Ester Renssen

In this role responsible for integrating 3 acquired organizations into the organization of de Jong & Laan. The focus in this process was on 7 work streams, with the People & Orange Feeling work stream being the most important and where the greatest gains could be made. Facilitating dialogue, creating a common goal and fostering understanding for each other were the starting points in the communication approach from day 1. With the help of a customized onboarding program, substantive workshops and fun events, we have realized that new colleagues have started to feel part of de Jong & Laan.

Responsible for the strategy and rollout of the Communication policy and the management of the team. I was given 3 clear goals with this assignment. Make sure the atmosphere in the team is good again, develop a Communication Strategy that the team and the board support, and provide structure and frameworks. I have achieved these goals so that the new salaried manager could get off to a flying start last December. During this period, I also had a lot to do with Crisis Communication because of various issues that were under external scrutiny. Within de Jong & Laan there was no Crisis Communication plan yet and no Crisis Team had been formed yet. I took care of this together with the external communication advisors. Finally, there was also a change of board in my period, which required a careful external and internal communication approach.

Qredits is a non-profit foundation. Qredits is a business partner of small and medium-sized enterprises. A reliable lender with a unique total package of credit, coaching, training and lesson programs. Qredits believes that every entrepreneur can go further with the right support.

Stakeholder management was very important in this role. Together with the Hogeschool van Utrecht and ONL, we developed the Small Business Index. Entrepreneurs in small businesses make a major contribution to the economy. Yet little research is done on this group. With the Small Business Index, we publish trends and figures about this group. With this we want to improve the position of small businesses.