Total talent management
From their headquarters in Nieuwegein, Circle8 connects professionals to the right organizations and vice versa. With success, because since its founding in 1986 the company has grown into one of the largest providers of flexible knowledge and capacity in the Netherlands. For its services Circle8 applies the principle of Total Talent Flow, which looks at all aspects within organizations that contribute to an effective and efficient deployment of all (available) talent.
"An important condition of working from home in that regard is that, as an employer, you trust that your people take the responsibility you entrust to them."
Location- and time-independent working (PTOW)
In the spirit of ‘practice what you preach’, Circle8 itself has always been open to innovations to improve its own way of working. For example, the company embraced location- and time-independent working (PTOW) well before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Not for cost reasons, but because we are always looking for ways in which people can get the best out of themselves,” says Waaijenberg. “Is that by having them work in the office every day from 9.00 uur tot 17.00 uur? Or do we offer them the freedom to shape their workday according to their own insights? The latter option, of course, fits much more with the current spirit of the times in which people are more than ever searching for meaning in their work and a good balance between work and private life.”
The new way of working in practice
The arrival of the coronavirus and the accompanying restrictive measures accelerated developments regarding place- and time-independent working.
Waaijenberg: “Now that we are forced to work from home, we receive confirmation every day that you don't have to sit in the office all day to do your work well. An important precondition for that is that, as an employer, you trust that your people take the responsibility you entrust to them. Furthermore, all digital tools must of course work properly and you must facilitate people in setting up a good workplace at home.”
Mandatory working from home
Of course the mandatory working from home wasn't always a pleasure either. Waaijenberg: "For people who live alone, working from home is often very lonely. For people who had the children round all day at home, it was also tough. In any case, we often hear that on the one hand people find it pleasant to work from home, but on the other hand they hugely miss the social contacts in the workplace. But those are all corona-related problems, which hopefully will no longer apply soon. After all, then you're free to seek each other out whenever you want."
Flexible workplace
According to Waaijenberg, place- and time-independent working (PTOW) is not the same as working from home. "It's about people relating to work and colleagues in a different way. As far as I'm concerned, the office should become much more of an inspiring meeting place instead of a place where only work is done. To that end we have transformed the old office layout, which was set up based on the classic departmental structure, into one large flexible workspace. That creates more dynamism, because people will collaborate much more than before across departmental boundaries."
"We already applied this in our Dynahouse , where we also offer our customers, suppliers and professionals the opportunity to make use of the flex workspaces and meeting rooms available there, which again creates more interaction with people from outside your own organization.”
