{"id":3659,"date":"2026-10-20T11:40:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/?post_type=verhalen_vlogs&p=3659"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:40:54","slug":"sustainable-employability-starts-with-job-satisfaction","status":"publish","type":"verhalen_vlogs","link":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/verhalen-vlogs\/duurzame-inzetbaarheid-begint-bij-werkplezier\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable employability starts with job satisfaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you ensure that teachers can continue to do their work well, even when the pressure is high and everything happens in their work or personal life? And how do you, as a school, ensure that employees are not only given attention when someone is absent, but are supported earlier on? These questions are central to the approach at the Jac. P. Thijsse College in Castricum. The school has been working for several years to strengthen the work enjoyment and productivity of its employees. According to Rector of Business Administration Petra van Dok, that results in employees who are better balanced and more open to discussing what they need to do their work well. The lower absenteeism rate is the icing on the cake. \u2018For me, it is especially important that employees come to work with pleasure and feel well prepared. That is the foundation.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From curation to amplitude
<\/strong>That thought aligns with the development that Jacqueline Kleine has in mind for her assignment within the Education Region of North Holland. As a project manager and advisor for sustainable employability, she has been involved in the education region since February. She has already spoken with representatives of most of the boards about this topic. \u2018What I get back is that everyone considers it important to start working on sustainable employability. Some boards are already doing everything. For example, there are workshops on workload, attention to the transition, or opportunities to hire a coach. Sometimes there is already something on paper about vision or policy, but there is clearly a need for an integrated approach per board.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you build support among managers, school leaders and staff? How do you develop a vision that is actually implemented? And how do you ensure that interventions are not deployed ad hoc but are aligned with what employees and the organization need? The movement at the heart of this is the shift from curatorship to amplitude. In curatorship, the focus is on employees who have been absent and need support to return to work. Prevention focuses on preventing absences. Amplitude goes one step further. The organization focuses on all employees and on strengthening their work capacity. How do you ensure that your employees are healthy and continue to work with pleasure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A change requires more
<\/strong>The question then is how to make that transition. How do you tackle such a large subject without falling into isolated activities?\u2018The Knoster model can help with this. The model is based on five components that are necessary to achieve successful change: vision, interest, a plan, resources, and competencies. For sustainable employability, this means, for example, developing a vision together with employees and ensuring that employees experience the importance of sustainable employability. A plan is also necessary to keep the course. Resources are the available money, and competencies are what support employees to be able to work with it. The model also shows what happens if you overlook one of the components. This can help to avoid tackling sustainable employability ad hoc.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Together it is the key word
<\/strong>An important prerequisite is that the organization works together. Not only HR has a role to play. As previously mentioned, managers, supervisors and employees are also needed to get sustainable employability on the agenda and keep it there. \u2018You have to get the people excited about it. You need a manager who is enthusiastic and champions the subject. You need drivers like Petra and you also need people within the schools to take it on and take it further.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Jacqueline, this has now become a broader task than just her own organization. Over the past few years, she has worked to promote sustainable employability within SVOK, the organization under which the Jac. P. Thijsse College falls. In addition to her work for SVOK, she is now available eight hours a week for the Education Region of North Holland. \u2018I find sustainable employability such an important topic for all of the Netherlands. When the vacancy for the project manager for sustainable employability at the education region came up, I had no hesitation. The goal of the education region aligns exactly with my ambitions.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First listen, then act
<\/strong>The change model was also used as a guiding principle at Jac. P. Thijsse College. \u2018Jacqueline started off by having good conversations with our board member. Besides the importance of professional support for sick employees, she focused on sustainable employability. Through those conversations, there was support from the board member. Then she started working to formulate that vision together with employees and management,\u2019 says Petra. The Jac. P. Thijsse College then offered all employees the opportunity to anonymously assess their work capacity by filling out a questionnaire. This gave employees an immediate overview of their own work capacity and what they could do to increase it. At the school level, the results provided anonymous insight into the average work capacity and the buttons the school could use to promote work capacity. \u2018That research gave us a good picture of what was going on. We received an extensive report and were therefore able to see which factors at our school had the most impact on work performance. Two points of attention emerged clearly: the balance between work and private life and a healthy lifestyle. Then you also know where you can focus your efforts. We didn\u2019t just offer something off the shelf; we looked very specifically for interventions that fit in with that.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Measurement makes visible what is happening
<\/strong>Jacqueline also emphasizes the importance of measurement. Sustainable employability is a broad concept, but work capacity can certainly be measured. The score provides insight into current work capacity and can also give some indication of the risk of future absenteeism. \u2018In every life, things can happen both privately and at work that temporarily reduce work capacity. Often, this resolves itself. But if it does not, things can gradually deteriorate and eventually lead to absenteeism. If you notice that work capacity is declining earlier, you can start working on restoring it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Jac. P. Thijsse College, after the first measurement, focused work was carried out on the issues that emerged from the research. A few years later, a second measurement was carried out as part of a study afternoon on sustainable employability. \u2018At the start of that afternoon, we took colleagues back to the topic. Why is sustainable employability important? For you as an employee, but also for the organization. Then they were able to measure their work capacity again on the spot. In the final part of the study afternoon, we engaged in a discussion together about the factors that influence your own work capacity. We used cards with amplitude questions for that. That worked very well.\u2019 Management was also explicitly included. They received tools to conduct the conversation with employees, including the card instrument and motivational interviewing. This combination of measuring, discussing, and acting has visibly made a difference, according to Petra. \u2018Work productivity has increased and sick leave has decreased. But more importantly, I think that managers have grown in their role. Employees have become more open and come up with ideas themselves earlier. I think that\u2019s a very positive development.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The employee as starting point
<\/strong>For Petra, the value of the approach ultimately lies not in a percentage, but in what it brings to the employees.\u2018A colleague told me: That workshop really helped me a lot.<\/em>. That\u2019s worth gold. When you get a reaction like that, you know what you\u2019re doing. It also inspires other colleagues.\u2019 This brings her back to Jacqueline\u2019s starting point. Sustainable employability for her starts with employees who are good at their jobs and come to school with joy. \u2018For me, it\u2019s especially important that the employees come to work with pleasure and feel well prepared. Lower absenteeism is a nice by-product, but being happy is the foundation.\u2019<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you ensure that teachers can continue to do their work well, even when the pressure is high and things happen in their work or personal lives? And how do you as a school ensure that employees are not only given attention when someone is absent, but are supported earlier on, too? Those... Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3661,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[11],"class_list":["post-3659","verhalen_vlogs","type-verhalen_vlogs","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leren-ontwikkelen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verhalen_vlogs\/3659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verhalen_vlogs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/verhalen_vlogs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verhalen_vlogs\/3659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3662,"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verhalen_vlogs\/3659\/revisions\/3662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onderwijsregiohollandsnoorden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}