CLAFIS Ingenieus is an engineering firm with over 400 employees across six locations and has grown to become one of the top 18 engineering firms in the Netherlands. They provide consulting and engineering services in various sectors, such as food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, manufacturing, infrastructure, buildings, water and energy. They have had the keys to their new office in The Gallery since July and have spent the past few months furnishing it.
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Delen
CLAFIS was founded in Heerenveen in 2004 by Bert Jonker and has since expanded with six offices in Alkmaar, Arnhem, Best, Groningen, Heerenveen and, for the past six years, Enschede. Gijs Rikhof, Business Team Manager: “Our Enschede branch was located in the Hoog & Droog water tower, in the middle of a residential area in the centre of Enschede. Our founder Bert bought several monuments to turn them into something from nothing and also converted the water tower into office space. Last year, CLAFIS became part of Team EIFFEL and it soon became apparent that we had outgrown the water tower. We also wanted to be closer to our target group, both the people we work with and the companies we work for or want to work for.”
Kennispark
“We are a premium brand and were therefore looking for a premium location, which we found in The Gallery at Kennispark. We haven’t been here very long, but it’s already clear to all of us that this suits us much better than our previous location in De Bothoven. Now that CLAFIS is part of Team EIFFEL, the water tower no longer matched the look and feel of their other offices, which are much more modern and equipped with all the amenities, such as their own sports facilities. Sport is very important to EIFFEL anyway. They employ several athletes and sponsor many sports teams. To reflect the sports theme in our office, the meeting rooms are named after famous Twente sports heroes: Sanne Wevers and Erik ten Hag.
Much closer to the action
The CLAFIS team is very diverse, ranging from senior professionals to recent graduates from higher professional education and university. Gijs: ‘At Kennispark, we are literally next door to the specialists who are being trained for the projects we do, but also next door to potential customers, such as Nobian. The fact that our doors are practically next to each other helps us in every way.’
Attracting and retaining talent
At CLAFIS, they have a well-organised recruitment strategy and are still able to find good employees, but here too they are noticing that the market is really scarce. Gijs: “We have expats from various countries, including an employee from Suriname who studied at the university there. We recruit them all ourselves, but electrical engineers in particular are difficult to find. Fortunately, we can compensate for this by hiring freelancers on a temporary basis. The advantage is that we can deploy these people on projects that require specialist knowledge and experience. Nevertheless, now that we are closer to the action, we hope to be able to offer jobs to graduates of, for example, the Electrical Engineering programme at the University of Twente.”
When asked how we can ensure that the pool of specially trained professionals grows, Gijs replies: “We need to get children enthusiastic about technology in the broadest sense of the word at an early age and familiarise them with everything related to automation and electrical engineering as early as primary school. It is also important to make professions where there is a shortage of workers, such as engineering and healthcare, more attractive. If you are well paid, for example, it is much more appealing to choose those courses.
Adapting to the new generation
“We try to be a good and, above all, attractive employer. The new generation has increasingly high expectations and demands, and they have a different mindset. Flexible working and working from home have become increasingly normal since the coronavirus pandemic. We have noticed that the older generations are also starting to see the benefits of this, and our customers are much more open to it too. We try to adapt to the new generation wherever possible and to be a good and, above all, attractive employer for them in every respect.”
The realisation of the Bundle@Kennispark residential building can contribute to attractive employment by making it easier for CLAFIS employees and other entrepreneurs at Kennispark to find housing. Bundle@Kennispark offers housing for students in the final phase of their studies, recent graduates, researchers (PhD) and workers at Kennispark. The combination of living, working and innovating creates a vibrant area, making it even more attractive for employees of the companies to work at Kennispark.
