ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Facilities services company Breedweer is a social enterprise and won the European Cleaning & Hygiene Awards Workforce award in 2017 for its policies concerning employee relationships, training and diversity & inclusion. Michelle Marshall spoke to its founder Jack Stuifbergen to find out more about the winning business.

In any facilities services business the staff are the most important asset – key to maintaining standards and building client relationships. One company that has placed its workforce at the top of its list of priorities is Breedweer in the Netherlands – which is not only a cleaning company but also a social enterprise. The judges of the European Cleaning & Hygiene Awards were so impressed they awarded it the Workforce prize in Rome.

Founder Jack Stuifbergen explained: “I decided to become a social enterprise because in 2009 I met Linda. At that time it was difficult to find good staff, we had to go to Turkish coffee houses to inspire enthusiasm for the cleaning profession. I came across an advertisement from a benefit agency seeking jobs for 30,000 people who were at that time  away from the labour market. I went to that benefit agency looking for nine people, unfortunately I only got two employees. One of them was Linda.

“Linda was an insecure lady, she always stood at the back and had nothing to do with people around her. We trained Linda and when she was presented with her diploma she told us that at home her family had said she would never be able to do it, that she was too stupid. But she had done it. It was then I decided our company would become a social enterprise.

“At that time it was very difficult to set up a social enterprise without a stigma being attached to it,” Stuifbergen continued. “And the greatest challenge was to completely change the culture of our company. The focus for me was no longer on making profit but on making impact.

“And social entrepreneurship is like learning to ride a bike – you fall off 10 times before you get it right. In the same way someone who is away from the labour market for whatever reason learns very slowly that he can have a job again.”

Sidelines of society

Breedweer sources its staff from benefit agencies, reintegration agencies, social workshops, refugee organisations etc. “We want to help everyone who is on the sidelines of society to build up a fully-fledged existence,” says Stuifbergen. All employees are trained in the Breedweer Academy – the company has developed its own training and teaching materials, and employs its own teachers. The diploma awarded is nationally recognised and all staff are trained to become facility professionals so they are not only useful within the cleaning industry but also in catering, security and hospitality.

At the core of the Breedweer culture is inclusion. “In our academy we are able to train someone with an IQ of 70 to level one in 72 per cent of cases. The ultimate goal is that everyone should be independently able to earn the minimum wage, whatever their limitations. Everyone matters and everyone should be given that opportunity,” Stuifbergen emphasises.

Everyone should be given a chance

Because Breedweer’s main objective is to make a social impact rather than generate profit it is a unique proposition for clients. “Because of our social enterprise accreditation we see an ever-growing customer group that only opts for impact; government departments in particular take that approach when choosing service providers. We win many tenders based on the impact we make – companies use us to strengthen their own proposition, call it ‘window dressing’ if you like but it still makes an impact.”

But the company works hard to not only create value for those disadvantaged workers, but also for the clients. That’s why the company carries out as many facility tasks as possible on each contract in order to achieve efficiency gains.

“For each contract an impact calculation is made in addition to a financial calculation, where we look at how many people who are away from the labour market we can offer a place to. Those people will
be placed, with the necessary subsidies, in addition to our regular employees and it is essential they find a fully-fledged job through the buddy system. This allows us to effectively offer 30 per cent more services to clients for the same money.”

Enter the 2018 European Cleaning & Hygiene Awards now - visit the website at www.echawards.com