Joeri Hofman's story
As part of his Facility Management studies, Joeri Hofman (27, Deventer) did an internship at Witteveen+Bos in 2016. When he was asked back after his graduation, he didn’t need to think twice. Four years on, he’s now a group leader.
Major steps
‘Just before I graduated, they called me to ask whether I’d be interested in working as a full-time project employee on renovating the Witteveen+Bos head office in Deventer. Obviously, I said ‘yes’. You’re given so many opportunities here and you’re free to decide how you do your work. I started literally the day after I handed in my thesis. Less than four years on, I’m now a group leader for premises and workspaces and, together with four colleagues, I work on the buildings, installations and layouts for eleven Witteveen+Bos locations in the Netherlands and Belgium. I hadn't expected to be making this step so soon. Things all happened so quickly for me.’
Leadership training
‘I enjoy working on projects, and as group leader I’m also responsible for the team and the long-term vision. We want to make life easy for our clients – the people who use our premises. To do this, we need to be visible and to be made aware of what needs doing. I learn a lot from Emile, head of our Facilities department. He challenges me to not just accept the way things are and have always been. I’m also following the internal programme for group leaders – a kind of leadership training. We exchange experiences and learn from each other. I’m very much an ‘if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well’ person. I accepted the challenge of being a group leader, so I want to be a good one.’
Function-oriented working
‘To facilitate all the working from home, our department provided employees with home office equipment. It was a huge operation. We also made our premises corona-proof. We’re now facing a new issue: how to adapt our workspaces to the new reality. Working from home won’t disappear completely, and using Teams is now commonplace. We’ve created pilot areas where people can comfortably make video calls without being completely isolated from others. We’re trying to retain the open and transparent nature of our premises.’
'Things all happened so quickly for me'
- Joeri Hofman -