Reconnecting as a team

April 2022 was Redevco Reconnection month during which all our offices organised fun activities that allowed us to re-connect with each other. This resulted in a lot of creative and fun activities (e.g. Easter egg hunting, karaoke, photo challenges, gardening workshop, bowling etc.) and many culinary highlights across Redevco. Additionally, after 2 years of online onboarding we were finally able to host a “live” Welcome-on-Board day in Amsterdam, bringing 35 colleagues together for a day of learning, experience sharing & fun. With all countries and functions represented, it was a true mix of cultures and backgrounds and a very energising experience all around.

Health & well-being

New well-being platform
We continued operating in a challenging and rapidly changing world in 2022, which asked a lot of (mental) resilience from our people. At Redevco we believe it’s part of our duty of care to support the physical and mental health of our people and we therefore expanded our health and well-being offering by making preventive mental health support available to all colleagues. With over half of the organisation dialing-in for the launch of our new mental well-being platform, it’s safe to say this is a topic many colleagues were interested in. What we each need to build our well-being varies greatly — our challenges, strengths, and aspirations are unique. Our new employee benefit, BetterUp Care, is available 24/7 and gives a personalised plan with confidential, 1:1 coaching, workshops and resources to help develop skills to manage stress, navigate challenges, and show up as your best self in work and life. The initial uptake has been positive with 57% of employees activating their account.

Summer School session
‘How to cope with mental health questions?’ was the last of the Redevco Summer School Sessions this year. With worldwide focus on employee well-being following the pandemic, mental health remains an important topic to address. By increasing awareness through informative sessions such as this, we help to create a climate that allows us to feel comfortable talking about this topic. Dr. Lars Petersen from International SOS, zoomed in on how to recognise signals that could indicate your colleague needs help and how to start the conversation if you think that’s the case. “It is important to remove the stigma around our mental health, it should become a topic that should not be considered taboo or shameful, but instead something to be proud of, because asking for help in any kind of situation can be hard, but once one does seek help, it will always have a positive outcome.”

Vitality month
Following the very positive feedback in 2021, the Vitality week was expanded to a full month of events in 2022 to reflect the importance and to further embed it in the organisation. While there is no unambiguous definition of vitality, we focused on the concepts of energy and balance through healthy eating & sleeping patterns and exertion vs relaxation by offering four global workshops to supplement the many local activities. More information can be found in the case study here.

Training & development
To support the launch of our new mission statement (see case study), we collectively completed a Climate Impact training to raise awareness and understanding of the climate emergency. During the training we looked at questions like: Why is climate such an important topic for us? What are we doing about it across the COFRA group? What can you do personally? To encourage everyone to complete this foundational training, we made it a prerequisite for attending the roadshows with the board in each office.

To further support innovative & creative thinking we also organised two “Dare to become an Intrapreneur” trainings. These short but inspiring online sessions were geared towards adopting an intrapreneurial mindset that we believe is essential to create vibrant urban places and meet our strategic ambitions.

2022 also marked the return of face-to-face development opportunities. One such training was a 2-day Impact & Influence workshop for 38 members of the Asset & Development management community. Asset, Development, Project and Property managers at Redevco work with a network of internal and external partners, requiring a significant amount of coordination, motivation and tenacity. To be effective in reaching their goals, 8 key competencies were defined by the Portfolio Directors as the basis for this workshop. Here’s what one of the participants had to say: “The training was very dynamic, interactive and effective. It allowed me to acquire more efficient tools to lead meetings, to communicate better with internal or external collaborators involved in our projects, to work in collaboration to improve performance and how to influence others by taking the time to understand their needs.”

Our 1:1 (leadership) development coaching programme continues to be highly appreciated. 49 colleagues have taken part in the programme since launch in 2020. The coaching journeys focus on professional development and effectiveness, providing a fantastic way to work on skills, challenges, and fasttrack goals. We connect our people with coaches from all nationalities and walks of life that provide a confidential, engaging, and supportive platform for growth.

Inclusion, Diversity & Equality
Following the launch on our Diversity & Inclusion Policy in 2020, our ID&E (Inclusion, Diversity and Equality) committee was formed by colleagues who were very interested in this subject and wanted to help make our organisation more diverse and inclusive. The aim is to create equal opportunities for all and offer a place where each employee is able to fulfil their potential and maximise their contribution. The committee is currently working on a variety of action points to raise awareness about ID&E but also to collect (benchmark) data as input on how to move forward and to see how we can contribute to making the (workforce in the) industry more balanced amongst other initiatives.

One of the topics of our Summer School Sessions was ‘How to be an ally?’. In this session we learned how to be an ally, or in other words how to help create an inclusive work environment. Aimee Massey, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, introduced us to the journey of creating inclusivity at Redevco and our role to make people feel heard and acknowledged. “Allyship” is an important tool, it is “Those who want to support and move forward to make a positive change in our society.”

Redevco Pulse
As an important input for our leadership team, we regularly take our people’s “pulse” through the Redevco Pulse check. Following the Redevco Roadshows in which we launched our new Mission & Vision we took the opportunity of the Pulse survey to ask our employees about their first impressions of our new mission statement. 91% of the respondents indicated they are proud of the efforts we make as a company to have a positive impact on the world. We were very pleased to see that there is a high degree of pride around what we are aiming for.

Redevco Pulse
Every six months we ask our people to share their feedback through 10-15 questions about Redevco in a short focused and anonymous survey. It is their opportunity to voice thoughts and ideas that can help
shape and influence their own work environment/ experience. The survey contains a number of blocks; the Engagement Index, questions about our strategic priorities from the Board and optional Country- or Function- specific questions. The Engagement Index contains questions about pride and motivation and provides us with a single overall score that we can track over time, providing us with an engagement ‘pulse’.

Health and well-being

It stands to reason that in another year marked by the worldwide health crisis, health and well-being were key topics for Redevco in 2021. In response to this, we launched a new approach to flexible working. Transitioning back to the office required us to explore again what it will mean in terms of flexibility in time and place once all COVID-19 restrictions are behind us and we settle into a ‘new normal’. Equipped with lessons learned from a year of remote working, as well as intense engagement with and feedback from colleagues on their experiences of it, we had some fairly clear ideas on what the updated Working from Home Policy could look like. As a next step, we checked some of our assumptions with our people through the Pulse survey.

In defining our way of working going forward, it was important to strike a balance between the input colleagues provided in the Pulse survey – specifically around flexibility – whilst ensuring that we maintain a strong team and company culture and enabling effective remote working and team collaboration from various locations. Our collective view is described in the document ‘Balance & Flexibility’ and provides guidance on a new way of working for our organisation.

Learning & development

We strive to stimulate our employees’ continuous professional and personal development through a wide range of global and local initiatives. The backbone of the online offering, our Redevco Skills Builder learning platform, was upgraded again in 2021 with new content to ensure it remains relevant and varied. Programmes promoting leadership excellence included webinars with the Remote Leadership Institute for global leaders and learning tracks for leaders and managers combining online learning with webinars. One-on-one coaching also has a high uptake in the organisation, fuelled by positive feedback from colleagues about their experiences. The launch of the Asset & Development Management Learning Calendar in 2021 added further engaging activities, with Lunch & Learn and Masterclass events bringing colleagues together to share knowledge and actively discuss relevant issues. 95% of employees participated in training courses or development programmes in 2021.