Twelve years into a career encompassing a variety of HR positions within a large corporation, Wendy Coolen sought a new challenge. As well as wanting to tackle an array of tasks covering every aspect of her profession, she wanted to shorten the lines of communication with her colleagues, and return to the familiar surroundings of North Brabant. Vetico provided the ideal solution.
Wendy has been managing our HR department for about a year and a half now. She is responsible for every facet of human resources together with our chief operations officer Jeroen van Herpen, and a team of consultants, a recruiter, and a workforce manager. Her work covers both the short and long term. “I love it here”, says Wendy. “The atmosphere is great: everyone works hard, but also believes in the importance of having fun. The company’s business ambitions also mean there are exciting challenges ahead of us.”
Need for structure
By the time Wendy started at Vetico, we had already established our growth aspirations for a future-proof organization. Despite this, she immersed herself in making improvements to these established aspirations, such as matters relating to strategic workforce planning. “At the same time, we made sure the important fundamentals were in place”, says Wendy. “Vetico had already made considerable progress in terms of the company’s scope, but its human resources policy hadn’t kept up with developments. They were still taking a very reactive approach, with the HR department tackling any questions as and when they came up. These days, we are taking a forward-thinking approach and challenging supervisors to do the same, so we can work on making improvements together.”
“It was clear that an even stronger foundation was necessary”, continues our HR manager. “So since I’ve arrived here, we’ve worked on basic HR matters such as a job center, close cooperation with supervisors, and developing policies for a variety of issues such as anniversaries, lease cars, absenteeism and employee vitality. Those are all now in place.”
Future priorities
Based on this new foundation, the HR department is now working on our plans for the future. But what exactly are the priorities in this strategic approach? Wendy: “When it comes to our ambitions for the future, essential positions include operators, mechanics, engineers and various leadership roles. We have looked at all the developments relevant to each group; not only on the labor market, but for example with respect to technology too. Naturally, we have also considered the future: how many new colleagues will we need, what will they be doing, and what skills should they have? And what adjustments will we need to make to ensure that we get everything done?”
Wendy believes that recruitment and selection is a critical element in the “new” way of working. Consequently, a first important step has been taken together with an interim recruiter, who is now outlining the approach to be taken. However, the approach encompasses much more than just this. “Employer branding is also an important aspect, because we want to use our position as an attractive employer to win over potential colleagues. It also covers matters such as training and development, vitality and job satisfaction, as well as retaining our core character. After all, despite our big plans, we are and will always be a family business.”
Building together
Since Wendy came on board, the ad hoc approach has given way to a future-focused policy. This has given the HR manager cause for satisfaction when she reflects on her start at Vetico. “There are plenty of things we could be doing better, but we are also making great progress already, and the intended growth will enable us to tackle even more wonderful goals. I love contributing to creating a stable, solid organization that allows room for diversity in order to achieve ambitions. Particularly when there are various new operators, mechanics, engineers and supervisors who also want to help with this. After all, we will all need each other if we want to keep making good progress.”
