Bilfinger Tebodin: from average performer to top performer

The human resource component is evident for Tebodin. The human capital factor must therefore be given its place within the renewed strategy. “In order to achieve this, it is of course important that we know how our employees view the company and how connected they are and feel,” said Schell.

“What are their needs and how can we facilitate this so that performance improves? We collected input through the survey to further improve the strategy. ”

Future outlook

Tebodin has looked ahead and formulated long-term goals. Their future outlook consists of the following pillars:

• Ensuring that employees can develop into high performing and engaged professionals.
• Continuous improvement in engineering and consultancy.
• Contract form in which more risk is taken. This is what the market demands and this is also in line with what parent company Bilfinger does (synergy).
• Commercial awareness – access to the market: this involves more than just brand awareness.
• Boost digitization, respond faster to customer needs.

According to Schell, the five components are mainly intended to get closer to the values of Tebodin / Bilfinger. “This should generate substantially more turnover and more revenues. We launched our strategy in December 2016 after which we started to communicate it within the organization. To this end, we have set up a special program management that focuses on the five pillars. There is also plenty to learn and develop in the field of execution. Especially in a company with many highly trained technicians who find it a challenge to think about how things can be improved. But that should not delay the final implementation. ”

Marijke Jurgens, marketing and communication manager at Tebodin: “The employees have to work with the ultimate goal that we offer customers the best by continuously working on improvement and efficiency. We want to profile ourselves as solvers, especially for large complex problems. But we also want to be an implementer. In addition, our stakeholders are becoming increasingly important. All in all, we have high ambitions, where the customer comes first. ”

Added value research

The employee satisfaction survey has worked as an eye-opener for Tebodin. Schell: “The largest added value of the survey is that we were able to see what the least scoring components were and what the employees considered most important. We will of course keep an eye on things that are going well. We are going to work hard on the items that scored lower, so that improvements can be seen in the next measurement. ” According to Jurgens, it is not just about the research and the results themselves, communication is also crucial.

“The strategy that we follow must be supported within the organization and communicated widely. We do this in an accessible way, such as providing videos and vlogs. ”

Schell adds: “Motivating and engaging employees is important. Compare it with Maslow’s pyramid; first the basis must be in order. Then you can look further. For example, we use the 5S model based on “Lean” (Sustain, Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standarize). This is a method aimed at improving the organization with the workplace as a starting point, but it can also be carried out at production level. Everything has the aim of preventing waste and ensuring a good quality of the base. ”

Various processes have been set in motion

In the context of the renewed strategy, various processes have already been set in motion, including a boost to digitization. By doing this, Tebodin aims to improve their processes. The company has also taken steps when it comes to the internal organization. Schell: “An example of this is the launch of a new expense claim system. This should make it easier to declare, such as through an app. We are also tackling the job classification system. This was somewhat overlooked, but we are now organizing it in such a way that it meets the expectations and requirements in line with the organizational changes. All these things together ensure that the future outlook can be reached. The basis must first be in order before we can improve even further. ” Jurgens: “Here communication is also very important. We want to communicate and explain things in the clearest way possible, and often in a humorous way too. For example by using cartoons. Humour is a catalyst and creates enthusiasm among employees. We also make radio commercials that employees are very proud of. This generates many positive reactions from family, environment and customers and has a positive influence. That in turn is inspiring for sales. We emphasize innovation and thinking out of the box. In this way we want to offer something extra to the customer. ”

Progress in 2018

The ten most important scores from the employee satisfaction survey had an average of 7.2. “Ultimately, we want to get to an 8,” says Schell. “That means that we want to see progress in 2018. The 8 is not a dire necessity, but improvement must be visible. Integron can help us with this. They not only conduct good research, but also clearly explain the results and know what we want as a customer. External parties often find it difficult to empathize with our engineers who operate at management level. Our engineers are critical and can go deep into the details. Integron has demonstrated that they are able to deal with this, which is why the survey has landed so well among our employees. This was a good reason to conduct another measurement with Integron in 2018. This allows us to measure the same aspects and compare them with 2016. The results show us exactly where we stand and how we can do it even better. ”

Tebodin is active in many markets

Tebodin B.V. is a multidisciplinary consultancy and engineering firm that offers clients worldwide independent services based on the knowledge and experience of 3,200 employees in the following market areas: industry, health and food, oil and gas, chemicals, infrastructure, real estate, energy and the environment. The company has a network of offices spread across Western, Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Tebodin is part of the international industrial service provider Bilfinger SE.