Triptych Marel
"Stronger together in development" | Vera
Marel is a world leader in transforming the way food is processed: supporting the production of high-quality, safe, and affordable food by providing software, services, systems, and solutions to the fish, meat, and poultry processing industry. Marel employs 7,000 people, who work every day to get the best out of themselves. Marel strongly encourages this. How?
You can read about it in the triptych below: Conversations with Vera (HR Business Partner), Lucas (Manager Manufacturing Engineering), and career advisor Kim from MEPD.
Development visibly contributes to a positive image
Vera Theunissen graduated three years ago at Marel, focusing on the topic of Sustainable Employability. Based on the results of her research, a broad sustainable employability program was developed called ‘Stronger Together’, focusing on health, development, safety, and balance. For the development pillar, MEPD was the chosen partner to support Marel and guide its employees.
Down-to-earth and practical, that fits us
‘We already had a pleasant collaboration with MEPD for career and second track processes,’ says Vera. ‘For us, it was a logical step to place part of the development pillar with MEPD. The down-to-earth and practical approach suits us well. For example, employees who come to us saying they want something different within Marel but are unsure what, we refer to MEPD. That may be a bit disappointing for the employee at first; they hope for a direct solution from us. But they will have to explore for themselves what they want, what they enjoy, and which direction fits them. Fortunately, we often get feedback afterwards about how valuable the process has been for them, and how much it has brought them.
Uncovering untapped potential
Then we can look together at what opportunities there are within Marel. We don’t promise positions, but we do promise challenges. These can be recorded in a personal development plan. These development actions might take the form of training, but also participating in projects of interest or in other departments. We want to go the extra mile for our people, but we do expect a proactive attitude from them. Although by now, we are also looking at how to encourage the less active employees to think about development. Sometimes we see untapped potential, and then it’s great to be able to bring that out and put it to use.
Truly making a difference for people
Personally, what I find most rewarding is that you can truly make a difference for people. On an individual level, people are triggered to think and activated. A great example is a lady in our R&D department. She was doubting if this was the right fit for her. After a process with MEPD, it turned out she wanted to work more with people and was interested in the HR field. We didn’t have an HR position available at the time. She decided to leave and pursue an HR study. She has since returned to Marel in a newly available HR role. Sometimes it’s a shame to let someone go, but then it simply isn’t sustainable. And sometimes, it just has to be that way and people come back. Then, I think, you are doing well as an employer.
Development visibly contributes to a positive image
Besides keeping our people motivated to continue their development, in this way development also contributes to a positive image.
The word gets around that we are a good employer, and generally, people speak positively about us. We’d like to keep it that way and will continue to work on it!,’ Vera ends with a smile.
Read the interview with Lucas about his development advice
Read the full interview with Kim about the development programs within Marel
