Strategy & Change

Government and Public Sector

Case study 'Redesign HR Operating Model' NS

Highberg collaborated in a transformation with the HR Department of Dutch railroads on improving the HR service delivery model. Subsequently the HR Target Operating Model was newly developed. Read below about the context, approach, and the results which were achieved.

Mariëlle van Tilburg

Heiko van Eldijk

Netherlands

Case study: Redesign HR Operating Model for NS

Organizational

Digital Strategy & Execution

A Highberg Case study: Productization in Shell’s Cloud

Case study: Productization in Shell’s Cloud

A Highberg Case Study

Following Shell’s Enterprise Cloud Platform transformation journey from project to product.

Koen Harbers

Simon Atteveld

People, Leadership & Culture

How do you measure the impact of a culture change?

Improve Employee Satisfaction

How to Improve Employee Satisfaction After Organizational Change

Changes within an organization, or even a reorganization, can have a significant impact on employees. Sometimes their role changes, they are placed in a different position or organizational unit, or they may need to undergo training to meet new requirements. But even if personnel changes are limited, there are still consequences for employees.
This was also the case with an organization in the cultural sector, where a new director had been appointed. He made several changes and opted for a more commercial approach. Some of these changes caused unrest among employees. The management wanted to address this unrest and therefore sought the assistance of Highberg.
Henrieke van Bommel is an Analytics Translator at Highberg and is eager to share about this process.

Henrieke van Bommel

Interpreting and analyzing open-ended responses

Voice of the Employee Survey

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How do you truly listen to your employees?
As an organization, you want your employees to enjoy their work. Happy employees ultimately lead to happy customers, and vice versa. Moreover, employees who are satisfied with their work and employer are more likely to stay with the organization longer. This is especially important now as the tightness of the labor market is strongly felt.
One way to measure the level of employee satisfaction is through an Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS). This involves surveying employees with a set of questions, and repeating this process annually. Although almost every organization is familiar with an ESS, this traditional method of research is becoming less popular. This is mainly because the interval of a year is too long, creating, facilitating, filling out, and analyzing the surveys takes a lot of time, and all of this ultimately yields (too) little.
An alternative to the ESS is a Voice of the Employee Survey. With this approach, you focus on structured and continuous measurement, analysis, interpretation, and follow-up of the 'voice of the employee'. It concerns the experience of employees, or rather, the Employee Experience. When you know what the experience is and what influences it, you can respond accordingly.
This is exactly what a major insurer had in mind with their Voice of the Employee Survey. Alex Hellemons, Analytics Translator at Highberg, has guided this project and is keen to share more about it.

Alex Hellemons

Voice of the Employee Survey: interpreting and analyzing open-ended responses

A Highberg customer story: Better use of Dutch waterways

Better use of Dutch waterways

Met de aanleg van de tweede Maasvlakte maakt het containertransport een grote groei door. Nederland is hét Europese knooppunt van transport over water, onze vaarwegen behoren tot de drukste ter wereld. Vervoer over water is een uitstekend alternatief voor weg en spoor maar er blijft nog veel capaciteit onbenut. Om de potentie van onze vaarwegen goed te gebruiken moet daar verbetering in komen.

Koos van der Spek

Digital

A Highberg customer story: Standardization of digital learning materials for schools

Standardization of digital learning materials

Standardization of digital learning materials for schools

A big change is quietly taking place in many primary and secondary school classrooms. Chalkboards and books have given way to smart boards, ipads and digital teaching methods. The digital content this requires is more in line with the experiences of today's children. In addition, digital teaching methods also have the advantage that schools can provide much better customized education and the progress per child can be tracked in a student tracking system.

Arjan van Venrooij

Arjan van VenrooijStandardization of digital learning materials for schools

Retail and Consumer Goods

A Highberg customer story: Bol, Optimal infrastructure for Holland's largest online store

Optimal infra Holland's largest online store

Online sales are growing phenomenally. In the past ten years, sales have more than quadrupled. And still the turnover increases every year with about 8 to 9 percent (source: Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor). For market leader Bol.com, this growth would not be possible without an optimally functioning ICT infrastructure. And optimal in this case means that the ICT just has to work all the time. An online customer is not very loyal and clicks through to another webshop. Especially in the crucial peak season around the holidays. This requires a state-of-the-art infrastructure that anticipates continuous growth.

Pim Schouten

Optimal infrastructure for Holland's largest online store

A Highberg customer story: Police, One identity in the criminal justice chain

One identity in the criminal justice chain

As soon as someone is arrested by the police, their identity must be established. This is important, for example to make sure that the right person is on trial and that it is the same person who is serving any sentence. To prevent mistaken identity and identity fraud, an unambiguous determination of that identity is essential. Not only at the police station, but at all organizations in the criminal justice chain (court, house of detention, prison, etc.).

William Swaters

A Highberg customer story: Chain computerization in the immigration chain

Computerization in the immigration chain

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Those who enter our country as aliens or are found to be illegal immigrants go through step-by-step processes that may lead to them being granted a residence permit or visa or being deported from the country. This involves a chain of different organizations: the so-called aliens chain. The Direction Regie Vreemdelingenketen, part of the Ministry of Security and Justice, promotes cooperation between all chain partners.

Wilbert Enserink

Chain computerization in the immigration chain

A Highberg customer story:  Implementation of new application and digital pass system

 Implementation of digital pass system

Going to a dance class, the library, a birdwatching group, a debate, theater performance or, say, museum. For Amsterdam residents with a lower income, these activities are not always obvious. Based on the idea that everyone should be able to participate, the municipality of Amsterdam created the Stadspas over 25 years ago. A pass that offers all residents of the city the opportunity to enjoy the beauty that the city has to offer. "With the Stadspas, Amsterdam residents with a small wallet receive all kinds of financial benefits when undertaking activities or purchasing products in the areas of culture, recreation, exercise and health," says Harro Hoogerwerf, who has been working as head of the Poverty Reduction Department at the City of Amsterdam for the past year. "It's a product we are proud of, because through the City Pass we are creating more equal opportunities."

 Implementation of new application and digital pass system

A Highberg customer story: One learning environment for teacher and student

One learn environment for teacher and student

A typical university consists of a building where, as a student, you sit down behind one of the many computers, attend lectures and talk to lecturers in the corridors. The Open University is an odd duck in this respect, as there is no physical campus. Distance learning is a USP of the Open University (OU), but at the same time a pain point. Because how do you make sure the learning environment meets all the requirements and wishes of teachers and students?

Arjan van Venrooy

One learning environment for teacher and student

A Highberg Customer story: RWS, roads and waterways more secure

Roads and waterways more secure

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More and more human hands are giving way to digital processes, increasing the risk of hacks, cybersecurity failures and break-ins. Because governing is looking ahead, it is important to anticipate this now. But how do you tackle that? A good example of this is the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), which in 2014 started a large program in which all (moveable) objects - or "works of art," as they are called within RWS - are tested for their security and, where necessary, made more resilient against cybersecurity threats.

A Highberg customer story: Information security in healthcare at Triade

Information security in healthcare

Information security in healthcare at Triade

"Information security is a tricky concept. Many people when they hear this term think of ICT security, but it is much more than that. Healthcare providers do understand that you have to handle client files carefully, for example, but information security is also about protecting information about your own employees, the financial information, the access policy to locations. If you want to improve the information security of a healthcare institution, you have to deal with all processes within an organization: from policy to operational level. That's quite a job, because you have to get all the departments involved to want to cooperate."

Steven Debets

A highberg customer story: ICT modernization at CBR: shorter lead times and lower costs

IT modernization: reduce lead time and costs

ICT modernization at CBR: shorter lead times and lower costs

"The services of CBR's Medical and Punitive Measures Division and its ICT department need to be substantially improved." 
So judged the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment in 2011. But what specifically needed to be improved? In the case of the Medical and Punitive Measures Division (the division of CBR that investigates driving fitness; medical and claims), this concerned the excessively long turnaround times and high costs of service provision. "It was said: intervention is needed," explains Erik van Zegveld, partner and management consultant at Highberg. "The Driving Ability Division needs to be redesigned and the ICT landscape modernized, as it was very outdated."

Erik van Zegveld

Efficiently reduce employee turnover with data-driven retention strategies

Reduce employee turnover

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The labor market is tight and the 'war on talent' is in full swing. Hiring and training new employees not only takes time and money, but the loss of valuable talent can also disrupt business continuity and negatively impact the morale of remaining employees. It is therefore understandable that organizations wonder what the most efficient ways are to retain employees and thus minimize the negative consequences of turnover.
An organization often makes assumptions about employee turnover, for example, mainly younger and recently hired employees would leave and the only way to retain these groups would be to offer them better compensation. However, companies often have no concrete substantiation for these assumptions. A market-leading organization in the dairy industry faced a similar scenario, with the company experiencing significantly high voluntary turnover on a global scale. In this situation, AnalitiQs was called in to work with the client to answer two crucial questions: (1) What is the situation regarding voluntary turnover in our organization and (2) how can we reduce this turnover?

How to reduce the number of employees leaving the company

HR Analytics and Employee Turnover

Employee turnover

Employee turnover, particularly when undesired, presents a substantial challenge to organizations, leading to high costs, disrupted business continuity, and potential customer dissatisfaction. Given the current tight labor market, managing employee turnover is a hot topic within HR, and it's particularly relevant to the insurance company. Anticipating a potential employee gap in the upcoming years, the organization aims to reduce the number of voluntary employee departures. To achieve this goal, they have enlisted the help of AnalitiQs.

HR Analytics and Employee Turnover: how to reduce the number of employees leaving the company

Data & AI

Highberg case study: Municipality of Rotterdam responsible use algorithms and AI systems

Responsible use of algorithms and AI systems

Highberg ondersteunt de gemeente Rotterdam bij verantwoord gebruik van algoritmen en AI systemen

Highberg digital transformation has assisted the municipality of Rotterdam in the responsible use of algorithms and transparency about these algorithms. In this project our experts managed the algorithm registry and executed the processes in the algorithm governance. During the project our experts provided concrete improvement suggestions and implemented these improvements in practice.

Sabine Steenwinkel-den Daas

Highberg supports the municipality of Rotterdam in the responsible use of algorithms and AI systems

A Highberg customer story: Research 'Internet voting for voters outside the Netherlands'

Internet voting for outside the Netherlands

Research 'Internet voting for voters outside the Netherlands'

Internet voting for voters who are not in the Netherlands on voting day. It sounds so obvious in a time when we do almost everything via the Internet. Commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), Highberg conducted a study in 2014 on the risks of this form of voting.

A Highberg customer story: ICT saves lives!

ICT saves lives!

ICT redt levens!

In 2013, Sanquin faced a major change in its entire ICT landscape. The ICT department was tasked with improving the company's ICT by realizing higher quality, higher customer satisfaction, lower costs and also more innovation. This required replacing all of the company's ICT - equipment, networks, printers, workstations. Because all in all this would be a complex change, Sanquin was the first to look for an independent strategic consultant who could support it in this change. In 2013, Sanquin chose Highberg as its strategic partner to help realize this complex change.

A Highberg customer story: European procurement through green glasses

European procurement through green glasses

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Every four or five years it comes around again: procurement. The Dutch government constantly has to deal with contracts expiring that then have to be put out to tender again. So too do the Dutch provinces. Their telephony contracts expired in 2018, so in 2017 they joined forces (for the 3rd time) to jointly market their telephony with Provincial Telephony 2017 (PT2017). This is more efficient than each on their own and because of the size, they are an attractive party for the market. This allows them to make serious cost savings, both on the procedure (working together more efficiently) and on the contracts (buying larger). This involved fixed and mobile telephony connections, mobile devices and the construction and maintenance of indoor (in-house) coverage facilities for telephony, divided into five lots.
Cooperation with Highberg (fka VKA) was sought and found early in the process for the additional procurement and telephony expertise for the core team of provinces.

Rick de Rooij

Sustainability

A Highberg customer story: Information security for dry feet

Information security for dry feet

Safe information systems and safe industrial systems at the Dutch water boards, such as flood defenses, measuring equipment and water treatment plants are crucial to our society. Prolonged droughts and heavy rainfall demonstrate time and again how dependent the Netherlands is on well-managed water management. The water boards play a crucial role in this and information security must be in order.

Joep Janssen

A Highberg customer story: Good ICT support as key to flexible education

Good ICT support for flexible education

Good ICT support as key to flexible education

How can we design our programs so that they can offer students now, but also in the future, education that is in line with new developments? This question prompted a faculty of a university of applied sciences to draw up a new flexible education model. Flexibility is the key word here. To ensure that the faculty can also successfully implement and support the new education, it was necessary, in the short term, to also realize and implement the right ICT support.

The importance of employee needs in critical positions

The importance of employee needs

In today's dynamic and competitive world, some functions within organizations are critical to overall business operations. At a Dutch financial institution, these critical job functions have been carefully defined, because they play an essential role in achieving the organizational goals. To ensure that these employees can perform optimally and remain motivated, it is very important to understand their specific needs. AnalitiQs has conducted several analyzes on open employee survey data (Peakon) to understand the needs of employees in these critical groups and to determine whether specific policies need to be developed.

The importance of employee needs in critical positions at a Dutch financial institution

The impact of hybrid working

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations worldwide have had to adapt their ways of working, and hybrid working has become a popular concept. This new way of working has also been introduced at a Dutch insurance company. This raises the question of how hybrid working influences managers' attitudes towards company policy. AnalitiQs has conducted a thorough driver analysis on data from research into employee engagement and hybrid working to find answers to this question. The results of this research have provided interesting insights.

The impact of hybrid working on the attitude of Managers towards the Company(policy)

A Highberg case study about: Support for outsourcing the IT environment to the cloud

Outsourcing the IT environment to the cloud

Outsourcing to the cloud

Changes in ICT are rapid and the complexity of ICT is increasing. How do you keep a grip on ICT while innovation is accelerating and more and more work needs to be done to keep up? And how do you ensure that employees can keep up with these developments? For SRK Rechtsbijstand, a foundation that provides independent legal aid on behalf of insurers, these were the challenges it faced. After all, SRK expects more and more from its ICT: higher quality, lower costs and more innovation. In addition, the organization, and therefore its ICT, must meet strict standards in the areas of information security and privacy. From these challenges came the question: realize a sourcing strategy so that SRK can bring its ICT to the market in phases based on well-considered choices.

Support for outsourcing the IT environment to the cloud

(High Tech) Manufacturing and Logistics

A Highberg case study about: Complete IT from the cloud

Complete IT from the cloud

Postnl cloud

Daring. That was PostNL's consideration in becoming the first listed Dutch company to source its entire IT from the cloud. Until three years ago, PostNL - like the majority of large companies - had its IT in its own data center, where it was largely managed by itself. Marcel Krom, Chief Information Officer of PostNL, cites cost savings as the main reason for choosing a "cloud-only strategy. "If the IT is sourced from the cloud, it is cheaper than having the IT in-house. Moreover, the market in which PostNL operates is turbulent: the number of parcels grows by over ten percent a year, while the number of letters shrinks by about ten percent. As a result, the organization is constantly on the move. Ideally, IT moves with it, both in terms of service and cost. You can't do that if you manage IT yourself; you can if you do it from the cloud."

Joost van Lier

A Highberg customer story: Deciding with the help of data analysis at SZW

Deciding with help of data analysis at SZW

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The Dutch Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate (Inspectie SZW) was created in 2012 by the merger of the Dutch Labor Inspectorate, the Work and Income Inspectorate and the Social Intelligence and Investigation Service. It is the supervisor in the policy areas of Working Conditions, Labor Market, Labor Relations and Social Security in the Netherlands. As a supervisor, Inspectorate SZW conducts inspections at businesses, such as restaurants and construction sites. In addition, this government body also conducts investigation and enforcement, for example in the area of benefit fraud. This work is carried out on the basis of risk and environmental analyses.

Christian Verhagen

Deciding with the help of data analysis at SZW

A Highberg customer story: DNB, Greater clout through ICT outsourcing

DNB: Greater clout through ICT outsourcing

In 2017, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) decided to outsource its workplace services, data center, network services, application development and application management. DNB's goal with the outsourcing was to increase the flexibility and agility of the ICT organization, achieve a relevant digital transformation and a more sustainable support of ICT services. In addition, the aim was to make the ICT more efficient. This should become possible, among other things, through the deployment of cloud technology.

A Highberg customer story: Data protection within healthcare (NEN7510/AVG)

Data protection in healthcare (NEN7510/AVG)

The careful and secure handling of (personal) data of clients is an essential component for quality healthcare. The most recent figures from the Personal Data Authority show that the healthcare sector in the Netherlands is most affected by data breaches and information security incidents.

Sander Vols

Data protection within healthcare (NEN7510/AVG): "catalyst for quality"

A Highberg customer story: The Nutrition Center's new canteen scan

The Nutrition Center's new canteen scan

The Nutrition Center is the authority that gives consumers reliable and independent information about a healthy, safe and sustainable diet. The 'Disk of Five' is familiar to many people, but in addition the Nutrition Center also provides advice on 'eating environments' and how organizations can achieve a responsible food supply. The starting point is to let the healthy choice be the easy choice.

A Highberg customer story: FG-as-a-service: attention for privacy within stichting Arosa

FG-as-a-service: privacy at stichting Arosa

Stichting Arosa is a welfare organization in Rotterdam that offers guidance, shelter and safety to people experiencing severe domestic violence. As a result, the Arosa Foundation deals with sensitive client data. For the safety of clients and staff, it is extremely important to protect this data properly. With the arrival of the AVG, the Arosa Foundation set to work on its implementation. The last missing piece of the puzzle was filling the FG role, which the organization wanted to outsource. That's when Highberg came into the picture. With the 'FG as a Service' concept, the FG role could be filled as desired.

Frank van Vonderen

FG-as-a-service: increased attention to privacy within Arosa foundation

A Highberg customer story: AVG Maturity scan insight in the privacy level at ZorgSpectrum

AVG Maturity scan: privacy at ZorgSpectrum

AVG Maturity scan: inzicht in het privacy volwassenheids niveau binnen ZorgSpectrum

ZorgSpectrum helps people who live at home and need (structurally or temporarily) some extra support. Among other things, ZorgSpectrum does this through assistance with housekeeping, support in difficult situations, district nursing and palliative home care. Protecting client and employee data is a natural part of ZorgSpectrum's duty of care. After all, privacy affects clients and employees of ZorgSpectrum, directly or indirectly, at different levels and with different impacts. To know where the organization stands in terms of AVG implementation, ZorgSpectrum asked Highberg to perform an AVG Maturity scan.

AVG Maturity scan: insight into the privacy maturity level within ZorgSpectrum

A highberg customer story: FG as a Service: a successful approach for Trema

FG as a Service: successful approach at Trema

FG as a Service: a successful approach for Trema

Internal recruitment was not an option because there was a desire to fill this role independently and thorough privacy knowledge still needed to be built up. In addition, recruiting externally would lead to excessively high costs. HIGHBERG met Trema's needs with the 'FG as a Service' concept.

A Highberg customer story: Cals College Digital, Secure and Transparent

Cals College Digital, Secure and Transparent

Due to the increasing digitization of education and the introduction of the AVG, security and careful handling of (personal) data and supporting resources have become increasingly important. This is also observed by the Cals College, a secondary school community with two branches: one in Nieuwegein and one in IJsselstein. The Cals has recently taken a professionalization step in the field of information management, privacy and information security. In this process, Highberg advised and provided and implemented methods to get a better grip on the management of ICT, privacy and information security. In addition, Highberg fulfills the role of Data Protection Officer (FG) and Privacy Quartermaster.

Wim Kok

Risk, Resilience & Compliance

Technology and Telecommunications

A Highberg customer story: New view on network and telecom infrastructure of Schiphol

Schiphol network and telecom infrastructure

Schiphol Telematics (ST) is the independent telecom operator mainly for Aviation companies at and around Schiphol Airport. ST manages an extensive network of cables and connections. The network consists of over 102,000 cables and 1,700,000 splices, connected via 224,000 pieces of equipment, spread over more than 8,200 locations at Schiphol.

Gregor Hendrikse

New view on network and telecom infrastructure of Schiphol

A Highberg customer story: Rijkswaterstaat gets to grip with digital communication

Rijkswaterstaat and digital communication

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Highberg helped Rijkswaterstaat get to grips with the three new laws governing digital communication with citizens and businesses. Because all these laws relate to the same processes, the multidisciplinary team was able to use an integrated approach to assess each process at once.

Dorus-Jan ten Boom

Rijkswaterstaat gets to grip with digital communication

A customer story on ClimateControl and Rotterdam municipality's energy transition measured

Rotterdam municipality's energy transition

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The Municipality of Rotterdam, like other municipalities, has the task of saving CO2 and achieving a decrease in CO2 consumption. In Rotterdam, this task is quite complicated given the environment it faces. The Rotterdam port area and many buildings are responsible for large CO2 emissions. Various departments are working together, with the Sustainability department in the vanguard, to carry out this complicated task. In addition, in the form of the Climate Agreement, the municipality is also engaging other parties outside the official organization, such as businesses, residents and civil society organizations, in order to give the transition more clout.

Lotte Meindertsma

ClimateControl: making Rotterdam municipality's energy transition measurable

A Highberg case study about: Erasmus University is GDPR ready with architecture

Erasmus University is ready with architecture

Erasmus University is GDPR ready with architecture

Erasmus University Rotterdam (hereinafter EUR) ranks among the top universities in Europe thanks to high-quality academic education and the impact of its scientific research. EUR is one of the largest universities in the Netherlands with more than 30,000 students and over 3,000 employees. Teaching and research take place at seven faculties, two special institutes and one university college, and these are supported by more than 150 departments.

Laura Natrop

A Highberg case study about: Good market position through a solid data foundation

Good market position through data foundation

Good market position through a solid data foundation

The Dutch Replacement and Participation Fund (VfPf) advises and supports school boards in primary education to achieve a healthy, pleasant and safe working environment at school. VfPf does this by supporting school boards in preventing absenteeism and dismissal and limiting financial risks in the event of absenteeism and/or unemployment. School boards that are affiliated to VfPf cover financial risks arising from employment contract termination and absenteeism. In addition, VfPf provides job-seeking primary education staff with support in finding suitable vacancies and employment guidance.

A Highberg case studie about: Getting a grip on business continuity during a crisis

Grip on business continuity during a crisis

Getting a grip on business during a crisis

In mid-March, much changed for the Netherlands. The cabinet instituted measures to control the Corona pandemic. This also had consequences for the pension administrator PGGM. Employees could no longer work in the office and there was a real risk that the pension accrual and benefits of a large proportion of (former) healthcare employees in the Netherlands would be jeopardized due to staff and ICT failures.

Getting a grip on business continuity during a crisis

Digitalization of Nuffic's Operations

The result of digitizing business operations

Highberg Program management and organization

Other case studies