Page publication date: 4 October 2011 at 10:00 CET

PostNL and Randstad / Tempo-Team get to work on forming innovative Job Company

4 October 2011 at 10:00 CET -

  • The Job Company offers PostNL employees income guarantee and prospect of new job
  • The Job Company offers further practical “work to work” guidance

Diemen / The Hague – Randstad / Tempo-Team and PostNL today announced they will be launching a Job Company. Under this new initiative, PostNL employees made redundant due to the restructuring of the company’s operations process will be offered an income guarantee and the prospect of a permanent job elsewhere. With the Job Company, the redundant employee remains in the employment process, gains work experience and, with the guidance of a personal coach and with training where necessary, can make the transition to a new permanent job as soon as possible. This innovative collaboration between PostNL and Randstad / Tempo-Team is another concrete measure aimed at guiding PostNL employees from “work to work”.

The postal employee invests part of his severance pay as a form of “intake contribution” in addition to a financial contribution by PostNL. The length of the employee’s contract with the Job Company (either one, two, three or three and a half years) depends on how much the employee is willing to invest. If the Job Company manages to find the employee a permanent job quickly the employee may be entitled to a partial refund, depending on how long the employee has been contracted by the Job Company. Randstad and Tempo-Team have the right know-how and a wealth of experience in job placement and are the leading players in the Netherlands in this area.

For years, PostNL has been optimising its operations process, and the company will start restructuring its delivery process in 2012. As a result of declining mail volumes and changing customer requirements, PostNL has been forced to drastically redesign its logistics model and centralise its key processes, meaning that the company is becoming an organisation that employs mainly part-time staff. The job previously filled by the traditional fulltime postman will now be done by part-time mail delivery staff and preparation workers. Since 2006, PostNL has been trying to help the affected employees find new jobs through its highly effective Mobility (assisted reemployment) programme, which has guided over 5,500 employees from work to work. Now, in addition to the Mobility programme, the Job Company will offer employees a practical way to find a new job.

Pieter Kunz, Operations Director at PostNL says, “We are very pleased with the Job Company, a socially minded and innovative collaboration with truly experienced partners4. With the Job Company, we are living up to the promise we made our employees in December last year that we would do our utmost to find them a new job outside the company. For years our company has championed the “work to work” principle, and this is also one of the cornerstones of the Randstad / Tempo-Team business philosophy. We understand the major dilemma our employees are facing right now; all the same we are convinced that the Job Company offers these employees realistic, positive opportunities for the future.”

Speaking for the Job Company, Tempo-Team Managing Director Kees Stroomer says, “Together with Randstad, we are bundling our strength in the labour market with the aim of keeping these PostNL employees in the work stream. Experience has shown that it is essential to keep working. Thanks to our large network of companies, the many vacancies and our extensive experience, in general we should be able to find work for these employees immediately. And from that position we will work constructively towards finding them a permanent position that suits their personal capacities and preferences. To accomplish this, in addition to looking at their present competencies, we also consider their ambitions and talents. This generally results in gaining new insights and usually can offer new opportunities. We hope that a good number of the postal employees will opt for the Job Company: we would really like to them see first hand how much more we have to offer.”

Through the Job Company, PostNL is living up to its promise of December 2010 that it would limit the number of compulsory redundancies by increasing the prospects of redundant employees. Paul Jekkers, union leader for BVPP, says, “In my opinion, this is an excellent way to guide people from work to work, in addition to the opportunities offered through Mobility. The Job Company especially opens possibilities for those employees who are uncertain as to whether they can find other work through the Mobility programme”.

From 2012 to mid-2013, PostNL will gradually close approximately 300 delivery offices. The employees were informed of these closures over the summer, and six months prior to the actual closure of their delivery office they will be informed of the consequences and their personal perspective. Employees will be offered a part-time job within PostNL at a central mail preparation site. They can also apply to the PostNL “Auto Unit” for example, or take advantage of the company’s Mobility programme and the Job Company.

In case of discrepancies between the Dutch and English versions of this press release, the Dutch version will prevail

Invitation to our press conference

Today, Tuesday 4 October, at 14h00 PostNL and Randstad / Tempo-Team will hold a press conference in the PostNL sorting centre in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. During this conference, PostNL Operations Director Pieter Kunz and Tempo-Team Managing Director Kees Stroomer will talk about the launch of the Job Company. Photo opportunities will also be facilitated, and Messrs Kunz and Stroomer will be available for interviews.

Programme

13h45 Welcome

14h00 Presentation, followed by question and answer session

14h45 Collaboration photo opportunity

approx. 15h30 End of press conference

Address

PostNL letter sorting centre

Grote Wade 80

3439 NT Nieuwegein

About PostNL

Annually PostNL processes 8.8 billion addressed postal items (including 100 million parcels) and delivers to more than 88 million addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK and Italy. PostNL’s main business is mail, parcels and e-commerce. The company also provides services in the area of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. PostNL employs some 77,000 people. In 2010 the company generated a turnover of nearly 4.3 billion euros.www.postnl.com.