocation) can be solved with the knowledge 1OCEAN holds, the
Municipality of Rotterdam would be interested to work with them. Therefore, educating HNW010
representatives within the Municipality of Rotterdam could add great value to HNW010.
HNW010 has to become part of the corporate‐culture. That is why the group wants to close the gap
between the original idea of HNW010 and the current management at the Municipality of Rotterdam,
which is not aligned to the HNW010 totally. In order to close this gap, the group recommends 1OCEAN
to give advice and training as a consultancy firm.
However, through interviews and desk‐research about the capabilities and key‐resources of 1OCEAN
it was found out that the company does not have the quantity of partners to enter the government‐
sector with a large‐scale project. This would include a training‐program for all employees at the
municipality, but for that project 1OCEAN has to first evaluate the chances and opportunities whilst
taking into consideration going big.
Thus, the recommendation is: 1OCEAN is capable to start offering a consultancy‐program to the
managers of the Municipality (small‐scale project). At the same time, 1OCEAN should think if it is
interesting and if the company will be capable to create a long‐term relationship with this segment by
offering more individual help and assistance to all employees (large‐scale project).
If 1OCEAN wants to work for/with the Rotterdam Municipality, the focus should always be on
identifying ways to save money. Whereas many businesses focus on creating happy employees, the
core‐principle of the government will always be on cutting costs.
Furthermore, 1OCEAN needs to understand what the municipality actually needs and wants. According
to interviews 1OCEAN should primarily focus on:
Recognizable solution
Clear proposal
Future‐focused
Renewing
Make curious (stand out)
Backed up with facts & findings
According to both facility managers, the government is very hierarchal, and decisions are made on top,
especially when innovation costs money. That is why it is recommended that connections between
1OCEAN and the top management are critical in order to get involved into the municipality’s changing‐
process. 1OCEAN may face challenges by establishing a network within the municipality, but the
potential benefits due to networking overweight the risks related to that process. Sometimes You just
need to risk and approach. Find the person you think is right and just try it (Semil, 2018).
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6.1 Business Model Canvas Below the BMC (Business Model Canvas) for 1OCEAN is explained. There are two types of boxes: Blue
and Yellow. Blue is for the qualities 1OCEAN already has. Yellow is for the qualities that 1OCEAN should
develop according to the research conducted over the past months.
The Business Model Canvas‐elements are further elaborated in the Implementation plan stated
below. Especially the yellow boxes are emphasized in the implementation plan, as the yellow boxes
point out what is still needed in order to develop the offer for the Municipality of Rotterdam and
smaller municipalities within the Netherlands.
Figure 6.1: Business Model Canvas applied to 1OCEAN
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7. Implementation Plan To start training managers at workplaces which apply Workplace Innovation, a way‐in must be found.
In the following, an implementation plan is presented by giving a detailed description of the main
elements of the Business Model Canvas and the actions that were stated in the recommendations.
Networking (BMC: Channels & Key‐Partners) The best alternative to find a way in is through your network. This is achieved by attending events that
are hosted by the Municipality. Through the current research, it has not become clear where the
connections with people related to the Municipality of Rotterdam can be made. A common approach
is getting into touch with people via social media infrastructures such as LinkedIn. For this research,
representatives of HNW010 were contacted through LinkedIn and they referred to other people for
the specific information that was sought after. The first step was to find information about a
representative online (i.e. Lucianne Vemeulen‐Bouman was mentioned in an article by Gemeente.nu
and in the end, contact was established with the Municipality’s Facility Managers at De Rotterdam
(Gemeente.nu, 2013). Through this approach, contacts are made and the network grows organically.
Unique offer (BMC: Value Proposition & Key Activities) What is essential in finding your way in, is to have an offer that stands out from the rest and that adds
value to the receiver. This means finding a tangible problem that can be eradicated through effective
training on a small scale. 1OCEAN can stand out and be a problem‐solver by an efficient cost‐reduction
offer that incorporates customization for the municipality.
Building a relationship (BMC: Customer Relation & Revenue Stream) As the Municipality of Rotterdam is a large organization that moves slowly, operating on a small scale
is more effective. Training a few managers will result in gaining experience and broadening your
network within the government market through personal connections (i.e. a large group is more
impersonal). Moreover, the Municipality can be seen as a nationalistic entity – they represent
Rotterdam. Therefore, identifying with the city Rotterdam as a company adds leverage to your offer.
The Municipality wants to identify with Rotterdam as much as possible and take that into account
when choosing who they work with.
Besides that, the low‐cost offer from 1OCEAN is very attractive for municipalities, as small‐scale
projects create a win‐win situation for both partners: 1OCEAN gets the job and grows on a small‐scale
and gains experience, and the municipality saves more money internal than spending external for
hiring 1OCEAN.
Upscale training
Grow Government network through trainings
Utilise Government network to make offer
Develop value‐adding,
Rotterdam identity, offer (win‐win)
Find tangible problem within Government
Get acquianted with
representatives of Municipality of Rotterdam
Figure 7.1: Overview of steps to start training at the Municipality of Rotterdam
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7.1 Detailed process‐description of the implementation plan In the following, a table is presented, in which all the relevant steps are explained and examined
considering the following aspects costs, resources, impact, risk and direct return on investment.
Figure 7.2: Detailed description of the specific steps and the involved consequences/benefits
7.2 Timeline of the implementation plan In the following, a timeline is presented, which points out, when to address which specific step:
Figure 7.3: Timeline of the execution of the seven specific steps
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7.3 Risk analysis In the following, a risk‐analysis is provided for the seven different steps 1OCEAN is recommended to
undergo when considering a market‐entry into the government‐sector of Rotterdam and nationwide:
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APPENDIX Below the appendices of this report can be found.
A. Findings Research Sub‐Question 1 Municipality of Rotterdam – values and information The core values of the Municipality of Rotterdam are (Rotterdam, 2018c):
o Cooperation – If someone needs help, give it to them. If you need help, ask for it. Go beyond
your own interests or that of your department.
o Responsibility – Take responsibility for what you do. Co‐workers and others can say something
about that, and it is okay because everyone gets better from feedback.
o Trust – Trust must be earned. It is your task to strengthen everyone’s trust through the way
you work.
o Result‐Orientation – To be the best employer, Rotterdam needs results to give good direction
and guidance. The result is a transparent and development‐focused workplace.
o Openness – Be open to the opinion of others. You are open yourself as well, share your beliefs
and listen to those of others.
On the website of the municipality (www.rotterdam.nl) there is information about Rotterdam as an
employer, and more specifically about ‘Het Nieuwe Werken in Rotterdam’ (HNW010), which stands
for ‘The New Way of Working in Rotterdam’. HNW010 concerns itself with working differently, better
and smarter (Rotterdam, 2018b) and, with that, is the municipality’s way of implementing Workplace
Innovation (Koning, 2018). HNW010 was set up in 2015 (Koning, 2018).
HNW010
The very beginning It all started in 2008 with middle‐ and lower‐ranked managers who heard of workplace‐innovation and
found it a concept that should be applied at their workplace. These managers started implementing
facets of Workplace Innovation in their daily jobs (e.g. having meetings outside, sharing workspace).
From here, people got inspired and other managers picked up on the trend. From there on the top of
the organization noticed this trend in 2011 and passionate managers stepped forward to vouch for
Workplace Innovation. The top of the organization got interested in Workplace Innovation in the
aftermath of the crisis in 2008 (Koning, 2018). Due to the crisis the municipality had to save money
and workplace innovation had the potential to do so which caught their attention – Workplace
Innovation saw a surge in popularity altogether after the crisis (Center for People and Buildings, 2015).
Simply Irresistible Organization analysis 1. Meaningful Work
‐ Autonomy – giving people the power to make their own decisions
Rotterdam says it leaves its employees in charge of their development and results – with
that giving autonomy (Rotterdam, 2018a)
‐ Select to fit – social and personal parameters are used when hiring people
Parameters are based on knowledge and experience. Main aim is focused on the job that
has to be fulfilled, not the personal fit with a job (Rotterdam, 2018e)
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‐ Small, empowered teams – cross‐training and feeling of empowerment with small teams
Importance of development is noted (Rotterdam, 2018e) and mobility is stimulated
(Rotterdam, 2018d), however, cross‐training nor team sizes are mentioned
‐ Time for slack – let people off when things go slow or work on other things 20% of time
36 work‐hours per week on average, this means slightly more than 7 hours a day – a fair
number of hours compared to jobs that range from 40 hours and upwards (Rotterdam,
2018e)
2. Hands‐on Management
‐ Clear, transparent goals – clearly defined goals that are written down and shared freely
Principles of the municipality are stated clearly, however, no goals are mentioned – this
could be due to the fact that a municipality has no other goals than caring for the city
(Rotterdam, 2018c)
‐ Coaching – drives engagement and improves business performance, employee
engagement and overall retention
Employees are given responsibility to have updates with Rotterdam supervisors and look
at a personal development‐plan (Rotterdam, 2018d)
‐ Invest in management development – good managers give good support, which nourishes
new leaders
The 9 years that the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, has been in charge
(Rotterdam, 2018f) could be an indicator that Rotterdam has a well‐developed
management, however, no further information could be found on management through
desk research.
‐ Modern performance management – continuous feedback is key and should focus on
development
Rotterdam works with ‘Organisation Perspective’, their way of saying they focus on society
and listen to them in what they want and need (Gemeente.nu, 2013)
3. Positive Work Environment
‐ Flexible work environment – giving people freedom to work in workspaces and meet easily
with others
The work environment is becoming more flexible, but it cannot carry full capacity yet
(Khalifa, et al., 2015)
‐ Humanistic workplace – offering essentials for people to make work fit into their lives (free
food, sport facilities and classes, commute buses, internet access, etc)
As far as desk research could uncover, employees do not work in buildings that offer any of
the abovementioned essentials – internet access is expected to be present though
‐ Culture of recognition – recognition creates engaged teams; social reward systems are in
place
Recognition is motivated through contact with supervisor (Rotterdam, 2018d) and through
focussing on trust within the entire workforce (Rotterdam, 2018c), however, no social
reward system is in place
‐ Inclusive, diverse work environment – people must be able to be themselves and this
should be inspired by the leader
The working environment changes constantly according to the municipality of Rotterdam,
since employees work in different locations across the city (Rotterdam, 2018a), nothing is
mentioned about inclusiveness though
4. Growth Opportunity
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‐ Training and support on the job – have developmental opportunities (formal & informal)
Employees can follow courses and the municipality even has its own Educational Facilities
(Rotterdam, 2018d)
‐ Facilitated talent mobility – allowing people to move from their usual role to trainee roles
in favour of their development
Municipality of Rotterdam has management development‐program, assessments and
career orientation and ‐support (Rotterdam, 2018d)
‐ Self‐directed, dynamic learning – freedom for employees to go to different positions they
want to develop in
Rotterdam finds it important to have mobility and even has education facilities to teach
employees new skills (Rotterdam, 2018d)
‐ High‐impact learning culture – have people who are cross‐trained, empowered in their
position and develop into their strongest roles
Learning possibilities are present according to the Municipality website (Rotterdam,
2018a), however, if these are being utilized is not clear.
5. Trust in Leadership
‐ Mission and purpose – have a clearly defined vision of success and constantly work
towards the mission
Rotterdam has clearly stated core‐values (Rotterdam, 2018c)
‐ Continuous investment in people – employers with high investment per employee see
higher retention rates, innovation and better customer service
Rotterdam offers employees possibilities to study whilst working and offer education
facilities to them (Rotterdam, 2018d)
‐ Transparency and honesty – any good or bad news must be shared promptly; if people see
that you are honest as a company they stay loyal to the company
Openness is one of the core values of Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2018c) and the municipality
is transparent with all its monetary transactions (Verhoef, 2015)
‐ Inspiration – top executives should inspire the people as it drives engagement
The mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, was elected by Elsevier, a well‐known Dutch
magazine, ‘Nederlander van 2014’ (2015), the representative of the city is with that quite
inspirational
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B. Findings Research Sub‐Question 2 Sub‐research question 2 asks:
What is the current functionality of the workplace in the local government?
To answer this research sub question, primary field research has been conducted through three
interviews with two facility managers from the municipality of Rotterdam, as well as a former
consultant that was involved in developing the HNW010. The “Workplace Strategy for all Generations”
Model has been used and applied to the municipality of Rotterdam following the four guidelines (Lim,
Miscovich, & Soares, 2013):
1. Understand workplace, work practices and technology needs
2. Know your generations
3. Follow best practices
4. Create a vision for the future
Understand workplace, work practices and technology needs This point investigates what the workplace looks like, such as meeting areas, team rooms and
conference rooms etc., what technology is available to suit all generations, and how decisions are being
made in an organization (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013).
The municipality of Rotterdam uses innovative workplaces where employees do not have fixed
workspaces or working hours, but as the core of HNW010 implies, more freedom is given in order to
work independently. The activities undertaken in HNW010 are aimed at ‘Activity Based Working’,
which means that there are areas for specific tasks and employees switch work spots throughout their
day (Koning, 2018). This, and other definitions, have been found suitable by the municipality in
cooperation with the Center for People and Buildings (Koning, 2018). The Center for People and
Buildings started focusing on HNW (i.e. Workplace Innovation) from 2011 onwards (Center for People
and Buildings, 2011).
An example of this kind of workplace is ‘De Rotterdam’, one of the municipality’s locations that hosts
3200 of its workers. The building is only partly used by the municipality and is designed through the
initiative of HNW010. Almost every floor is designed in the same way; several smaller project rooms
for 6‐8 people, computer stations, open working spaces, and relaxing sitting areas. Additionally, there
are several floors with special purposes such as for example one with a restaurant, one that has a large
meeting room that can host 50 people, and one with a service point where the employees can get help
with their laptops or borrow a bicycle if they have to go to a different location.
The employees are assigned to a certain floor as a home base where departments that work closely
together share the same floor, but they can go anywhere they prefer in the building. On the ground
floor there is an overview for the employees, in which the available workplaces in the building are
presented, and this tool is also available on tablets and smartphones so they can check it at home (van
Dongen, 2018).
HNW010 has been in existence for 3 years now (2015‐2018) and in 2015, a research was conducted
concerning the happiness of employees under HNW010 (Khalifa, et al., 2015). This research concluded
that employees of the Municipality of Rotterdam are indifferent about HNW010. HNW010 had a
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positive influence on travel‐times but did not improve the work situation or satisfaction at work.
HNW010 aimed to primarily decrease costs and advisors were worried that the focus on costs would
‘kill the energy’ that Workplace Innovation brings with it (Koning, 2018). In essence, Workplace
Innovation should give employees the feeling that they have freedom in their work, but according to
the research by Khalifa this was not achieved with the implementation of HNW010. Moreover, Ms
Semil mentioned during the interview that in her view HNW010 is not complete yet. People are still
too caught up in their old ways and many problems persist, for example, there are no parking spaces
for cars, which results in people coming by scooters which now fill up the pavement at the entrance of
De Rotterdam (Semil, 2018)).
Currently, the innovative workplace is being evaluated by the municipality of Rotterdam where they
have so far interviewed 40 different managers to find out what they think is good about the workplace,
and what could be improved. One major problem that has become visible is that there is a lack of larger
project rooms that can host between 10 and 15 people, and the lack of project rooms that can be
assigned to a specific project that lasts for a longer period.
Another problem that has become evident from the research ‘How to cope with dilemmas in activity
based work environments: results from user‐centred research’ by Iris de Been, Marion Beijer and
Dorieke den Hollander; researchers at the Center of People and Buildings (2015) is that people feel like
there is not enough privacy and personal conversations and communication with direct colleagues
seem to decrease. This is also experienced within the Municipality of Rotterdam (Semil, 2018).
Additionally, is was shown that the different workspaces are not always available in practice, which
was also mentioned in the interview with Ms. de Koning (2018). These issues can be solved and the
solution lies in the behavior of employees and managers who do not fully comprehend Workplace
Innovation (Been, Beijer, & Hollander, 2015) (Koning, 2018). Some managers who do not fully grasp
HNW010 try to have their team come to work as early as possible so they can ‘claim the best spot’ for
the rest of the day (Koning, 2018). Even now, 3 years after implementation of HNW010, some
managers still hold on to their conventional routines and come to work even before the building opens
to claim a good spot (sometimes at the expense of the municipality as they add this time to their
‘working day’) (Semil, 2018).
Met opmerkingen [MA1]: Important as well
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Know your generations This point highlights the importance of understanding the generational mix within the organization in
order to evaluate the wants and needs of the workplace (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013). The
workplace of the municipality of Rotterdam has the same design in all their buildings, with focus on
efficiency and cost saving, and the generational mix has not been taken into consideration in the
design.
According to the “Workplace Strategy for all Generations” model, different generation groups prefer
different ways of working, as shown in figure 4.4. While the baby‐boomers prefer to collaborate with
others through face‐to‐face meetings and have a variety of meeting areas, the millennials prefer to
communicate through e‐mails or voicemails, and do not feel the need of being in an office (Lim,
Miscovich, & Soares, 2013).
The open workplaces, encouragement of interaction between employees and the changes in routines
have, in general, been received well by the younger workforce as it suits their way of working, but the
older workforce found it more difficult to accept. Even though the employees went through the
‘washing street’ concept and received special training, workshops and games, not everyone was
convinced or prepared for the HNW010. As mentioned before, some workers, especially the older
generation, still claim their fixed spots in the workspace and do not want to have a new place every
day and an open agenda, as they like to keep their routines. Additionally, some employees do not
commit to the digital working, and still prefer the traditional way using a lot of paper (van Dongen,
2018).
Follow best practices Point three stresses the importance of following a process and having clear business goals and desired
outcomes in order to develop a functional workplace. The desired outcome of the HNW010 was to
decrease costs, with the goal of saving 30 million (Koning, 2018).
As mentioned before, the workplace of the municipality of Rotterdam is focused on ‘activity based
working’ and the Center of People and Buildings have continuously redesigned the workplaces to
facilitate the workstyle.
Furthermore, the municipality is currently evaluating the workplace in order to improve it, and despite
the ‘washing street’ concept with the special training to prepare for the new workplace, there are still
several obstacles in the current design. One problem that has become apparent according to one of
the faculty managers is that the new employees are not completely familiar with the HNW010 way of
working and do not fully use the workplace as intended. According to the interviewee, it should be
Figure 4.4: Generation – Work environment and mobility characteristics (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013)
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more training, and especially from the top of the organization such as managers since the municipality
is top governed (van Dongen, 2018).
Create a vision for the future The last point stresses the importance of anticipating how the demographics of an organization will
look in the future, and thus create a work environment that suits all generations. There is no longer a
‘one size fits all’ solution, but instead the workplace should be adjusted to ensure that all generations
to work successfully together (Lim, Miscovich, & Soares, 2013). As mentioned before, the municipality
of Rotterdam has currently not taken the generational mix into consideration when designing the
workplace.
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C. Findings Research Sub‐Question 3 Sub‐question 3 asks:
What resources and capabilities (consultants, experiences) are necessary for 1OCEAN to enter the
government consultancy market?
This research question is mainly answered through field research, as findings from interviews with
1OCEAN and, more importantly, the municipality will give insight in what resources and capabilities
are essential in this market.
Four interviews have been conducted to conclude this sub‐question. This interview was conducted
with Gert‐Jan Huisink (representative 1Ocean), Odette de Koning (Consultant for HNW010) and 2
facility managers at De Rotterdam municipality building.
What 1Ocean Has / Hasn’t There are resources that are already possessed by 1OCEAN that are believed to be important according
to the interview with Gert‐Jan. Moreover, several resources that are lacking have been identified
(Huisink, Resources and Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018).
First of all, 1OCEAN has a strong backbone in what they offer as they practice what they preach. They
have an, as we call it, Experience Free Person Culture Environment – people are free to work on their
own projects and gain their own experience as the culture is geared towards the collective gain for all
people. As they are such an open organization, diversity is promoted throughout the company (Huisink,
Resources and Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018).
However, having good values within your organization is not enough to enter a market. At this
moment, we identified 3 key resources that 1OCEAN still lacks.
1OCEAN has little experience with governments – up to this moment they have only worked
with the municipality of Zeeland on a regional level – and, thus, they do not have any inside
knowledge.
Further, due to the lack of experience there is also no network that is utilizable.
Any reputation that can be referred to also lacks. This makes it difficult to get in touch with
key people within the government that can help 1OCEAN get projects (Huisink, Resources and
Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018).
Figure 5.4: Possessed and Lacking Resources at 1OCEAN for Entering the Government Consultancy Market (Huisink, Resources
and Expertise of 1OCEAN, 2018)
Possessed Resources
• Experience Free Person
Culture Environment
• Practice What We Preach
• Diversity
Lacking Resources
• Inside Knowledge
• Network
• Reputation
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As a result of this first interview with Gert‐Jan, we believe that 1OCEAN’s approach has most sense if
they gear towards smaller projects with people that have responsibility over a small branch within the
government. These projects can be executed rather quickly. As a result of that, 1OCEAN can build their
network, gain reputation and gather inside knowledge whilst climbing up the municipal‐ladder.
However to fully understand how 1Ocean could potentially enter the governmental market, findings
and conclusions are given based on interviews with governmental employees of the municipality of
Rotterdam.
What 1 Ocean Needs Based on 3 interviews with the HNW010 consultant Odette and 2 facility managers of the Rotterdam
municipality, findings have been stated. These findings lead back to find out which resourced and
capabilities 1Ocean needs in order to enter the governmental market. The governmental market in
this case refers to the Rotterdam municipality in order to align with the scope of the research.
Economizing Focus The municipality of Rotterdam has been focusing on workplace innovation a lot the past 10 years,
however the reason to do so has to be clarified. Workplace innovation focusses on many factors of the
workplace such as employee happiness, but why does Rotterdam innovate their workplace?
According to all interviewed governmental employees, the focus of the municipality of Rotterdam is
mainly on efficiency. Examples of implementation in the past is reducing the amount of locations and
transfer it all to De Rotterdam building. After the interviews it was quite clear the government will do
anything to cut down costs, even if it is not beneficial for the employees. The whole HNW010 plan,
which seems quite innovative has been implemented to cut down costs, not to create a ‘’better’’
working environment.
The implemented HNW010 plan however, has also created a lot of inefficiencies potentially costing
the municipality money. According to one of the facility managers everything depends on higher
management while at the same moment some managers do not fully support HNW010. If managers
do not lead using the HNW010, their employees also won’t. Moreover ‘’older’’ employees, especially
the employees who have worked at the municipality way before HNW010, have difficulties to change
according to the new work plan. Resolving such inefficiencies internally would cut costs, as it will
improve workplace efficiency.
Even though the government focusses on cutting costs, the government is prospering therefore
creating additional budget. External consultancy firms would cost money, however if it results in
cutting costs for the government, funds are available. The consultancy in this case could focus on
helping older employees with the new way of working or to help top management understand the
importance of their collaboration in workplace innovation, as long as it works together with HNW010
and is long‐term focused.
In short: the municipality will always focus on cutting down costs, however there are potential areas
where costs could be cut down by improving efficiency.
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Connections As stated before one of the key resources 1Ocean is missing is connections within the government.
The interviews with governmental officials have proved the need for connections with employees in
order to enter the market.
The municipality is prospering, and there is budget available for external consultancy firms. However
during the interviews it became quite clear it is not easy to get ‘’in’’ as an external firm. There is no
department that specifically hires external firms to help Rotterdam. However all respondents were
convinced there is room for consultancy firms to help with training and other employee improvements.
For example the municipality makes use of a theatre group to give trainings to employees. This shows
that even though the municipality is quite a closed organization, external parties do get hired. But how
do you get ‘’in’’?
None of the respondents clearly knew how certain external firms were found and hired. However, they
were all sure connections with managers is the key to success, as they have money spending powers.
Without a clear department to register as a firm looking to help the municipality, connections are an
important way to qualify for doing business with Rotterdam.
Understand Current Workplace 1Ocean focusses on implementing new workplace innovation for companies. In order to do so 1Ocean
needs to understand what has already been implemented within the company. The same goes for the
governmental market, in this case the Rotterdam municipality. (this is elaborated in 4.2.1).
Rotterdam has already implemented a great workplace innovation plan which has been discussed
thoroughly, HNW010. The interviews made it clear there will be no deviation from this plan. Therefore
it is very important for 1Ocean to understand what HNW010 exactly is, only then the consultants might
see parts of HNW010 that could be improved. This means no large improvements can be done within
the municipality, emphasizing the importance of getting involved with smaller departments.
One of the facility mangers also explained the current HNW010 is being revised. The revision is made
as some manager and employees are not happy with the sudden changes caused by HNW010.
Revisions means room for new solutions which could be a potential open door for 1Ocean. However
of course this is linked to being known by the government as a business and valuable connections.
Understanding the current workplace means knowing both what is done well and what could be done
better. The refusal of accepting the new working methods of older employees and managers refusing
to collaborate are for instance possible points of improvement. The strong points however are also to
be understood, therefore really understanding what is needed and what not.
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D. Findings Research Sub‐Question 4 Based on the answer of sub‐question 3, the further approach is to select interesting segments, to identify the most relevant and realistic segment, and then to position the key resource of 1OCEAN in order to enter this segment. Finally, the STP‐model identifies a strategy of how to tackle the selected segment within the local government. This enables 1OCEAN to focus and realize a small‐scale project, and to apply its major resources to the selected segment.
1) Segmentation Segmentation is useful in order to come from a broader and general context into a more specific and
exact defined area of operations. Especially in the government sector, where there are different
functions, staff regulations, workplaces, locations, organizational and cultural differences, it has to be
differentiated and carefully identified, what to focus on.
Several segments can be first of all chosen in order to have a variety of possible entry‐segments. The
next step, in Targeting, is to address only the most valuable segment.
2) Targeting
Targeting is relevant in order to be sharp in the identification of the most realistic segment. This is a
unique decision that will completely specify all the further research on the chosen segment.
The identified segments from step 1) are now rated and evaluated based on three different criteria. It
has to be focused in step 2) only on one of the given segments in order to ensure that the project‐
group will come up with a feasible and reasonable solution for 1OCEAN to enter.
The key elements that are crucial to differentiate between the segments and to identify the most
interesting and valuable segment, are the following:
‐ Realistic: a realistic and possible segment that 1OCEAN can offer its services to, but also a segment that can easily implement the offered services from 1OCEAN to its daily operation without much effort
‐ Short‐term‐oriented: a segment that is quickly accessible for 1OCEAN and does not need to obey to local, regional and EU‐law, ask management for permission or start a tendering process in order to realize the offered services
‐ Profitable: a segment that can spend money on the offered services and added‐value features by 1OCEAN and therefore creates a realistic profit‐margin for 1OCEAN
Figure 5.5: STP‐Model (MindTools, 2018)
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3) Positioning Positioning means, that the project‐group needs to come up with a marketing‐strategy of how to
address the chosen segment in step 2) and how to tackle the problems of the given segment. This is
the most crucial aspect in the research, as it positions the services 1OCEAN offers to the government‐
sector, in a specific way and does not let room for any general statements anymore. As this factor is
the most relevant and decisive aspect of the STP‐model, it has to go through further models and
theories of marketing, in order to create a competitive advantage.
The positioning‐criteria for 1OCEAN are the following:
‐ Marketing‐mix: Product, Price, Place, Promotion ‐ Unique‐selling proposition: identify the competitive edge based on the RBV‐analysis for
1OCEAN ‐ Value proposition: linking the adding‐value product/service to the selected segment
Major findings
1)Segmentation
To select segments from a broad portfolio, it is optimal to first create an understanding about the
existing functions within the local government.
It was found out through interviews with 1OCEAN that the company does neither have an extensive
network nor a high reputation/trustworthiness in order to offer large‐scale projects to the
government‐sector. Therefore, the overall sector is narrowed down to the Municipality of Rotterdam.
Thus, it is enabled that realistic, small‐scale projects are offered, which are easy applicable and have a
low‐cost structure.
Figure 5.6: Six Clusters of Organogram Gemeente Rotterdam (GemeenteRotterdam, 2018d)
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The six clusters are, from left to right: Social Development, Labour and Income, City Development,
Urban Management, Services and Administrative‐ and Group Support. The 2 most interesting clusters
to further investigate were Labour and Income, due to its focus on the Workforce, and Administrative
and Group Support, due to its focus on Corporate Staff and Strategy and Innovation, Information
Services, Facilities and Research. One other interesting clusters to keep in mind was Services, due to
their focus on Development Concern Services.
The next step was to get in contact with employees that are representative for different departments
at the Municipality of Rotterdam. That enabled the group to get primary data and insight‐knowledge
about the ongoing development at the Municipality. This enriched the investigations by field research
(several visits to the Municipality building “De Rotterdam”) and interviews, which were held at the
library of Rotterdam and at the Municipality location “De Rotterdam”.
In the following, an overview is given about the different interviewees and their function within the
Municipality:
‐ Ria Semil, responsible for Civil Servant
‐ Marco van Dongen, responsible for Facility‐Management
‐ Odette de Koning, responsible for the realization of the innovation‐project “HNW010”, consultant to
the Municipality and other business‐sectors
These three interviews helped to identify, if there is a key‐segment to tackle with workplace‐innovation
or not.
Additionally, it has to be emphasized that the Municipality of Rotterdam is a role‐model for the
citizens. Between 2010‐2014, after the economic crisis, the city realized a national “cut of the budgets”
that are distributed among the municipalities of the Netherlands. Thus, the city had a decrease in the
budget from 4.4 billion in 2010 to 3.8 billion in 2014, which forced the government to reduce costs and
change the way of how money is spent. That is why the Municipality came up with the idea to execute
the “HNW010” in order to save 13 million € within the overall budget. At the same time, this action‐
orientated approach exactly matched with the overall goal of the city, which was formulated as “Doing
more with less” (JosephRowntreeFoundation, 2017).
Indeed, the Municipality of Rotterdam saved costs and at the same time integrated more employees
instead of firing. This process made it also difficult to differentiate between the functionality of the
workplace within the different departments: at “De Rotterdam”, all 40 floors can be used by every
employee. In fact, it turned out that people from the same department tend to work on the same
floors, but everyone has still the chance to work in every floor (van Dongen, 2018).
2) Targeting
‐ Realistic: At the same time, the group questioned if 1OCEAN is capable to train thousands of employees that are currently hired at the building “De Rotterdam”. It would be more realistic to firstly confront the top‐management function with their consultancy in order to ensure to be capable enough for that project.
‐ Short‐term‐oriented: Taking into account the employee‐training, it could become a long‐term agreement. That is why 1OCEAN may decide to first only offer support to the top‐managers.
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E. 1OCEAN Interview transcript 0.00 Interviewer: What are the core values of 1 Ocean? And the mission and vision?
0.06 Interviewee: We have six core values. One is “Always deliver what you promise”. We are a group
of independent entrepreneurs and what we don’t want is that we have a bad name in the market. So,
everyone should deliver what he promises. So, we should act as a professional. That’s also something
they must sign before they join the organization. So, they have to vow so to say, so make a pledge that
they act as a professional, that’s one. The second is “Always take responsibility, don’t blame others”.
Things go wrong, things are not going as you are expect it to be, first and foremost look at yourself,
look in the mirror, what could I have done differently? And then see what you can change in that
aspect. The obvious thing, what you normally see, you see it all around, is that if something goes wrong
you blame somebody else. Right? Also with this assignment. Something doesn’t go as you expect “you
haven’t done this, you haven’t done that”. That’s the easy way. The difficult way is to look at yourself.
How could I help you actually achieve what you wanted to do? So that’s the second core value. And
that is a very good question that you ask our core values. Whenever things change around us, this is
something that we want to keep. It is the base of our existence. The third element is that you be
yourself. I’m not here in a nice suit, I’m just being myself. Right? And we want everybody to be
themselves and also respect others to be themselves. Why? Normally when you go to and organization
you have to pretend to be somethings different. To fit in the system. Right? If you go to the police you
have a police uniform and you act like a police man, and all your emotional stuff and feminine stuff
and your spiritual stuff you leave at home. So that’s why you always see this difficulty about your
private way of working and living and your working way of living, and those are two different identities.
We don’t want that. We want the whole of you, because the private part brings also creativity or
different insights. So be yourself and respect others to be themselves. It doesn’t mean that I can always
walk in shorts here or to be bluntly to somebody else. If it helps be to be more trustworthy to a client
by using a suit: I use a suit. Right? But I be myself as much as possible. So that’s the third element. The
forth is
“Be open minded”. So, you have to be open minded to actually have the, you have to be open to learn.
Learn from each other, learn from new things, and that is part of this development thing I mentioned
two weeks ago. 1 Ocean is partly an organization where you can earn money but partly an organization
where you can learn and develop yourself, but you can only develop yourself if you are open minded
to learn. So that’s an important element as well.
The fifth is “The interaction between each other is try to help each other as much as possible” so help
your colleagues when you can, of course there is a limit and it’s up for you to decide where it is that
you can actually help somebody, or you ask them for money to do something which you could normally
sell, but helping each other is number one. Five. And number six is “Have fun”. So, it’s not all about,
how do you say, corporate like, we should have a little bit of fun as well. So that’s why we like it here
so much, because it’s a fun area to be, it’s a cool space to work, and that relates also to the other
communities we have abroad. So, these are the six core values we have and that builds our climate
and our culture and that is basically the essence from where we work from. Now, what is our mission?
And our purpose? Our purpose as we started this is to create a company assisting people, so could we
create a company assisting people to flourish, to grow, to learn, to earn money and learn at the same
way? So that’s the reason why we started it. What we want to have are these kinds of spaces all around
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the world. So, we like to combine physical places where people can meet, work together, invite clients
and have fun, and a global digital community where you can use the brand, use each other’s’
references, use each other’s knowledge and you can find each other in the digital space. So that’s the
ambition. Was that clear?
5.40 Interviewer: Yes, very clear.
5.41 Interviewee: Okay thank you.
5.42 Interviewer: Concerning the human resource management and the system how the company can
generate money, I think that it’s a person culture, so the company and its profit are totally dependent
on what each individual can perform and can generate for the company, so, do you have any control
systems or how do you measure a good performance or a bad performance? So, do you have kind of
mile stones per year that each employee has to reach or do you just let everything go like it is, like the
wind spreads around and let it for the future? Do you have anything to estimate how the future will
go?
6.21 Interviewee: Yes, we are struggling with that, because on one hand we like this freedom and we
all want to be free, right? But on the other hand, we want to create some structure to help people
actually generate money, generate quality and so on, so we are struggling how to organize that. We
don’t have systems, the only thing we have from a quality point of view is this vow or this pledge that
you act as a professional and whenever we finalize a project we come together and evaluate it; do we
want to do this again? If so, can we do it more effective, more efficient? What’s the response of the
client? So, we have this evaluation element, but we don’t have a structure when it comes to keep
performance indicators for individual people themselves. Why? Because it’s up to the individual
himself or herself to actually generate income and generate projects just like you said. For the
company, it doesn’t really matter if we have project or not. We can run a whole year without any
projects externally and still survive. And that’s strange, right? Because normally you have a lot of costs;
employee costs, building costs and so on, so you need revenue to balance that, and that’s the typical
management dilemma; do I have enough income to pay the people and assets, and do I have enough
people to actually do the work? So that’s constantly balancing. We don’t have that. If you work in 1
Ocean you don’t get a salary. It’s actually the other way around, you have to pay a contribution fee.
So, you have to pay a small fee to be able to participate in the organization, which is 100 euros per
month. With these 100 euros per month, we can survive. So, only on this contribution fee, the
organization can stay alive. All the additional income from projects; it helps to grow, it helps to invest
in new tools, in new elements and so on, but it’s for the individual people to basically make sure they
get enough income to pay their own bills. So, the responsibility is not on the company level anymore,
the responsibility is at the person level, and that is exactly what we want. The goal is that we want to
have an organization assisting people, but it’s up to the people themselves to actually make sure they
get enough revenue. Does that sound clear?
9.20 Interviewer: yes.
9.21 Interviewee: Great.
9.22 Interviewer: Thank you.
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9.23 Interviewee: So, it’s a little bit difficult because it’s probably the opposite of what you’ve learnt
at school, at home, because normally you go to school, you have a job, and you have income, right?
This is basically the other way around. Which is so much more fun, but that’s my personal opinion.
10.00 Interviewer: Is there an hourly rate for you employees or do you basically get one chunk of
money for the project and you split that 15/85%, they get 85% or?
10.18 Interviewee: The split is 15% to the company and 85% to the people, how they split that
themselves is up to them. (10.27) So sometimes we have, for now we are for instance a training where
I have sales people selling the stuff for 30% and executing the training is 70%, so this is the division we
have amongst each other, but we can also do it 50/50 or we can do it 100% if I do it myself. So, the
way we divide it amongst ourselves is basically free. The only thing we want is before we sell anything,
we want to know: what is the arrangement between each other? Because if you don’t have that, you
have a fight afterwards, and you don’t want that. So, if you sell anything with a group of people, we
need to know beforehand how to divide the income, the revenues. Just an example for this project we
did here, this was five people working on this, it was based on a tender and we looked up what are the
activities within this project? And we divided the activities between the five people and that was the
base. So, we said: this is how we do it. During the project, because it was almost a year, we kept
monitoring how we progressed. So, the time we spent and the revenues we owned they did align with
what we thought it would be and on monthly basis we basically adjusted the revenue stream. So, we
had it set in paper, but it was not in stone, so we could modify it but it was in cooperation.
12.18 Interviewer: And that kind of wage you are talking about within the 85%, you are kind of dividing
up the chunks that everybody gets, right?
12.40 Interviewee: Yes, just to give you an example: for the client we had a fee of 125 per hour, so 125
euros per hour, so that leaves 112.50, then we had 10% now we make it 15% but we adjusted that, so
we had over 100 euros per hour per person per hour that we sold, within that. we divided, so it could
be that “you do so many hours, you do so many hours” so it gives you 20 hours for you, 80 hours for
you and then you get 80 hours of 100 is your revenue or you could say “we divide it differently” on the
basis that we agree upon with each other. So, we’re basically flexible how to divide the work and with
dividing the work, we also divide the income because every hour that you can actually work, you get
paid, right? So, it’s very direct rewarding system of your efforts, and of course attracting a project takes
time which is not sellable hours, right, of you are a consultant for instance. Only the billable hours are
the time you spent at the company. All the pre‐hours, you have to at some point deal with that and
it’s up to people how to deal with that. And we’re still learning what’s best and most effective and we
share these best practices so we can build upon our own experience and about the examples that we
have. And we are a relatively new company, only three years old, but some of the people that are
working here are already 40 years in the business, so they bring a lot of expertise which we can build
upon, and that’s, going back to the core values, we learn from each other to grow as a professional
ourselves.
14.37 Interviewer: How many partners do you have right now?
14.40 Interviewee: Fifteen.
14.45 Interviewer: You are asking for a marketing strategy but what is your current marketing strategy
and how do you look for potential clients? Because I know you have people who do the projects, do
they also have to sell their projects or are they the ones that look for clients or how does it work?
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15.01 Interviewee: What we now do it basically reactive. All the projects we are in today are basically
people based. So, what does it mean? Somebody hears something and says, “that’s an opportunity,
let’s go at it”. And one of the reasons people joins this organization is that they are already
independent entrepreneurs but they cannot deliver everything the client is asking for, so they use 1
Ocean to get colleagues helping them execute the project, and that is via the partners themselves. So,
we don’t have a general marketing strategy at all, we just do stuff. And it’s not professional enough,
it’s just the way we used to work, and we keep on doing it. We don’t have like a sales department, we
don’t have a marketing department, we don’t have general stuff such as normal companies have, so
we have to do basically everything ourselves and that makes it also more difficult to have a clear
strategy where to go, we are more reactive like “there’s an opportunity, can we make it? Let’s go for
it!” instead of having a marketing plan we want to “be there next year and this specific area and these
are the steps we will take beforehand”. This whole project was no strategy at all, it happened to come
across, we jumped on it, we were able to execute it, and now we have some knowledge about this as
well. But it was not a strategy like “we want to be the work place innovation company number one in
The Netherlands, or in Europe or in the world”, no it was just one of the topics that came across and
we were thinking “that’s fun, we can do that” and we always ask ourselves “can we deliver what we
promised?”. If we cannot, we don’t it, so we come back to the core value. So, that is how we work.
That’s why it’s interesting for you to advice us to make it a step more professional, right? So, make it
more structured. And that does not onledy help us making or gaining more projects, but also helps us
develop as an organization, because we still have a lot to learn.
17.54 Interviewer: How extensive is the consultancy that you give? How far do you go in for example
implementing something if a partner of company is interested in that thing?
18.09 Interviewee: Related to work place innovation, so what we are selling are basically three
elements; consultancy, coaching and training. And these are related to each other. Why? Consultancy
is basically generating a plan; “what are you going to do?”, “how are you going to do it?”, so this is
more like the theoretical part. But then you have to implement it. So, you have to coach people during
the implementation and during the execution. And the third element that some people need is some
new knowledge so we have to train them as well. Now, it’s not necessarily that we deliver all three of
them but they go hand in hand, so we have to make sure that if people have to change or do things
differently and do not have the knowledge in place, we have to make sure that the knowledge will be
there. And there are a lot of training bureaus out there in the market so normally we advice them
whatever is needed. So, we start with the consultancy depending on their own ambition, try to support
them to do as much as possible themselves. Instead of doing everything for them we like them to do
it themselves. And they like that as well because it’s cheaper and it has more support within the
company if they can do things themselves instead of being told how to do something. It’s very strange
when you go to change management, you all probably have a lot of theoretical knowledge of change
management as well, people don’t want to be changed. But they are able and willing to change
themselves, so this is something that we play a little bit with.
20.22 Interviewer: Do you have some type of overview of what your employees do? What are their
fields? You have 15 employees, right, or partners, can you give us insight of what they do?
20.33 Interviewee: Yes, we have on the website some of them posted and you see that on the English
version we have some other people than on the Dutch version and that’s their own choice. So, look at
that. If you go to the Dutch version of the website, you go to ‘about us’ or something like that, you see
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some of the profiles and you see on the English version also some of the profiles and that gives you a
little bit of understanding of what kind of people we have within the community at this stage.
21.02 Interviewer: Does it have all people, or...?
21.03 Interviewee: No, it doesn’t have all people because some people are lazy promoting themselves,
some people don’t want to be promoting themselves, because we have basically four types of people
within the organization. It’s good to explain you as well. First we have the independent entrepreneurs
who are already experienced consultants or whatever they do. They have their profile already in place,
they are normally placed on the website. Then we have people who are retired, so they have reached
the age of 65 or 67 but are saying “I’m not going to sit at home because that’s not good for my wife or
plans or whatever. I just want to be active”, and those are very interesting for us because they have a
lot of expertise and knowledge and network references that we can use. Erik is one of them, that’s
why I asked him to join here as well. We have also people, like Maarten Ruijgrok who was here, who
was just leaving school and is starting professionally, so he’s there on the website as well. But we also
have people who beside their partnership in 1 Ocean have a job. So, they have two or three days a
week a job and besides that they are with 1 Ocean. They don’t always want to promote themselves as
a professional besides that job, it’s their own choice. So, it’s a mix of individuals, of professionals, who
use 1 Ocean to do things they cannot do in their job, they cannot do at school, or they cannot do as an
independent entrepreneur because they’re too small, they’re too specialized so they cannot scale up
their projects. And it’s on voluntary basis, so if you want to have your profile on the website, we can
make it, if you don’t, fine with us, we don’t decide what you have to do, it’s your own responsibility.
23.23 Interviewer: Could you give us insight in that if we would want to have it? Just for the report, to
make a more like in‐depth analysis, could you give us information on that? Like what the specific fields
are that the employees or partners work in?
23.38 Interviewee: Yes.
23.39 Interviewer: Okay, thank you.
23.40 Interviewee: I think that you get quite a broad overview already on the website, maybe one or
two profiles are missing, so it’s not that extensive.
23.47 Interviewer: Okay perfect.
23.52 Interviewer: You are also focused on sustainable solutions for projects, or just any kinds of
projects and solutions?
24.03 Interviewee: Well, basically we don’t have any scope so that’s our challenge. So, if there are
sustainable solutions at hand then yes. There are two partners who are active in sustainable solutions
in the logistic area so they are more on the technological part. Besides, there are one or two
partnerships. But the name 1 Ocean has nothing to do with sustainability or with environmental. We
chose the name because first, I’m a sailor, so I used to be a sailor, so I have something with the sea, so
I’m a little bit in love with the sea. But the other thing, and it’s a little bit difficult for you perhaps to
grasp, is that if you look at the ocean as an organization mechanism, instead of the pyramids we know.
So, normal organizations have the shape of a pyramid, right? Everybody understands? The CEO on top
and the workforce below. If you look at the ocean as an organization mechanism, it’s structured totally
differently. It’s fluid, it runs on biodiversity, and it’s an example for us how to organize ourselves. Why?
Because if you look at all the ecosystems on this planet, the oceans are by far the most powerful, the
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oldest, and the richest ecosystems that I know, so they must do something right. Right? And there is
no like a ‘head waterdrop or such’, there’s not like a ‘chef sea’, there’s nothing like that so this
hierarchal structure of controlling the system; the ocean doesn’t have that. It’s fluid, it changes every
second, but life is generated because of its diversity and it adapts to the environment. So, if you can
adapt to the environment, and that is interesting if you look into the future because the future is
changing so rapidly, you need to adapt as well. So, if you look at the more modern organization
structures, they all look at resilience, fluid networks, whatever, so we looked at the ocean as our
example to organize ourselves, and that’s it.
26.56 Interviewer: Do you have any short‐term and long‐term goals for you company?
27.03 Interviewee: Short‐term goal is to increase this diversity of partners even more. We have too
much consultancy in the group, we want different kind of expertise, different kind of people from
different countries, from different ages from different backgrounds, so we embrace diversity, so that’s
the short‐term goal. One of the things we are doing; we have two students working on their thesis, of
the same program as you but fourth year, and I asked one of them “could you investigate how we
could attract people of your age into the organization?”. What kind of interface do we need to have?
What kind of values should we serve? What kind of program, structure, whatever. So, what could we
deliver as 1 Ocean to attract young people into the organization? That’s the short‐term goal. Why?
Because it helps us enormously in developing new ideas, new dynamic, new creativity. It enriches us
as an organization, especially if you combine them with some of the experienced guys we have in the
organization. They are very eager to exchange their knowledge, their network, their experience with
other people. That’s the fun part about old people; they want to be valuable to others. They don’t
need to work for the money, right? So, there’s an enormous interest for them to still be valuable. One
of the elements that employees face when they have difficulties is that they are not valued, they are
not valuable. So, exchanging their knowledge and their experience is valuable to them and makes them
feel good. On the other hand, you have just like me, but on a different level, a lot to learn, especially
out there in the market, right? So, if we could combine that I think magic would happen. But that’s just
my idea and we ask Tomas to investigate “what should we do?”, “How can we make this interesting
for you?”, maybe if you are at school or maybe when you just leave school, or whatever it doesn’t
really matter, “how could this be valuable for them?”. So, we want to grow in that direction. Tomas is
here. If you have any ideas of suggestions in that aspect, please contact him or contact me and we are
eager to find out your ideas on how you look at this and what you think is not going to work, what may
be hampering or could we maybe change something that would be interesting for you as well? Just
your ideas, you don’t have to buy or sell anything, just your ideas would be great. So that’s the short‐
term, the other one is to grow in the number of projects. So, especially this one, I think there is some
opportunity here but we are not really sure how to embrace that and how to capitalize on that. So, we
have to be better in selling all the knowledge and expertise we have. We’re lacking in that aspect. If
we do that and the clients are happy, that’s fine, then we will grow eventually. So, when it takes a long‐
term approach, it’s basically the same, while growing we still keep focus on the culture we have. We
have a very interesting culture I think and the climate in which we work and where there is a lot of
respect between each other and a lot of ways people like to help each other. We want to keep that in
place so whenever you grow, things go different, you have new people and new ideas which is great,
but we have to embrace the culture whenever we grow.
31.35 Interviewer: What potential do you see to apply your services in health care?
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31.40 Interviewee: I have no idea, that’s your challenge, because we don’t have any clients in health
care, not at all, so we don’t have contact with medical companies or hospitals or advisers, nothing.
32.01 Interviewer: But you still chose this sector?
32.04 Interviewee: Yes, it’s cool huh? Because we have some knowledge in maritime and logistics, so
that’s the easy one for us because we know them already, we kind of know their culture, but health
care is something that I don’t know. The reason why we chose it is that we see them adapting to new
technologies already quite fast, but I think that they do not adapt that much in changing their work.
So, if you use technology, you can change the way you work, right? That’s the whole benefit with
technology, that is eases out your work. But we have some friends in health care and they are always
over worked, stressful, and they’re using the technology not to the best of their ability to make their
life easier. So, I would reckon there’s an opportunity there.
33.11 Interviewer: For the health care also, do you want us to be focused really broad or something
specific like only hospitals or pharmacies or…?
33.22 Interviewee: It’s up to you. If you go in depth in one specific element in health care, it’s fine with
us, if you want to have a broad approach, it’s fine with us as well. So, you decide what is most promising
in your perspective and just explain what that is. So; “why did you choose that?”, and that’s more also
for school for learning objective; “why would you choose that one?”, and it could be a number of
reasons but for us it doesn’t really matter if it’s a broad approach or a very narrow approach. Just go
where the low hanging fruit is or where there is most potential in the future.
34.01 Interviewer: The same also for local government, right?
34.06 Interviewee: Yes
34.07 Interviewer: So, you don’t have any experience there?
34.08 Interviewee: Well, we have some discussions with local government. We are in discussion with
the province of Zeeland which we already helped with a few workshops and seminars and we are in
discussion with them “what is the next step?”. And the problem they have in Zeeland is that from a
province point of view, they have young people leaving the province, old people retiring, and
companies who want to grow but don’t have any personnel. So, they see this friction in the labor
market where there are business opportunities for companies but they have enormous problems with
getting and attracting people. So, one of the ways to solve that is to innovate the way you work, right?
Do more with less people. So, we are negotiating with them what is the best approach, the problem is
that they have their solutions already at hand and we keep on trying to forget the solutions and focus
on the problem. Let me explain you why. If you go to this one; the innovation puzzle. I’ll explain you a
little bit why we did this. It’s not from a book, it’s not our idea, it was generated in discussion with
companies and organizations, so this is something we created in the practice. Now, if you look at the
middle, you have four pieces; every company has people, do you know any company without people?
Not yet, right? Unless general AI will take over we still have people to do work. People have
competences, mindsets, experiences, whatever, so we have people in the company. They work in an
organizational structure with hierarchies, with decision making, with culture and so on, so they act in
a system, so the organization is like the organizational system. Any company uses some sort of
technology. If you are in the transport sector you use trucks, but also you use warehouse systems,
software, but also in the office you use all sorts of software, right? And you communicate. So,
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everything aligns with communication. So, this is basically the puzzle we use as a starting point for a
discussion. And what we ask them is “where is your challenge?”. Is your challenge with people because
they don’t know how to do the job? Is the challenge with the technology, that they have outdated
technology and need to invest? Is the problem with communication, that nobody understands each
other and so on? Or is it something with the organization? So, we first ask them “Where is your
problem?”. The fun part is that the solution is not necessarily in the same piece. So, if the problem is
with people, the solution may be in the other areas. Let me give you an example. We had a meeting
two weeks ago. And we were a little bit early. So, there was a building, there was a coffee corner and
we were with three people, and we ordered two coffee and a soft drink. And then, we only go the soft‐
drink. The lady asked us: “Would you like to have the coffee now or later?” “Uhh, sorry. Now. We just
need to go upstairs.” “Oh, okay!” Then she went back, to the counter, and she did nothing. So we went
there and said “Hey, what about our coffee?” “Yea, sorry. But I don’t know how the coffee machine
works.” So, where is the problem in your view?
Interviewer 38.40 Communication… I think.
Interviewee 38.41 Communication.
Interviewer 38.44 Men?
Interviewee 38.45 Men, personnel. Yeah.
Interviewer 38.46 Organization.
Interviewee 38.47 Organization.
Interviewer 38.50 It could be anywhere. If she’d just know how to handle the machine, the technical
part.
Interviewee 38.57 The most common approach is “Why can’t you make coffee? Are you stupid or so?”,
right? As a client, I would say “hmm” from an organization point of view she should never be allowed
to be in that position. What happened; her colleague – who knew how to make coffee – was out for a
few minutes. So what she tried is to stall time, that her colleague came back, and then she could take
over and makes the coffee, right? The solution could be in any field. It could just be the communication
“I’m sorry, I cannot make coffee at this state because I’m filling in for my colleague. Is this a problem
or would you like something else?” We as a client would totally accept that, right? The other way would
be; get a coffee machine that everybody knows how to operate. The technology part. Just press the
button and the coffee comes out. Problem solved. She should never be allowed to be placed in that
position, right? Because, how can you put someone who is not capable of doing stuff in that position?
It is not fair, it is an organizational fault. We could train her, because it happens more, and then she
could do anything the client wants. So, the solution can be in all pieces, the obvious solution is not
always the best solution. Now, if you go to companies or the province, the problem they have – nine
out of ten times – will figure out the solution themselves. Because they are looking there, and the
solution might be there, or might be there. So, what we do is open up the mind and explain how you
can deal with the project. That’s pure consultancy, right? When you are in agreement on how to deal
with the problem, then you go to the execution. Do we need some coaching? do we need some
training? Yes or no, because that will go hand‐in‐hand. Now, this is internally. Every company works in
a Network, right? You have clients, suppliers so you have a lot of partners in the end. It is external; this
is the Network part. So if you look at it a little bit broader than the company itself, it may also relate to
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the Network. So, you could have an issue with a supplier that you can discuss in the same way. And
then the final is the external environment which we don’t control, at all. That could be market‐
developments, that could be just the demographic developments that you cannot control, that could
be… whatever. But you have to react for that as well to be successful. So this is basically our pitcher as
a starting point, from which we start the discussion. So we are in discussion with the province of
Zeeland. So where is the problem and how can we solve that? But the problem for that for us is that
they already have the solution so fixed, that it is difficult to get that back. Because anyone who provides
a solution thinks it is the best solution. And if you say to them “Ehm, well maybe it’s not.” Then you
basically say they are not doing a good job. And people are irrational, so if you want to innovate –
innovate in general – then this form of diplomacy like “Yea, it’s a great idea. Maybe we can make it
even better by going one step further back.” And then they say “Aah, oh, yes. We haven’t thought
about that.” So that is our challenge. To get people to look for answers they already have in the
organization but that are not the most obvious ones. So that is a very long answer to a very short
question. But does it answer the question?
Interviewer 43.16 Yea
Interviewee 43.18 Would you like one other example from a company? Because that’s maybe also
interesting for you. Because workplace innovation is a search; it helps if we can link it to something
else. So, I was in discussion with a company yesterday. They had also this idea of workplace innovation
to reduce failure costs. So that was their framework why they started a project two years ago. We did
a project two years ago with an industrial organization that needed a quality system. So, an ISO9000
system, right? You know them? Why? Because the client only wanted to work with them if they had a
quality system. So, we used that as a starting point to actually make their organization more effective
and more efficient. So, we changed the way they worked based on this umbrella ISO‐standards.
Interviewer 45.51 DO you think rather of an value adding services or changing functionality?
Interviewee 46 : we focus on how you organize your work, not on companies brands or something.
We look at the existing market they have and look how to organize it more efficient and more based
on modern style demands, in order to become more resilient and more adaptive to the nowadays
speed and pace in external environment.
Basicly it depends on the urgency they feel themselves. If the house is on fire or if they just want to do
increase of profit margin. We personally like small, and many small changes, better than a whole
change program. We see big change programs fail often, as people are scared of big changes and
especially in the government part. 50 % of the government part itself is only for reorganizing the
organization itself. As governments are politically driven so they have to introduce everytime advanced
things. Occupy change itself. CHANGING THINGS THAT ARE SMALL AND THAT PEOPLE CAN CHANGE
THEMSELVES, IS BETTER.
EVERY NEW CEO WANTS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING AND CULTURE. UT IF EVERYBODY CHANGES ON
SMALL SCALE, THE EFFECT IN A LONG TERM IS LARGE SCALE. Phrase: the impact of change in short
term is overestimated always. Short term effects are small, long term effects are underestimated, but
in real life have a huge impact on a long end.
CHANGE can be on different level. Change starts at the top as change needs support from the top level.
We assisted a company the year before, where the ceo fully supported the workplace innovation
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project. But then, the board of supervisors (old people), said just make money and do not change
anything!!!
Interviewer 52 min: But what about the company 1OCEAN itself? Is the company aiming to enter new
markets globally with the same culture? How do you want to survive there and how do you want to
enter the market? When you go abroad and tell a company that you want to change THEIR capabilities?
They will answer that they know the company better than foreigners for sure. So if they don’t see any
kind of short term profit that they could gain from it. For example a change of product can increase a
profit margin. 1OCEAN is only aiming long term goals, and therefore it is difficult to convince other
organiations by this idea.
Interviewee 53: Also within the NL you also have these problems. Rotterdam companies are different
to country side family owned companies. Changes or tell someone how to run a business is everytime
difficult. For many companies this item is a no‐go zone.
That is why it is difficult to get this approach implemented in lots of companies. It is not easy. If you
are a CEO or an entrepreneur, you have your own view. You want it your way.
CHALLENGE!!!
Solution: LINK it to their urgent problems they have currently.
DON’T SELL workplace innovation, but use this to solve another problem which is on their agenda right
now. You have this problem? I can help you with workplace innovation. After lots of projects in the
past, I never called it workplace innovation. I always linked it to something they suppose to call it like.
If they understand you, then you can convince them by explaining that by means of your workplace
innovation you prevent the company towards the future not to run into problems anymore.
Do not advise sb above you.
In every company there is room for improvement. Even if they are successful. Situations and external
environment changes every time especially nowadays. People also change. Organzations have to deal
with HRM change. HRM is cost for a company. Therefore, they want to have as much value as possible
from the HRM, but they want to reduce costs at the same time. Therefore, productivity with the time
also changes. Being sick, absent, sabotaging work.
Interviewer 60min: To come back to the governments, what are difficulties when working with them
in the past?
Interviewee 61 min: Most civil services are very dedicated. They work hard. Most services are most
productive, they work outside the procedures. That is the downside, as government organizations just
execute procedures, that’s it. Follow the instructions. Do not use your brain.
Difficulty is to change that. Bureaucracy is a strong task culture, how to change that??
Opportunity is: two elements: Governments have two clients to serve
1) civils from the street, with general issues like passports etc.
2) politics: local, regional and national.
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They have to serve both clients, demands are different. Civils are in between. Therefore just follow
the instructions. The no one can claim at you.
A lot of governmental organizations try to change already much over time. We have to reorganize etc.
But still procedures. So there is no freedom for people to just do their work. People are afraid to do
subjective mistakes. Therefore just follow the typical way.
Interviewer 64 min: What about an International strategy?
Interviewee 65 min: no we do not have any. We just grow globally in an organic way. When employees
go abroad and share their international network with us, we try to cooperate then with small
headquarters in other parts of the world. That is how we try to grow. Only if there are possibilities due
to middle men like employees and their relatives etc.
Interviewer 66 min: Local government means within the NL? Yes it is easier and also advised to deal
with the NL in this context, so try to look on local governments here.
Interviewee 67 min: Basically workplace innovation gives more power and freedom to people. But
governments are more static. So how far can we go in this context?
There are provinces and cities in the NL embracing this: they say that we know that we have
to give young people freedom in order to motivate them to be engaged in our governments
locally. If there is a young director, then locally there are new innovations in the culture.
It depends on who is in charge of it, they generate the culture. The policy is ruled and introduced by them.
There is a union of Municipalities called “Vereiniging of nederlands gemeentes” maybe they
have some information on that as well, look it up.
BUELZORG as a healthcare industry example how to change the workplace innovation
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F. Odette de Koning Interview Transcript
00:20 Interviewer: What was the initial aim of the workplace innovation in Rotterdam?
00:26 Interviewee: Yeah, because we have to talk about the municipality yeah, because I worked there
before I work here (at the library). I’m an interim manager and I did a lot of interim jobs in the
municipality and now since two years I’m here.
00:44 Interviewer: But this is also still kind of a branch of the municipality?
00:47 Interviewee: Yeah, the municipality sponsors, a subsidy, 20 million. But yeah, I did HNW010 here
in Rotterdam and you spoke to Luciana, and Luciana was the program manager from HNW010 (the
new way of working). And she was an adviser, specialist on new ways of working since 2008. I was
caught by that kind of working because before I was also a traditional worker. I had a nice office and a
secretary in the opposite and a closet full of books and papers and a desk full of papers in all colors,
and nobody could touch them because I thought that was my life, and now this is my life. And in 2008,
that was the moment of Interpol and Microsoft and the Rabo (? 2:40) – the first changers of that
moment…
02:47 Interviewer: In the field of the new way of working?
02:49 Interviewee: From that moment yeah, there were also some ways before, you always have a bit
like this. And I thought that that could be something for Rotterdam too but in that moment, we didn’t
have anything like that. We had a lot of buildings, about 29 more than now only with offices for
employees. But I started with myself, I thought I would like to try what it is and what it brings and I put
all my stuff in a box and I started to work with on own devices. But it was not like now, I had a small
laptop and I thought I had to put it all in a trolley first and I then I found a bag and everything had to
fit in there but still it was heavy and I wanted to go lighter so I bought an iPad, and older one than this,
and another telephone, and it was all my devices back then and I had to put it in a small handbag and
that is what I have now. And that was easier to carry with me and I thought that everything that doesn’t
fit in, I don’t want. But at that moment no one got scans or digital emails or whatever, so I got a lot of
papers still and I gave it back all the time I received one and asked them to send It by email instead or
something like that. So, it was quite experiencing but what I saw it was bringing me a lot I did know
much more about what people are doing, my own team, what they were talking about, but also got
more (?) insights in the organization. I got to know much more people and then I started working
outside our building, so I started to work in the city and I thought “okay, we work for the city and we
are never in the city”. We are in the big buildings, on the 15th floor, and make plans for the city and we
live outside the city. And I thought about that, we are making plans for areas like this and we are never
even there. So, go and sit in the café over there and see what’s going on here and then you can make
your plans. That gave me a lot of energy, my eyes were opened. Before I worked at, how do you call
that, were you get your passport etc., I worked at the front desk from the municipality and I saw also
that my employees they come by metro, go upstairs in the building and sit there behind the desks, did
their thing, and go home. Never in the city. So, then we had our meetings and I said “okay, let’s sit in
the park” and my employees were thinking “what are we doing, strange” but they liked it also. And
then one day I walked around and I saw them sitting by themselves speaking with each other without
me, also in the park, so I though “the message went through”. So that was nice. But those were small
interventions to see how it’s working and what’s bringing it to people. And then I talked to an advisor
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from the, what is it called, the secretary from the municipality, the big chiefs, and they said that “yeah
maybe there is an opportunity for us and let’s make a study”, so then it became formal. I have a group
around me of other managers and interested people and they were doing the same as me and we
made a group and we were talking about our new way of working, but back then our group was
informal, then it became formal.
07:52 Interviewer: When was that?
07:54 Interviewee: Yeah when was that… I think it was around 2011. And then they were also thinking
about building The Rotterdam (?), the building Rotterdam, and they asked me to talk to them about
this kind of work… Markus please look at this because you are interrupting her and I cannot understand
what neither of you two are saying here
08:20 Interviewee: With this formal way they are going to think in…
08:24 Interviewer: …Facts and figures
08:25 Interviewee: Yes! Not in energy, and we were talking about energy and what’s bringing us a
freedom. We felt free because we could work everywhere. But then it started about figures, so “we
can save a lot of millions when we don’t have 29 offices but only four offices”. So, for us it was a difficult
time because we felt like our energy was going to be killed because it is going to be too formal. Then
Luciana became the program manager and she asked me as an advisor in the group because I was one
of the first starters and I stayed there until 2016. That was after the “Timmerhuis” was finished. And
all the time we talked about how we can keep the energy and how can we make it nice for people to
work in a space like that, it’s not only designed to save money. So, “how can we have the balance?”
and “how can we take people with us so that they also feel the energy, and not ‘we must’?”. So, from
the direction said: “we build four buildings and you must work there like that”. It doesn’t give much
energy and you don’t feel happy to go there. So that was difficult to keep that balance. And we are
talking about 8000 employees who had to change their workplace, so that is huge.
10.30 Interviewer: And was the goal to get them into a more open workplace?
10:36 Interviewee: Yeah, you’ve been there in the offices from the municipality or not?
10.40 Interviewer: In Rotterdam?
10.42 Interviewee: Yeah or in the “Timmerhuis”?
10.44 Interviewer: No, I haven’t. Do you think we can go there and just ask if we can see what the
offices look like or do we have to make like an appointment?
10.52 Interviewee: Well, Luciana is still working there. The same as me, she has another job, but I don’t
work there anymore. And when you work there you can invite people to come in and see the interior.
11.09 Interviewer: So, we should get into contact with Luciana?
11.10 Interviewee: And ask her if she maybe can invite you to come in and see the offices. It doesn’t
take much time to see. It’s difficult because I don’t work there anymore. She is still an employee of the
government but I started for myself and now I am in other companies, at the moment I have (?11:32),
they are also changing the offices and I’m also an advisor there so I work now for other organizations
like here but I’m doing change management, so not only in offices but here I do it in “how to treat a
customer”, “how to surprise a customer”. That’s here my job, so always change.
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11.58 Interviewer: Okay, but this time it’s more focused on the outside (?) instead of the inside?
12:02 interviewee: Yeah, this time it’s focused on behavior: behavior to customers and not from “how
do I work in a workplace”. But in other companies I do it in offices, it’s always change and not always
the same. But she’s working there. So, I have connections so when it’s difficult I can ask a connection
of mine if they can ask you to come and see the office. It doesn’t matter which one, you can go to the
Rotterdam or the “Timmerhuis”, they’re both nice to see.
12:45 Interviewer: Okay and they have really implemented, like the workplace there is really made for
the HNW010?
12.52 Interviewee: Yeah, it’s all fresh and new built.
12.55 Interviewer: Yeah, exactly, because in other buildings they may want to implement it but it’s not
really…
12:58 Interviewee: Yeah, they have the stadhuis, and that’s not going alright because that was an old
building and it’s difficult, and here we have the (?), next to Vapiano that’s also a big office from the
municipality but that also, the building was there, the rooms were there, so they changed it a bit, but
it’s not the same. The best is to see the “Timmerhuis” or the Rotterdam and I believe that Luciana
works in the “Timmerhuis”, but I’m not sure. If she could do that it would be nice, if she says: “I don’t
have the time to do it” then she can also invite me because they have to invite in a system, because
when you come she has to be there, but if she also invites me she doesn’t have to be there and then I
can show you around, because I don’t have a pass to come in. And then we are invited and we go
through the security, so we are invited and we get a pass and we can go in. And that’s only someone
who works there can do that. So, then you can say to Luciana “I had a chat with Odette and she can
also show us around, maybe you can make the invitation and then she can show us around there”. I
would like to do it because I am also curious how it’s now, so I can see it again after a few years. But I
know my way there and I can tell you about it. But it’s activity based working. Do you know activity
based working?
14:39 Interviewer: No.
14:40 Interviewee: You have different styles, you have flex working and you have the big office
gardens, but they chose for activity based working, that is mostly chosen. And activity based working
says you have around 14 different kind of work spots where you can do different things. So, for
example, now we are talking, and there are there two desks not used. Normally, in that kind of
environment we have a room with a table and no desks.
15:25 Interviewer: Yeah exactly. So, in that room it’s really talking and…
15:28 Interviewee: Yeah, and in another room, it’s a desk. And then you have desk concentrated so it’s
only for one person but you also have desks where you can work together and you also have places
where you can sit around and read a bit or have a brain storm session or something. And they also
differ in furniture, so you have about 14 different kind, and they are from the “Center for People and
Buildings”. They design this kind of workplaces for the government, so all the governments work with
that kind of workplaces.
16:25 Interviewer: Oh okay, so it’s this kind of framework?
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16:26 Interviewee: Yeah, for the ministries, for the provinces, for the municipalities, they all use this.
So that’s also an interesting website to look at because you see a lot of information from the “Center
for People and Buildings”.
16:43 interviewer: And since when is this established?
16:46 Interviewee: A long time ago. I also worked on the design of those building stones and it was at
some point around 2009 or 2010 I think. But in the meantime, it didn’t stand still, so in the meantime
they redesigned and redesigned, so they always change a bit. So, when we change in working they
think of the best way to facilitate that workstyle.
16:35 Interviewer: Okay, did they have a planning overtime? Because this must have been
implemented in small steps. What type of planning did they use?
17:54 Interviewee: Well, the difficulty was that we had to build two new buildings and that takes a lot
of time, so we had many time to prepare ourselves because the buildings had to be built. I think we
started in 2013 and then we made a plan and the last movement to the building in “Timmerhuis” was
in 2015. So, we had two years.
18:43 Interviewer: Okay, so that was 2013 the plan was set and in 2015 basically everybody moved?
18:50 Interviewee: Yeah. A total of 8000. We made a plan and the plan was first based on agile change.
It was planned first let everyone become enthusiastic and that they do it for themselves, but the
pressure came and the building came and it was formal so then they said we make a what we call a (?)
we built where you wash your car, we make a (?) and then we put everyone through that and when
they all washed in the same program they know what we want. So, then we made the (?). It was in
three parts, it was in a game made by a game designer, it was quite nice, and it was a workshop, so
training and we had another game with cards. Those were three instruments we used for all the teams
and all the workers there and then we thought that now they know what we mean. That wasn’t true,
haha. It didn’t work well and after a year we said: “no it doesn’t work well” and a lot of people didn’t
feel good with it and they say “we have other kind of work” and then you have to look at the activities.
You have people that have 10 activities in a day but you also have people with only two activities in a
day, so then we changed it and made it more measure for the group of people that we are talking
about. So, measure for the kind of work they were doing and that worked better. So not everybody in
the same thing, but more look what are your activities because when you are a financial administrator,
most of the time you sit behind a computer and put in data and you don’t have so many meetings,
maybe one in a month with your group and that’s it, so everyone has different activities and then you
go to another activity you clean your desk because they also had a lot of paper around them, so digital
working is the most important thing to change. When people are not working digital, and that’s what
I also found out when I was working for myself in 2008, I found out that I cannot carry all the paper.
So digital working is absolutely necessary and that’s difficult. People have to learn that, to work without
papers, especially in the municipality environment but also in the ministries, there are a lot of
paperwork people. And then we said that when you’re not working you clean your desk so that
someone else can use that space and also that we said: “you don’t have your own desk anymore”. So,
in the morning you come in and you find your desk. But that was also difficult because they said: “we
miss each other, we sit in a room with a lot of people and we do the same work and we speak with
each other about the work, and then we go sit everywhere, how can we share the things we are talking
about?”. So, we always say it’s not a goal to flex, it must not be a goal to flex, it must help you to flex.
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Don’t make it a goal. Some organizations make it a goal to flex and that’s difficult for people. But when
you say that “you can flex, you don’t have to flex, only when it’s working for you”, but we said but you
cannot say “this is my desk”. In the morning you come, you pick a desk and we made floors for groups
so everybody who’s doing financial work is on the second floor, communication advisors on the sixth
floor etc. Then you know a bit around, ‘mostly I got there when it’s full’ then you have to find your
place somewhere else, but you have more spots, it makes it easier for people.
23:56 Interviewer: Yeah, and also, I suppose between departments if someone from finance needs
someone from communication could at least know.
24:03 Interviewee: Yeah you look from who’s working a lot together then they’re not far from each
other and you know where to find someone and maybe not you, but someone around you, some of
your colleagues. And we also said: “open your agenda” so then everybody can see where you are. So
also, when you work from home or work somewhere else or maybe in a café over there, write it down
in your agenda that people can know, and you have also some apps, you can use like WhatsApp but in
company WhatsApp “where are you? Can we speak with each other?” and there you can quickly
communicate.
24:48 Interviewer: Okay, so those were all changes that were implemented with the execution 2015?
24:51 Interviewee: Yeah, they also have an instrument when you come into the building you can see
on a board where the spots are free. It’s possible to activate that I can see where you work. I search
for you, I can look on the screen and see “oh, he’s there, I go there”. That’s not activated because in a
company you have on the name board they said “no we don’t want that. That’s a privacy from a
worker, and you must not show everybody where he is working”. For me it wouldn’t be a problem
because in the old the old times everybody knew that I was working here so when they see on the
screen where I am, what’s the problem? But they thought it was a big issue so it’s not activated, but
it’s possible that you can do that.
25:50 Interviewer: But is it also a possibility for them to do it just partly, like for example every
employee can choose?
26:00 Interviewee: Yeah, I think that they are now away for almost two years now and they said that
it’s a possibility for the worker to put on a (?) “yes I want to be found” or “no I don’t want to be found”
and then you see some people popping up so maybe that’s fine now that they can give the
responsibility to the workers themselves if they want that activated.
26:29 Interviewer: Yeah exactly, because that would make more sense.
26:30 Interviewee: Yeah, I think it’s nice to be, when you are in Rotterdam there is 14 floors, you know
you have to search a lot. I mean I can see on the board “oh he’s there”, but also the app works too. I
send you an app “where are you?”, “what floor are you on?”, “where can I find you?”, it works well
also.
26:52 Interviewer: So, these were the changes that were basically from the start of HNW010?
27:00 Interviewee: Yeah, it was implemented as saving. We were open to everybody about it, we
wanted to save money. A lot. Millions. So, it was a nice way to save money because they got a brand‐
new building with beautiful furniture, but it was a saving. And it saves a lot of money because they can
sell a lot of offices. This was from 29 offices to four, so they could sell a lot of buildings.
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27:38 Interviewer: And this was implemented, but I suppose that they also found out that certain
things weren’t as expected, you know like some things weren’t as effective or weren’t really picked
up by the people that were working, so can you tell us a bit maybe about some changes?
27:56 Interviewee: Yeah, we did some changes in the (?). We started with the (?), that didn’t work and
we worked more like measure, measure on the work styles and the work kinds. You really need the
managers and the managers don’t feel like they’re having a lot of influence on the workers. We had
managers who said: “everybody has to come at 7 o’clock so we can claim together spots”. And there
were also managers who said: “you have to work at home on Monday”, “you have to work at home on
Tuesday” so they didn’t understand at all how it works. So, you have to have managers who understand
it otherwise it’s difficult.
28:55 Interviewer: And were there steps taken on that? So that the managers were a bit more
educated on this topic?
29:01 Interviewee: Yeah, so we made special training for managers because we saw managers who did
very well, that had very good attitude against the change and knew what’s necessary to take your
people with you, but there were also managers who did absolutely the opposite. And still now you
have people who camp downstairs in the morning and wait until the building is open so they can sit in
their favorite spot. For example, this building, this is the nice spot, everybody waiting in the morning
“I like to sit there, I go there”. Still now. And there are many, many desks. But you still have these
people. Because I would like to think that it’s nice, one day I sit in the back and I see the wood on the
river on the Feyenoord side and on the other side I go and I see the bridge. You see different kind of
views, I would think that would be nice for my inspiration, but there are people who don’t care about
that, who sit always on the same spot, feel safe. So, they want to wait that early in the morning and
run to this favorite spot then yeah be my guest. Feel free to do that. And there were some people not
much… they are a bit autistic I think… so they had to go to the doctor and they had from the doctor a
letter that “this person has to have an own office alone. It is too much impressions, too much differs,
they can’t work” and now they have a special thing to put on the desk. They go to a concentration
room, they put the thing on the desk and that means that this desk is taken today.
31:27 Interviewer: Oh, so it’s still on day‐to‐day basis? It’s not fixed, okay.
31:31 Interviewee: Yeah, and then they go always there and people know okay, because normally you
can only sit in the concentration room for two hours, and then you have to go out and someone else
can go, and then you see this thing that okay this person may sit here all day. Otherwise they cannot
work. The same if someone is in a wheelchair or you need some special help to do your work good, so
it doesn’t work for everybody, but that’s with everything.
32:02 Interviewer: So, did you also change the stuff itself because of these challenges or could you
come up with everyone? So, from the 8000 employees that were moving, and the buildings that were
closed all around Rotterdam, did it also decrease the number of employees? Or did every employee
continue with this work?
32:20 Interviewee: Yeah.
32:22 Interviewer: Okay, so you didn’t hire new and young people for example?
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32.25 interviewee: no that’s only now because at that moment we had a lot of uhm we had to save
money for selling buildings but also for firing people, so they had to fire 2500 employees but now not
anymore now there is a better economy so now they hire people so that makes it easier but by then
they didn’t fire people because they didn’t work well, they think how many years have you worked
with us and the one who has worked here the shortest needs to go, so the best had to go.. we fired
750 trainees. SO that wasn’t nice for us and the project.
33: 40 interviewer: and that was because of new work 010?
33:50 interviewee: no not because of, because of the crisis
33:53 interviewer: and has an indirect effect of….. 010 got kind of effected.
33:56 Interviewee it made effect was that it made difficult for work 010 because many young people
had to go so we were capped with old fashioned people, who had worked here for 40 years and now
they had to change.. but now there are new people and people got retired so that made it easier, what
did we change more? Some furniture designs of what we though what is this…? They were nice to see
but not practical, that’s what we changed. We change after a 100 days, so we send some people, we
don’t want that couch bring us 10 desks, they wanted to go back to the old days. We said no we leave
the couch we don’t bring new desks. First 100 days we didn’t do anything, and we saw sad people.
They found olifantenpaadjes, their own ways to work in the new environment. The only thing we had
to change after a 100 days, were special furniture for the designers the architects they have a lot of
papers and they had to do it all on the screens and that was too difficult for them. We thought they
could do it all on the big screens but that wasn’t so. Also from other architects they got papers and
they to hang them and look at them. So we made screen were they can hang the papers on and park
the screens afterwards. So we made special furniture for them and we made scrumming possibilities
cause many people started to scrum. You know what scrum is? It’s a project way of working, and you
have daily standups and you use a lot of standups and you have sprints of 2 weeks. And you have
another way of working and you cannot do that in that meeting room cause everyone had to stand. So
there were papers everywhere and no one thought they could sit there haha, nobody used the room
because of the papers. So now you have digital tools you can work with and they still want to have
meetings with papers and we say put it digital afterwards. But now they also made special places and
furniture to scrum, that’s what you keep going as a facility manager. They have to look does it help the
people?
38:04: interviewer: yeah because even now there are probably new developments..
38:10 Interviewee: yeah exactly you cannot say this is for a hundred years but the difference is week
4 when the company was growing or slinking you always had to do changes, now you don’t have to do
that. And you can always have the shrinking? and growing of the company in size of workers, you have
100 workers they fit, you have 150 workers and they still fit. Because no one has their own place,
because when here there was a screen there you had 2 concentration rooms, now we lose 2 desks at
this moment that’s why you can work more flexible that’s proven now.
39:06 Interviewer: and also is it always that employees work in the offices?
39:12 Interviewee: Nonono they can work everywhere in cafes etc., everyone now has new devices
like laptops Ipads and phones before when I came in 1995 and 2007, in 2007 I came to work in
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Rotterdam and everyone had their own phone like there and now not anymore. Its more useful to
have contacts in your phone so no one has to use the normal phone anymore.
40:00 Interviewer: And the municipality also provides people with these devices and is this standers or
for a certain level?
40:12 Interviewee: They look at your activities, if you have only administration you don’t need all the
devices, then you sit at a desk with the device on it. When I have mobile devices, and there is only one
spot free I have to give it to someone who has no devices. When there is only one spot free I give to
someone who has no devices cause I can sit somewhere else. But that doesn’t happen often. Most
people are free on Wednesday and Friday so on those days there are a lot of spaces. On Tuesday and
Thursday a lot of people working so its full. So I don’t go on Tuesday and Thursday. But that’s difficult
for people to change their free days, it’s a mindset. Or sometimes you have children to take care for
and you do that on that day than its difficult to change your free day.
41:48 Interviewer: and then I think in setting this you said the first focus point is saving money, what
besides that is for example efficiency or happier people…..
42:10 Interviewee: I would have liked to say they wanted happier people, that’s what we want but that
wasn’t the goal. Its nice to have but the goal was saving money in the buildings and work more efficient.
42:28 Interviewer: and do you think those have been achieved.
42:36 Yep
42:40 And uhm what do you think can be improved upon?
42:43 I have a…. there was a congress some years ago and me and the director gave a presentation
and there , there were some figures so ill send you the presentation
42:59 Yeah that would be great
43: 03 I have to search for it but I have it somewhere
43:15 Because do you think are there things that could be improved in the current way of working
(nieuwe werk)?
43:25 Yeah for Rotterdam its difficult cause I don’t work here now, there is always improvements of
course. Because they have a lot of students who come by and want to ask them questions that’s why
they say come to me HAHA! (Luuk sturen presentative) hmm what still has to be improved
44:26Things that you feel..
44:32 I think, what I started it that you are from inside yourself you think you want to change and work
in a different way and I search myself what fits best with me, that’s missed because everybody was
forced to do it. And I think that is something you still miss now because people have found ways to use
their old work styles in the new environment. They still kept their styles. They still feel I have to be on
the street cause that’s what I’m working for that part is a bit missed. Some people do that for
themselves first it was 20 percent I think that’s now because of the new people 30‐40 percent but still
you have a lot of people they work old style because they have not changed from the inside they didn’t
want to change they had to change. And that’s how it started to affect people, asking people do you
wanna change, this is what it brings to me? But then it became formal and we had to save money and
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it was in the crisis so people were fired or scared so they didn’t dare I don’t want and you still feel this.
So I wouldn’t advise anyone to force, if its possible. And otherwise if you have to force tell them why,
and that’s what we did we told people we had to force cause we had to save money. And we had to
work more efficient and use the meters more efficient not only to make people happy, but that would
eb better and nicer. In the province of Flevoland, money is not an issue so they can say you like to work
better together and there they still have all the old fashioned rooms and halls. So now they think what
do you need? There you can ask them and make it more, fit on what they want and not what they
must. And make them enthusiastic, you can not do everything for one person at all, but you can listen.
There are people with many magazines on their desk, why do you have the magazines? And I need
sometimes articles inside, why don’t you have the digital magazines, you can use a ‘’knip’’ programme
and then you say I can learn you. You coach people in a way of working but than you need time and
money and no pressure on it. But the sensor for people is interesting to see and the ‘’Veld Hoenen
Company’’ you looked at? Veld Hoen is the man who inveted it, he invented interpolis who was the
first who changed the way of working. You can look on the website with a lot of information.
49:20 Because is it based on, on the whole spectrum of workplace information or is it more focused
on the workplace as how it is setup.
49:32 Yes
49:37 Concerning the project itself, it was a large scale project, not just a department, you changed
everything?
49:50 Everyone who was working in an office. You also have people who work on the street, or on the
grass, but not them. They have their own buildings and place to eat, or cemetery we didn’t change
that. Only in an office like this. Because in total they have 12500 workers, and we changed 8000.
50:31 How did you come up with this idea, you mentioned you did with your own group and then it
became a project, because we say governments are bureaucratic and do the same process over and
over. Do you think marketing is important to convince the government? So how was the real
implementation of it, how did you realize it?
51:12 Because they saw possibilities, to save and work more ffcient, that’s what made in Rotterdam
the click. It was because the crisis was their they had to save 200 million. Maybe we can use this kind
of thinking making it look nicer than it is maybe haha. That is what worked there. It would be nicer to
go in marketing and ask do you want happier workers, and the time is changing it is more difficult to
get people to work for you. And that time everyone wanted work so you didn’t have to bind only fire,
but at the moment its more difficult and the grey haired people are retiring and you don’t have as
many workers. So how do you do that and how are you gonna be a nice company to work at. Look at
Coolblue everyone wants to work at coolblue, why do they want to work at coolblue?
52:45 Yeah cause the jobs aren’t perse better.
52:50 No but they have a nice way of working, nice management and a lot of freedom. So those kind
of companies are successful cause people want to work their cause they say I work at Cool Blue and
that is nice and you don’t want to work at the government cause that’s ‘’ambtenaren’’. ‘’Net als’’ the
library who wants to work here, that’s ‘’stoffig’’. So you have to change your image. To show we are a
modern company more freedom and another way of working with us and that’s how you are an
interesting company. And I found for myself you are also more productive too, because you are happier
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and more enthusiastic and you learn to plan your work cause you have think in activities. I look at my
schedule and think oh that I can do at home so I keep my Wednesday free, than I can do a lot and still
can work at home too because the plumber is coming and I have to wash so effective. And there are
young and want to be with their kids and go to sports and work also. You can plan private life and work
better. And that’s what makes it interesting not the salary but the flexibility, and that’s the marketing
at the moment. To be an interesting organization to work for.
55:20 Are people able to work between the 2 different buildings?
55:25 Yeah they can work everywhere, they have one keycard, first we had different keycards so you
had different keycards but now you can use it everywhere and work wherever you want. When I was
working their I have an appointment at that building so I work their and then I go somewhere else
again and that’s what many people do.
56:07 yeah our other questions are too specific it’s a very broad project. Because we as a group focus
on small projects we cant say to the municipality we want everything to change again. So would you
think there is a specific department where you can offer a more modern of working or is it difficult
nowadays.
56:55 Uhm there are a lot of companies who use workplace innovation like the library this is small only
250 people work here so its different. If you want to make a plan for Rotterdam you can search for a
part of it for example where Luciana works, that’s ‘’burgerzaken’’ so they work for passports and so.
So they have front desks and so and there are a lot of changes still. I want to passport brought at home
so they a have a lot of changes that affect the way of working at the offices, so you have to interview
Luciana for example for how do you work now but are different visions for services? And how does the
workplace help you with that or do you need some changes. Then you have only a part of the
municipality.
58:33 so there are things that are improving in specific departments?
58:38 Of course when the vision changes for example in services you have to think does this
environment help me or do I need some other things. And we had for example the, division that helps
people who have debts and problem families. First they say they had to come to us, so they made a
floor for that division but then the vision changed, and they said we go to the families for so called
kitchen table conversations. Look it up on the internet, so we go to the families so that means a
different way of working for the employees they had mobile devices to go to the talks and where do
they go in between where do I work in between the different talks. So they made new spots to work
such as the ‘’Vraagwijzer’’. A new vision of working… the floor that was designed for them wasn’t
needed anymore, so that was then a project floor, they found we have many projects and there wasn’t
enough project floors. Cause the crisis was gone and we had many projects so we needed project
floors. Vision asks for change and it never stops.
1:01:05 Vision comes from within the company…
1:01:12 yeah how do we do that, we ask people to come to us why don’t we go there and look in the
family maybe I see other problems, children with blue eyes or something else, maybe the papa is
aggressive of the sorrow and hit the children than we have to do something that’s why its better to go
to the kitchen table, and look broader.
1:01:30 so you want to change the customer service or the service with citizens.
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1:01:53 jaja, the citizens say its easier, like shopping at home, I also order my passport at home bring
it to me. So we need smaller office cause we bring it at home. How do you do that who brings it how
do you sign it. Yeah that’s nice because the department Luciana works for is from that services and I
think there is maybe you can see the building and ask here I heard a broad story I would like to here a
small story from where you are now in the services department and do you have new visions and do
you need change? That would be a nice second questions.
1:03:01 I think we have a lot of info we can work with so I would like to thank you very much.
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G. Ria Semil Interview Transcript
Ria Semil is location/facility manager at the Municipality of Rotterdam. She has been working there for
27 years now and concerns herself with the housekeeping, rent(ees), catering and workplaces. Ria was
not active during the preparation of HNW010 and came back after the implementation of HNW010.
HNW010 means renovation/innovation, optimalization (e.g. working from home) – coming to new
possibilities and seizing different opportunities.
Before HNW010 was implemented there was a big assessment of the needs and wants of the
employees, to ensure that HNW010 would not miss any essential elements. This became a point of
frustration for employees because they felt that some essential things they had communicated to the
representatives of HNW010 had been neglected. For example, departments that suffered due to the
lack of facilities or utilities were Drawers (architecture, design), Architectural Modellers, Legal Services
(facilities not suited for legal trials). The assessment came forward as a critical element in practice, due
to the ineffectiveness of the assessment the following problems arose:
Missing infrastructure for feedback/assessment once HNW010 was implemented
No education of employees with the new tools (missing support amongst workforce)
No embracement of HNW010 by all managers – loss of effectivity
HNW010 was there to save costs mainly, therefore, things that did not save money were not
prioritized which led to unhappiness amongst employees since these things did improve
work situation
The Municipality of Rotterdam has an aging workforce. There are many older people (e.g. people who
have worked there 20+ years). This creates extra hurdles when implementing large changes in the
workplace (i.e. HNW010) since most of these people are used to a certain way of working and are not
willing/able to give this up. The municipality is aware of the aging workforce and younger people are
being hired through internships/traineeships. There are certain departments within the municipality
that have a lot of young people, and these departments also work well with HNW010. The average age
at the municipality is between 45‐65 years old according to Ms Semil.
Practical problems that have arisen at the workplace as a result of the relocation of 8000 employees
through the HNW010 program are:
- Parking spaces are barely available (people do not want to adjust to traveling by public
transport)
- Shortage of meeting rooms (people want privacy, open spaces are not sufficient)
- Smart elevators are not useful (people do not want to conform to the way the elevators
work)
- Furniture was reused from old locations which caused the furniture to break down quickly
and interrupt the workflow since employees could not work comfortably
o Furniture got replaced soon afterwards. The standard of furniture is higher in some
locations than those of others (i.e. the internal municipality locations expect more
than the people working in the field, such as gardening and maintenance)
+ Difference between several floors and workspaces (people become more creative and
efficient)
+ Discussions between different department heads helps in creating support amongst the
workforce (facility managers discuss issues and improvements with management assistants)
+ Problems that are indicated through the internal service desk are picked up and improved
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The vision for the future of HNW010 is to maintain the new way of working, however, make it more
flexible. HWN010 is not a rigid system that has a fixed structure when implementing – small
adjustments will make it suit to the municipality better. The problems that have currently arisen are a
result of the short‐term to long‐term focus. During implementation it was important to just facilitate
everybody in their basic necessities. Now, focus is shifting to the long‐term, the small impracticalities
are solved and employee satisfaction becomes more of a priority. This also goes hand in hand with the
fact that the municipality is thriving. When HNW010 was implemented the municipality was struggling
with finances, at this moment finances are back on track and the focus on long‐term prosperity is back.
Consultancy companies are used by the municipality of Rotterdam for several purposes. When
HNW010 was being implemented consultancy companies were used to define the structure of
HNW010. Now, consultancy companies are used for education of the workforce. The consultancy
companies get involved with the municipality through their network and compatibility to the
municipality’s vision. Two ways could be defined; 1) getting in through a tender where you
differentiate yourself from other companies by having a unique story and being connected to
Rotterdam whilst offering a good price, 2) getting in through the top of the organisation (knowing
manager or director) and get them excited about the value you can offer. The department to contact
if you want to find a way into the municipality is the HR department.
What’s important to note is that to work with the municipality you have to be relevant. If a problem is
apparent then the municipality will want to pay to resolve the problem. However, if your offer does
not include a clear goal and direct benefit to the municipality you will not get in. Further, training
should increase personal development. To sum up what an offer should have:
Recognizable
Clear
Future‐focused
Renewing
Make curious (stand out)
Backed up with facts & findings
De Rotterdam location is where most information of this research is gathered, but the municipality has
many other locations. There are locations where people work mainly on practical jobs, such as the
weeding of the plants, maintenance of infrastructure, law‐enforcement in the city, healthcare support,
graveyards, service‐squares, etc. These locations are less equipped than the location De Rotterdam
and the Timmerhuis. And, consequently, these people also expect less from their locations. HNW010
is implemented slightly differently there.
According to Ria Semil HNW010 is not achieved yet. There is still a lot of more support to be created
amongst the workforce and this is the responsibility of the directors. If they carry out HNW010 with
pride, the employees will copy this. At this moment HNW010 is being re‐assessed. There are talks with
managers and the needs are being assessed.
Concluding, HNW010 works partially – it has bypasses:
- Short communication lines have become longer
- Management support is not always strong
+ Get to know new colleagues
+ Get new perspective and better insight
+ Being able to sit in different areas and having areas where people from one discipline work
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H. Marco van Dongen Interview Transcript Location: De Rotterdam, municipality building
Question 1: How do you define workplace innovation?
Workplace should be a support OF and ON your activities
Making workplaces more efficient to make the work itself more effective
Question 2: What is Your job/ Your background?
Location manager, responsible for every operations of the middle tower of DE Rotterdam; government
is renting the middle tower from the 7th till the 40th floor
Responsible to get facilities right, building maintenance, Daily operations
In total a team of 7 maintenance employees working for the middle tower
Service Desk for all the employees on the 24th floor,
Employees also maintaining and redefining contacts with suppliers, project teams
What kind of activities does civil servant do and what kind of workplace do we need for that kind of
activities> That is how different workplaces were found in order to meet different requirements (for
example, resting space, concentration space, group rooms
From 36 to 5 buildings, cutting 13 Mio. Costs
HNW010 ofc meant to employees to have every day another place and floor where they work, but not
for managers and their secretaries, because these need to be addresses specifically, they need their
own workspace, meeting rooms
Different management style, management by participation. You have to search for your
employees, there are no binding conditions anymore, at least from a physical perspective
looking at using everyday different floors and rooms
Looking back to the building blocks and to the already existing facilities, creating a version 2.0 for the
office concept in order to improve the still missing or not well‐going conditions
Surveys in order to understand what is missing and what can be improved in the future
The need for project space is missing
A0‐paper format using for architecture and engineering is also not suiting the small space of the
rooms etc., digitalization did not reach everyone!
Experimenting with 3D and VR technologies, 360 degrees projections, in order to replace lots of
paper etc.
31st floor is used for digital experiments that are trying out different technologies and
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Employment in total changed: it was expected to cut 3,000 employees, but instead there are 2,000
additional employees
Lack of Space; space‐shortage
Demand‐supply is the most crucial aspect of the past 5 years, as lack of space was developed over
time; very interesting as the middle tower is currently in the middle‐stage of this development,
future and tackle of that problem is uncertain
40 interviews done with employees
+: Views, Openness of the facilities, interaction with collegues
‐: top‐management is not giving a good picture of how to adapt to new environments, that is why
they fall back into previous behavioural patterns!
Awareness of employees on a broad range, concerning the conditions, facilities and different usage of
floors, is not there. They need to get trained, in order to be aware of making the best use of space
Home office is introduced to service desks, call‐centers etc.
Question 3: Do managers have coaching programmes of get still trained in how to steer the ongoing
development?
Answer: They may have the same programme as 4 years back, there was possibly no change made in
how to tackle now ongoing issues
Question 4: Would You say that employee‐training right now is needed in order to adapt better to the
environment or to ongoing trends in globalization etc.?
Answer: Yes looking at training, TOP has to be convinced;
Concerning digitalization
Question 5: Is there room for external consultancy companies to give that training?
Answer: There is definitely a possibility, also for advising of how to do it, training is not the real matter,
advising would help to make it more efficient
Collaboration with other businesses (Erasmus MC) also happened in order to exchange ideas about
how to implement different workplace changes and facility changes
TIMING and NETWORKING is really important when an external company wants to address the
municipality
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Question 6: main point so far was costs, but what if a consultancy firm would look now on how to
IMPROVE the workplace, instead of looking at costs? Is there room for this consultancy idea?
The cost element is always there, manager changed in the last 6 months, the new manager
looks different on things, so its possible
Communication between managers and employees on every floor, differ, so managers sometimes give
room to the employees to not adapt to the new workplace innovation
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I. Ishikawa Diagram Here the Ishikawa Diagram, showing the research approach, is displayed.
1. Identify Special
Sectors to Enter
2. Innovations
Implemented in the Past
3. Assess Government
on Functionality
Possible Market‐
Entry for 1OCEAN
into Government
Consultancy Industry
4. Needed Resources
and Capabilities for
Market‐Entry