Interview Esther van Zeggeren
Fri 11 December 2009
, KPN, KPN
TNWW offers greater freedom and appeals more to the employee’s feeling of responsibility. “We pursue this concept internally,” says Esther van Zeggeren, responsible for KPN’s the new way of working, “but we also have the capability to facilitate it for customers and to give advice on it.”
TNWW enables you to work flexibly. It puts every employee in a position to give shape to his or her personal, business or social ambition. Working without constraints of time and place is a way for KPN not only to create loyalty among current employees but also to increase the diversity in the organization and appeal to a new generation of employees, according to Esther. “The traditional idea of everyone working together eight hours a day in the same building is gradually being replaced by a new approach to work. Youngsters in particular see this as being self-evident.”
Corporate culture
Various elements are needed for this new approach: ICT, workstation design and a different corporate culture. In Esther’s view, the first two are fairly simple to introduce. “The hardest nut to crack is changing the corporate culture. Under the old way of working I could walk through the room and conclude that people were working hard because of the number of computers humming away. Under TNWW, employees are driven by result-oriented agreements. Trusting one another and having greater individual responsibility are an inherent part of this. It’s crucial to keep the dialog going.”
Business call
At KPN, plenty of discussions are held on the shop floor. About working at home when you have to baby-sit, for example. That depends, thinks Esther. “My children are 1 and 3.5. It bothers me if I take a business call at home and the caller can hear the sound of children. But it’s another story if they are 16 and are doing homework upstairs. In that case, teleworking is fine.”
Change
In Esther’s opinion, there are interfaces between the clamor to get more women at the top and The New Way of Working. “They reinforce each other. KPN is changing drastically. To raise customer service to an excellent level you need a balanced organization. The diversity policy ensures an equalized population. A way of working that is flexible and geared to results and vitality, helps in that.”
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