An outsider would probably describe the HR policy at vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan as ‘remarkable’. Take, for example, the fact that the company places ‘the employee at the centre’ as a core principle. The HR software package must also align with these values, because: “Our company culture comes first.”
Agriculture
1,550 employees in the Netherlands
De Lier
1 January 2003
HRM/Payroll
Interview with:
Karin Wijnands (Group Manager HR)
Olav van der Schalk (Project Advisor HR)
When Karin Wijnands first became acquainted with Rijk Zwaan, the company culture immediately appealed to her. At Rijk Zwaan, the employee is central, and values such as respect, honesty and trust are leading. These principles were the reason for her to start working at Rijk Zwaan. In 1992, she became the company’s first HR employee, where she now works as Group Manager HR. What is remarkable is that, at Rijk Zwaan in the Netherlands, there is another person in the same role. This is the result of the dual leadership system applied by the family-owned company. In practice, this means that departments often have two managers, each with their own area of focus. “This allows us to keep the organisation flat, have managers who are also strong in terms of content, and be less vulnerable,” Karin says.
Olav van der Schalk has been working at Rijk Zwaan as Project Advisor HR since 2013. In his role, he combines expertise in HR, Finance and ICT. After studying Economics and completing programmes in Strategic and Business HRM, he previously worked as a consultant and HR controller. At Rijk Zwaan, he particularly values the entrepreneurial role he is able to fulfil. “Employees are encouraged to contribute their own ideas. And if we believe in those ideas together, we actually put them into practice. I have worked in organisations where the focus was mainly on short-term results. Compared to that, working at Rijk Zwaan is truly a revelation.”
There is a great deal of freedom for managers and employees in how they work.
Karin: “In our company, the emphasis is on employees’ own responsibility, and management applies the principle of management by exception.”
“Regularly giving and receiving feedback is something we see as crucial. Once a year, we take an in-depth look at an employee’s development during what we call the ‘development review’. Topics such as the content of the work, challenges, bottlenecks, personal development and the future are discussed. What is important is that we do not use appraisal forms. We believe these forms can be restrictive if you really want to have a meaningful conversation with an individual employee,” Karin says.
Rijk Zwaan has been working with AFAS software for a long time. On 1 January 2003, the company went live with the AFAS personnel information system. Karin recalls that during the search for a new software provider, AFAS stood out for having the most forward-thinking story. “It was innovative and bold, and we quickly realised that.” Prior to the implementation of AFAS, Rijk Zwaan worked with “a simpler package”, as Karin puts it. “It was a package that allowed us to organise payroll properly. However, we were looking for a system that would truly support our HR policy and company culture.”
After the implementation in 2003, a period followed in which Rijk Zwaan itself took the lead in developing the automated environment. “At that time, many improvements were made to the system,” says Olav, who was not yet working at Rijk Zwaan at the time. InSite did not yet exist, but its predecessor, ProfitWeb did. “Colleagues worked on that,” Olav explains. “Thanks to these improvements, employees were able to request leave digitally themselves and view their payslips. They created a basic form of employee self service.”
“In the meantime, we had turned it into a kind of customised solution,” Karin says. “The idea was always that automation should follow our business processes, not the other way around. When it became clear that AFAS had undergone strong development and had more to offer, we found each other again,” Karin explains. “Moreover, we knew that processes generally run better automatically when you follow the standard methodology. This helps prevent errors.”
Olav adds: “That is why, in 2013, we went back to the drawing board to review all configured processes in the software system. We reverted as much as possible to the standard and carefully assessed whether exceptions were still truly necessary. Often, they were not.”
Returning to the standard did not mean there were no more challenges. “Take our dual leadership system,” Karin says, “AFAS initially couldn’t accommodate that. Perhaps not surprisingly, because there isn’t a single package that can truly handle it.” In practice, a pragmatic solution was chosen in which managers who jointly lead a department know that one of the two takes the lead for certain processes. According to Olav, despite the dual leadership structure, Rijk Zwaan’s organisational chart was correctly incorporated into the automated system with the help of an external consultant. The solution came in the form of using custom fields.
Rijk Zwaan has 1,550 employees in the Netherlands. The workforce is broadly composed: crop caretakers, logistics employees, researchers, breeders, staff employees and many other roles. “Our starting point is that everyone in the organisation can work with the system,” says Olav. This means we opt for an intuitive page layout with as few mouse clicks as possible. Digital signing is easy for me, but an employee with less digital experience must also be able to work with it. In addition, we have made it possible for employees to log into the system from home, so they can, for example, consult their partner while submitting a leave request.”
The introduction of the Pocket App in 2019 went smoothly. “We noticed that there was a great deal of appreciation for the app because it increased convenience,” Karin observes, emphasising that the organisation also provides user support. “We see it as our responsibility to guide all our employees through the digitalisation process.”
Rijk Zwaan’s starting point is that employees should be able to read the information provided via InSite in their own local language. “That’s why we kept InSite in Dutch,” says Olav. “However, we did add an English-language version alongside it, with limited functionality.” This English-language version is intended to ensure that the annual salary discussions we hold with all subsidiaries run efficiently. We use an international reward system in which roles are described and remuneration is defined per role. Within InSite, a workflow has been created for discussing salary proposals, making it possible to determine an appropriate salary for the following year. “In practice, this works very well. All the information needed to determine a proper salary is shown on a single screen. With this workflow, we really pushed the boundaries of the system,” Olav explains.
The international AFAS partner Salure provides payroll services for Rijk Zwaan in 17 countries, including Peru, Pakistan, Nigeria, Myanmar and Colombia. Karin explains: “By outsourcing international payroll to Salure, we can ensure that our employees’ salaries are paid correctly. Salure takes care of the correct payment of taxes and social security contributions. Our employees also have a local point of contact who is fully familiar with local taxation and social security.”
While many organisations have successfully automated the traditional cycle of performance and appraisal reviews within their systems, Rijk Zwaan has consciously chosen not to do so. “We did not feel the need for a standard system with forms where we tick boxes and record development agreements. We believe in dialogue with employees, not in documenting it,” Karin explains. This is a typical example of how Rijk Zwaan’s company culture is reflected in practice.
A recent and valuable digital improvement concerns the creation and signing of employment contracts. In the previous situation, this was a time-consuming process involving the sending of paper documents via internal and external mail. It could easily take one and a half to two weeks. In the current situation, using digital signing in OutSite, it can be completed within 36 hours. An additional benefit: just like using digital payslips, it saves a great deal of paper. Not insignificant for a company that expects to recruit one thousand new employees worldwide over the next five years
Rijk Zwaan regularly has a consultant from an AFAS partner on site. “That is extremely valuable. We make good use of his presence and knowledge to occasionally plant new ideas and give them time to grow,” Olav explains. “I have a colleague who is responsible on a daily basis for the functional management of the system. We frequently exchange ideas about the possibilities the system offers and make the most of it. Our application manager has been involved with the HR software since the very beginning in 2003 and knows all the ins and outs.” The relationship with AFAS is strong, Olav emphasises.
“The lines are short, which means we know each other well. With our positively critical attitude, we are happy to take part in consultation sessions. My experience is that your input is appreciated and used, even though it can sometimes take a while before it is implemented.”
According to Karin, at Rijk Zwaan it is common not only to build long-term relationships with employees, but also to enter into long-term partnerships with external parties. “For us, shared values such as honesty, clarity, respect, reliability and expertise are far more important.”
Rijk Zwaan keeps its values alive in many ways. Karin explains: “It starts with our recruitment process. The most important selection criterion is whether someone fits our company and shares the same values. And of course whether the applicant enjoys the content of the role and wants to commit to our company for the long term. We also keep our company culture alive through our onboarding programme, training sessions, conversations, news updates, articles in our company magazine Intermezzo, and so on. And we hold each other accountable for adhering to these values.”
Rijk Zwaan is an international vegetable breeding company with more than 3,900 employees in thirty countries. The Netherlands is an important home market for Rijk Zwaan. Due to the professionalism of the vegetable sector and the high level of cultivation, the high-tech company introduces many innovations in its home market. Each year, Rijk Zwaan invests thirty per cent of its revenue in research and development. Approximately ninety per cent of the company is owned by three families, with around ten per cent held by a large group of employees through employee participation. Rijk Zwaan’s objective is to always remain an independent company, as this safeguards both the Rijk Zwaan company culture and the future of its employees. This provides a strong foundation for success in both the short and long term. Rijk Zwaan’s headquarters are located in De Lier (Westland).
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