On 7 September 2011 Vebego entered into a joint venture with Hameland, a sheltered employment service in the East Achterhoek region of the Netherlands. Through the collaboration, under the name Hacron, Vebego is further expanding the service provided in the area of green space maintenance. Hameland and Vebego have already set up a cleaning company together: Hameland Facilitair. With Hacron, the number of joint ventures that Vebego has entered into with sheltered employment companies now stands at eight. In the space of four years turnover from such alliances has doubled to € 70 million, and the aim is to double the turnover they generate again over the next five years.

Hameland is implementing the Dutch Sheltered Employment Act for the municipalities of Aalten, Berkelland, Haaksbergen, Oost Gelre and Winterswijk. As a link between people who have become detached from the labour market and clients, Hameland endeavours to ensure that the supply of and demand for personnel are matched in the best possible way. Via Hameland job seekers are able to gain work experience and learn skills, increasing their chances of finding work in as ordinary a role as possible.

Access to new pool of highly motivated employees
“Thanks to the collaboration with Hameland, we are gaining access to a large new pool of highly motivated employees”, explains Niel Cortenraad, director of Vebego Public-Private Alliances. As we know that labour will become scarce, this is an interesting way of approaching strategic sourcing. What is more, the collaboration is an excellent way of putting our CSR policy into practice: we are helping people who have become detached from the labour market to get back to work. This is precisely what Hameland’s mission is.”

Expansion of service package
Hameland benefits in turn from Vebego’s commercial knowledge. Cortenraad: “The government is making substantial cuts to the budgets for sheltered employment services. Through the joint venture we are helping Hameland to further increase the professionalism of its operations and to significantly expand these. As a result, Hameland is even better placed to respond to the needs of its current and new clients, and is creating more placement opportunities for employees, which means fewer benefits have to be paid out.” There are currently 3,500 employees on the payroll of the eight joint ventures. Cortenraad: “These are people who were detached from the labour market and are now working in an ordinary role. That is the win-win situation of this form of collaboration.”