On November 15, 2021, QbD and TRIUM Clinical Consulting proudly received the Baanbrekende Werkgever ‘22 certificate, representing a movement of pioneering Belgian employers who strive to put people at the center of their policies on hybrid work and mobility.
It started as an initiative of De Lijn, Jobat, and Antwerp Management School in 2020 and quickly gained the support of over 160 companies. Curious about the certificate, what it entails, and why we support it? Read all about it below!
Pioneering Employers: 3 pillars to enable hybrid work and smart, green mobility
As firm believers in hybrid work and smart mobility, we have signed the “Baanbrekende Werkgever” charter, which is based on three pillars:
Less on the go
Human-centered hybrid work
Smarter and greener on the road
This way, we pledge to
- embed hybrid work and new mobility into our policies,
- tell our employees why we are doing it,
- and communicate clearly about it.
Signing the charter is not an empty promise. Every day, we strive to reinforce the values it stands for:
1. Less on the go
Well-equipped home offices
The pandemic enforced the integration of working from home. But even before COVID-19, we already made the right digital tools and infrastructure available to our colleagues, including training in the use of these tools.
In 2021, we continued to focus on providing the right ICT assets for the home office, offering the possibility to use additional office equipment to increase everyone’s work comfort, decrease possible ergonomic concerns, and overall make life a little bit easier.
Redefining the purpose of the classic office
Now that our lives are slowly but certainly getting back to normal, avoiding the commute is the best way to minimize traffic jams and all the stress and inefficiencies they cause. That’s why we put our employees at the center of our mobility policy, not the workplace.
Hybrid working has definitively changed the purpose of the classic office. It is no longer the place where everyone needs to be all the time.
The aim is to turn the office into a safe and discrete environment where your workforce, stakeholders and clients can network, brainstorm and collaborate.
2. Human-centered hybrid work
We always strive to be people-oriented, addressing the challenges of hybrid work. Although our colleagues are not physically present in the office every day, proximity remains essential.
Our employer branding, application process and contract signing already plant the first seeds here, and our onboarding process further consolidates this with SPOCs, regular contact and return moments, and relevant training.
For both new colleagues and colleagues who have been with us for a long time, we put a lot of energy into engagement and solidarity initiatives through various platforms/team events. Some examples:
sTEAM UP
QbD’s sTEAM UP, for example, is an event for new QbD’ers during which we present our QbDream, offer personal branding and ambassadorship training and introduce all our departments in a light-hearted way.
QbD Academy
The QbD Academy is a young graduates program that combines working and learning with intensive training.
During QbD’s Academy Week, trainees attend a specialist training program to
- learn the basics of life sciences consultancy,
- familiarize with relevant methodologies,
- and jumpstart their careers as QbD life sciences consultants.
After that, they get to sink their teeth in a specific project.
QbD Connect
- stay connected (now more important than ever!)
- work on their growth
- give continuous feedback to each other, both horizontally and vertically,
- ask clients for feedback,
- and support the dialogue with their HR Business Partner.
WaPeisde
For two years in a row, we have achieved a 100% response rate to our ‘WaPeisde’ satisfaction survey. This shows that our colleagues are committed and want and/or dare to let their voices be heard.
QbD Ambassadors / Referral Program
Employees who feel at home within the company and are engaged talk about the organization with pride, boosting retention and new hires.
In fact, our employees act as worthy QbD Ambassadors, as 20% of our new hires come from our referral program.
3. Smarter and greener on the road
We actively encourage environmentally friendly modes of transport such as (e-)bikes. Today, a car is often still indispensable in our work as consultants, but we strongly encourage eco-friendly cars.
There is a strong focus on greening our fleet in combination with offering a a bicycle leasing program and a ‘cafetaria plan light’ (flexibility in choice of reward package, e.g. when choosing a smaller car).
The bicycle leasing program is also part of our sporty character. We firmly believe that an eye for health contributes to the performance and enthusiasm of our colleagues. This is also expressed in our weekly boot camps, cycling team, running races, plogging activities, etc
The future of hybrid work at the QbD Group
In addition to a strong values-driven policy, we believe that a data-driven policy is here to stay. That’s why our HR team uses data from recruitment, succession, knowledge management and exit processes, so that we can anticipate certain trends or predict behaviors and implement impactful policies.
Moreover, as we briefly touched on, despite location-independent work, the office still has a very central and essential function. How we use it is different than before, but more than ever it is the place to “show off”, to get together, to encourage internal and external networking, to share knowledge, … to work on your social capital within your work environment.
And last but not least… we ‘re not a fan of concepts like ‘work/life balance’, as such balance can hardly be maintained. Work is a part of life. Better to think of it as a ‘work-life blend’, if we really need to use a label.
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