Investing in people and the workplace. Devising tailor-made solutions in consultation with staff. A strong focus on physical strain. And: hugely enthusiastic employees. This mix not only delivers results, but also earned us the Stigas Healthy and Vital Working Award!
Automation is far more than an efficiency drive. We asked ourselves: how can innovation also bring more calm to the organisation and increase the happiness of our employees at work? The first instinct is to start crunching numbers right away, but not everything can be expressed in figures.
Since 2020, the plants have been rolling in at working height. Bending over and heavy lifting are now almost a thing of the past. We invested in a modern WPS system, which lets us handle 95 percent of our assortment at working height. On top of that, everyone can see on the screens what their team still has to do that day. That creates room to rotate: if things are quiet for you, you go and help your colleagues, and when you are busy, they support you. Automation is ideally suited to improving performance and reducing workload and physical strain. People who used to feel physically exhausted at the end of the day from all the repetitive movements now have energy for their life at home. That does not happen on its own, though. If you really want to benefit from innovations, you have to take a good look at how you set up your processes and how you treat people. You cannot do that alone; you need everyone in the company for it.
How do we get our people involved?
We invest a great deal in communication: team meetings, an employee survey twice a year, career conversations and an annual improvement day. On that day, we all head off to an external location for an afternoon, where we discuss a number of themes through games. Customer satisfaction, for example: what does that all involve? And: how can we raise product quality and how do we improve communication with one another?
In addition, in 2021 we ran the One change a month project. This invited teams to put forward and carry out both small and large improvements. Every month, the best idea of the month was announced. That makes the change tangible and immediately gives us the chance to bring everyone up to speed. It produced ninety improvements! Mirrors for better visibility around the bends, for instance, work mats that are good for your legs when you stand for a long time, and an alarm screen on the central aisle that goes off when a plant falls off the belt. But the idea of using and repeating one Dutch word all day, so that international employees learn it, also won once and was successfully introduced.
How are these initiatives working out?
Saying goodbye to the old directive horticulture model is not easy. When you start letting go and give your people more room, you initially become less efficient. A metamorphosis is under way that is not simply part of your DNA. We have been at it for four years now, and slowly but surely it is starting to take hold.”
We want to get people into active mode: how do you experience your work, what could be better? People have to feel free to speak up, and it is up to us to provide that safety. That is not always easy, because people are not used to it. We are working on it constantly and we still struggle with it now and then. There are many different cultures and personalities in the company. Not everyone sees it the same way. Some think we go too far and want clarity: ‘Just tell me what I need to do.’ When it comes to communication, we have learned things too. There is so much you can share, but you have to identify the right elements. Otherwise you overwhelm your people. We now test the communication in advance with a few employees. Every time, we take another step. By now people are becoming more open, are starting to think along, ask questions. And then we are getting it right: we want to be a company where people dare to ask questions. It is also much more fun to do it together.
How does task rotation work in practice?
On the potting and production team we have several tasks that we rotate in blocks of about two hours. It makes the work more varied and it is better for your body, because you are not standing in the same position and making the same arm movements for eight hours straight. It also had an effect on effectiveness; doing the same thing all day meant that efficiency dropped in the final hour. The delivery team is always busy on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. The production staff then come to help. As a result, more work is left over in production on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then the colleagues from the delivery team come to help.
Automation within Forever Plants has led to more favourable working heights: the bending work has disappeared. There is always free fruit in the canteen, employees can purchase a company bicycle and take a Stop smoking course. In the career conversations, we always ask as standard what the company can do to make the work easier.
Proud
In short, we are proud to have won the Stigas Healthy and Vital Working Award! This award is presented each year to a company that gives shape to healthy, safe and enjoyable working in a wonderful way. It confirms that we are committed to healthy and safe working while at the very least maintaining productivity and, above all, growing happiness at work! Has this piqued your curiosity and would you like to know more about how we put this into practice? Then by all means get in touch with Sander (sander@foreverplants.nl); he will be happy to tell you more about it!
