New Job and Salary Structure for CaseWare Nederland

“We wanted to implement this way of working organization-wide,” explains Managing Director Richard Schiphorst. The biggest changes? A more flexible deployment of staff and greater responsibility placed with cross-functional teams. “It was a bit daunting for people at first,” Schiphorst admits. “We used to work in departmental silos. Now we form teams composed of representatives from across the business, such as a developer, a product owner, and a support staff member. The main shift is increased awareness of individual input and greater flexibility. Each team now decides which developments to tackle. And rather than defining everything in fixed job titles, we’ve moved toward thinking in terms of roles. One person can take on multiple roles, which makes us far more adaptable as an organization.”

A new kind of organization calls for a new HRM system. That need had already become apparent due to the company’s strong growth in recent years. CaseWare Nederland was founded in 1995 with just a handful of employees. When Richard Schiphorst joined the company in 2006, there were only eight staff members. That number quickly grew to around thirty, and in the past three years, the workforce has doubled again. This growth coincided with the steady expansion of product lines and the launch of new software modules.

“Back then, I created an HRM system based on what I’d seen at previous employers. It grew along with us, but maintaining a system actually takes more effort than building one from scratch, and in practice, that maintenance just didn’t happen,” says Schiphorst.

He saw the need for an entirely new setup, one that matched both the organization’s current size and its new way of working. A uniform structure was also urgently needed. Over time, various job titles had emerged for people doing similar work, creating inconsistency. “There was no clear logic to it anymore,” Schiphorst notes. A new, flexible, and future-proof job and salary framework was needed to restore clarity and coherence.

CaseWare deliberately partnered with an outside party for that new "house. After a pitch from two candidates, it was Hamstra & Partners. Director Schiphorst: "Developing a new system like this is no easy task for a company of this size. You also want to make use of the knowledge of experts in the field. Lianne Hamstra and her colleagues listened carefully to us, but also had a clear input of their own. You really noticed their expertise.

After forming working groups that included representatives from various departments, Highberg & Partners developed a project plan and, in several phases, established a new job architecture and salary structure. In addition, all roles were benchmarked. “We had always said our compensation was in line with the market,” says Schiphorst, “but we wanted to be sure that was really the case.”

This spring, on April 2, Schiphorst and Lianne Hamstra presented the finalized job framework to the entire staff. And yes, CaseWare’s compensation does indeed align with market standards, while also offering ample room for growth. “The greatest benefit may be that this new job and salary framework gives individual employees a clear picture of their career opportunities—what steps they can take, and what’s expected along the way. Whether those steps are vertical, like moving from medior to senior, or horizontal, such as shifting from support to development, it makes those conversations a whole lot easier.”

And agile working? That has now been embraced by employees, and the organization is beginning to reap the benefits. Schiphorst: "The developments in the market are only going faster and we can handle that even better now. Traditionally, CaseWare's software solutions ran on a desktop environment. With the current technological possibilities, Schiphorst says the future is working in the cloud. 'To that end, we have set up an entirely new product line. A number of customers have already started using our cloud solution. This is precisely where agile working proves very fruitful.'

In recent years, Hamstra & Partners has collaborated with several companies in the IT sector to develop a new job and salary structure.