In addition to skill, cooperativeness between staff members and
between corporate divisions is essential. This requires clarity in the
division of tasks and openness in communication. Our employees
should know in what relation their work stands to that of their
colleagues and in what way our clients' needs can be met best.
Thirdly, the internal working atmosphere is determinative of success.
Pleasure in work is promoted by clear objects, through participation in
decision making in the employee's own field and through the greatest
possible delegation in the performance of that work.
From these basic principles it is endeavoured to give substance to our
social policy. Additional factors are that our business has grown rapidly
over the past few years and that as a result complexity has greatly
increased. Partly because of this it proved necessary to commit to paper
in a clearer form a number of rules from which rights and obligations
ensue. In the coming years the following points will receive special
attention:
- the further shaping of career monitoring;
- organization development, the aim being a better mutual exchange
and a larger degree of personal responsibility;
- terms of employment, for instance the adjustment and expansion of
the regulations with regard to primary and secondary terms of
employment and the efficient structuring of the system of
remunerations;
- promotion of measures aimed at improving the communication
within and between the directorates and corporate departments and
at increasing employee participation and co-determination in
decisions affecting the employee's own tasks.
The main subjects which were discussed in the past year or which will
be finalized shortly are the following:
After a period of intensive consultation, the employee change of
residence and removal facilities program in connection with the
proposed relocation of our head office to Utrecht became effective in
August.
From the very beginning up till now about 30 employees made use of
these facilities. To facilitate the fiscal treatment we agreed on an
arrangement with the Ministry of Finance for direct payment. This
measure takes away some of the uncertainty among the staff and adds
to the simplicity and clarity of administrative procedures. Now that
building activities on the new head office have started, we expect a
large number of our employees to make use of the facility program in
1981. Also the rules for staff mortgages have undergone a number of
changes.
As part of our career support and planning about 125 employees took
part in a basic training course for managers, commercial employees,
etc. When this cycle has been completed the training program will be
continued with training courses which are more specifically geared to
the working situation in order to widen the knowledge and skill of our
employees.
In 1980 a start was made with an integral job-description project. These
job descriptions contain basic information to be used as an aid for the
job evaluation tasks, in ascertaining training needs, in selecting the
29
