PwC provides pro bono support to successful manufacturing company with a social mission

Hightech and social enterprise by Confed

Issue
09 Oct 2023

ASML, Quooker, Sunshower and Zehnder – manufacturing company Confed counts some well-known names among their clients. ‘We produce high-end technology with staff from vulnerable groups’, says Confed CEO Peter Hobbelen, who made his company to be an example of inclusive employership. Confed is commercially successful and at least thirty percent of their staff has a mental, psychological, or physical limitation. Peter Hobbelen and CFO Steven Duijvestijn talk about their social enterprise and the pro-bono advisory work done by PwC. It was immediately perfectly clear to PwC colleague Roy van der Sluis why PwC wants to contribute to the social goals of the company: ‘It is so cool to see that this works!’

Commercially ánd socially successful

A champion for social enterprise, that is what CEO Peter Hobbelen calls his company Confed. Even if he does add that he does not profile himself a social company to the market. Why is that? Hobbelen explains: ‘The stigma is often that while social enterprises are the social ideal, they are not necessarily successful. And that’s a shame. Confed is both commercially and socially successful. Clients and financiers who visit our assembly hall sometimes say, ‘’It's so neat and organised here’’. You can practically hear them think: it’s almost like a real company, haha. And that’s exactly what we are: a successful company where some of the employees have special needs.’

Professionalising further

At the Confed locations in Amersfoort, Dordrecht and in Slovakia, roughly five hundred employees work on high-end electrotechnical module construction and wiring harness, PCB and mechanical assembly. Think printing plates for electronics, wiring for traffic control systems and the assembly of hot water taps. CFO Steven Duijvestijn: ‘This past year, we have grown with nearly thirty percent and the year before with double the numbers. We transformed from a project organisation to a more serial production. With those developments comes the need to further professionalise and for that we called in the help of PwC.’

Strategic risk management

Roy van der Sluis together with his PwC colleagues Gerben Roos and Sanae Salim, helped Confed to specify the risk readiness and to clarify the risk profile on a strategical level. They also analysed the three

financial core processes on risks and the (expected) control measures. Duijvestijn is very pleased with the collaboration: ‘We have been pushed to think and to look more strategically at our risk management.’ He mentions stock management as an example: ‘Due to the corona pandemic, the worldwide supply chain has been disrupted. As a result, we increased the stock of parts for our clients. We now have a better understanding of what the risk that creates for our earning power. In our purchase-to-pay process, we mitigate the risk by talking with our clients about prefinancing or offering security via contracts.’

Constructive working culture

PwC’er Van der Sluis is enthusiastic about the working culture at Confed: ‘Everyone contributed constructively. With large, paying customers, you sometimes have to drag them forward to make progress. But here the knowledge and methodology we offered were gratefully received. It is very satisfying to see that the results were instantly put into practice.’ Continuing, Van der Sluis mentions that he has been to another company that collaborated with the social employment services, ‘but that usually didn’t get much further than the people that bring the coffee around. The employment of people at Confed is really next level, it is so cool to see that it works!’

Inclusive employership

Confed is a very good example of inclusive employership according to Hobbelen: ‘It has led to having zero problems with scarcity on the production floor. Why? Because we organise work differently, not job oriented, but task oriented. We unravel our production into clear manageable tasks. And looked at the capabilities of our people instead of their disabilities. That’s how we bring tasks and people together and create equality. Because everybody has talents.’

Patience and more attention for each other

What does it require of the organisation if at least 30 percent of the employees has a mental, psychological, or physical limitation? Duijvestijn explains: ‘We train our people a lot on technical and social skills so that they become more competent employees. Furthermore, our work leaders have a high level of knowledge about the background of employees. Some for instance need instruction every day for the tasks.’ That’s why the organisation works to attract exceptional leaders, Hobbelen continues, ‘People who appreciate the social aspect as much as the technical. That leads to a working culture where people have patience and more attention for each other – it would do a lot companies a lot of good.’

Learning to think beyond

Every two years, Confed makes sure to get recertified by PSO Nederland, the certification for social enterprises where Confed has made the highest level possible for an upscaled, private social enterprise.

According to Hobbelen, Confed shows that social enterprise fits into every company: ‘If this is more widely adopted, we can partially solve the scarcity on the labour market together and offer perspective to a million people who usually get sidelined. If companies learn to think beyond function descriptions and so many years of work experience, the solutions are often a lot closer than they think. Looking beyond the usual norm makes work and life a lot nicer.’