Leadership in times of crisis: 'Focus on what you can change'

This article previously appeared on the RTL News website.

Driessen Groep consists of eight different companies. From employment agency to training provider and from HR service provider to software company. The common denominator? All eight companies are focused on work happiness. And if there's one thing the corona crisis is having a big impact on, it's our work, our happiness and the combination thereof. So how must the Driessen Groep be experiencing this crisis? We asked CFO Rob Korzilius.

Successful year

"We measure the success of our companies by four factors: employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, revenue and results," Korzilius begins. "And when we look at that, 2020 was a very successful year despite the pandemic. Our employees indicate that they are still as satisfied as before and we also finished 2020 well financially."

Last start

Despite this, the group had a pretty tough time, especially during the first lockdown. Especially their staffing agency, which focuses exclusively on the public sector, was hit quite hard by the crisis. Korzilius: "For a while, of course, there was absolutely no demand for personnel in education, museums and swimming pools. And in health care they were looking for very specific IC personnel, which we were not able to provide either."

Opportunity

But the staffing branch of Driessen Groep managed to turn this into an opportunity. Korzilius: "From the summer we started to focus fully on the GGDs. We now supply people for various test lines in the Netherlands and, since this year, also people who vaccinate." This reaction is indicative of how the group is dealing with the crisis. "We were already prepared in February for the possible scenario that we would all have to work from home. We couldn't imagine that at the time at all, but we did get everything ready in terms of servers and hardware. We are now a year on and we are still all working from home as much as possible without any problems," Korzilius said.

New forms of communication

The way of communicating was also taken in hand at the start of the crisis. Korzilius: "Whereas previously our eight companies were all working and communicating in their own individual ways, now we immediately said: we are tackling this crisis as one team, so that in the end we will come out of it stronger together."

In practice, in addition to many new campaigns and communication tools, this means a weekly video message from the CEO instead of meeting a few times a year to discuss results. And as far as Korzilius is concerned, this is not a temporary thing: "Every week might be too often at some point, but we should definitely keep this personal form of communication if you ask me."

New Reality

"When it storms outside, you have to work on your machines inside," said one of Driessen's directors. Korzilius: "We certainly did that during this corona storm. We took all growth and investment plans for 2020 off the table right back in March and started focusing on the new reality and future." Thus, the group is already launching two new companies this year, which were initially planned only for 2022.

Extra energy

On a personal level, Korzilius finds it especially important to put extra energy into how his people are doing. "Through Teams of Zoom, it's harder to sense how someone is doing than when you're sitting across the table from each other, so you really have to put a little more effort into that now as a manager."

Focus on what you can change

His tip for other "leaders" in crisis situations is to look at what you can do yourself rather than external factors. "You can complain a lot about the whole situation and the decisions of politicians, but you can't change them anyway. Instead, it is better to focus on what you can change, for example, the way you deal with the whole situation."

Driessen Groep is a participant in Deloitte's Best Managed Companies (BMC) program. This program offers participating organizations the opportunity to dive into their strategic and operational management with Deloitte. They gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses and on this basis draw up a short- and long-term plan. Naturally, business successes are celebrated together with peers. For more information, visit BMC's website.