Everyone Deserves a Chance
How much adaptability does it take to hire someone with a work limitation? Apparently not much, if you listen to the story of Rick Voet, co-owner of Voet Energy Solutions. “People who truly want to work are given all the space, help, and guidance they need here. We let them experience things themselves, but we’re always immediately available if they get stuck.”
The origin of Voet Energy Solutions is a testament to pure entrepreneurship. “My father, John, saw generators from Apeldoorn being used during the widening of the A2 motorway and wondered what the logic behind that was. He decided to buy ten himself and rent them out. These days, our machines operate all over the country, from South Limburg to Texel. In addition to our headquarters in Culemborg, we have two branches in Echt and near Bolsward. Our fleet includes diesel and hybrid generators, transformers, battery packs, cabling, and accessories. We mainly work for grid operators, hospitals, and data centres. These organisations usually have their own emergency power supply, but sometimes maintenance needs to be carried out—just like with the transformers located throughout the country. We temporarily disconnect the power and connect it to a generator, without the users noticing.”
Communication
Within our team of around twenty people, not everyone needs an electrical engineering background. In fact, people with a distance to the labour market also have opportunities to grow here. Voet: “There’s a lot of supporting work to be done, especially for our mechanics and drivers. If we see that someone has the right motivation, we give them all the room to develop themselves, without putting pressure on them. If someone thrives within a certain set of tasks, that’s a win-win situation, right? It’s important to sense how people are feeling and, when needed, have a conversation to find out what they want or what challenges they’re facing. Sometimes we expect too much—we think someone can perform exactly as well as the last time, when it went flawlessly. How do we overcome that? By communicating and approaching the employee with patience. If necessary, we just redo the task. We know which jobs have that kind of flexibility.”
Enthusiasm
In terms of labour participation, Voet Energy Solutions has the full support of Tom Bronk, reintegration advisor for the municipalities of Buren and Neder-Betuwe. “Many entrepreneurs could take an example from them,” he says. “The company truly gives people with a distance to the labour market the opportunity to grow and invests a lot of energy in guidance. We started with a three-month trial period, which went extremely well.” Voet adds: “We’ve made clear agreements with the municipality. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. There has to be a certain degree of flexibility, because if it fails, it’s a disappointment for everyone. At our core, we believe everyone deserves a chance. As an employer, I get incredibly enthusiastic when I see someone working with real motivation. If you want to learn and work, you can do anything here.”
This article was published in Rivierenland Business, issue 4, December 2020.
