Innovative approach with personal touch

What was the reason to renew the Gom Academy?
"Our middle management has vast experience in cleaning and managing processes," Emine explains. "We see the world around us changing rapidly. This places additional demands on our middle management. Just think of the digitalisation that is taking off. Or sustainable employability, which is becoming increasingly important and in which our middle management plays a major role. If we train our people in this, they can fulfil their role even better. The Gom Academy is committed to strengthening our people, we want to help them develop themselves further."

Who will take part in the process?
"It is a large-scale programme, says Bart, "All area managers and object managers with the potential to advance to the position of area manager". Emine: "Among the 150 participants, we first did a digital intake. What do you want to learn? With closed and open questions, we got a lot of information. This was followed by a personal interview between the participant, the manager and the coach. A personal development plan was drawn up and timed. These are often very open and good conversations in which people also dare to be vulnerable. The information from the conversations is only accessible to the participant, the manager and the coach."

Why did Gom decide to do this trajectory with FairField?
"FairField understands what the industry is all about, they understand our people" says Emine. "They've been focusing specifically on executives and their immediate supervisors for years. We've been in contact with FairField for several years in a variety of areas." Bart: "We are delighted that we were able to develop this unique training programme together. This really puts Gom at the forefront of the industry, people understand that leadership is a great strength in the organization."

What makes this trajectory so unique?
"The course is based on customised cases, where the whole training process is secured," explains Bart. "We have paid a lot of attention to that because the Gom Academy lasts around 24 months." Emine adds: "Of course, there are fixed modules. But we set it up so that each participant is coached individually. Not everyone has the same learning curve and this is taken into account during these two years. We make a personal development plan for each participant. It is not a collection of separate blocks, but a total programme covering a large number of topics. From New ICT to Sustainable Employability, from presenting yourself to the 'from Boss to Host' block and much more. With interim discussions about the personal training plan at fixed intervals."

Gom is really taking a pioneering role in the industry with this programme in Bart's eyes. He also noticed that the participants are so involved and proud. "That's what makes it extra successful: you people want, we help them. The employee is the owner of his own trajectory, if he really wants to, that makes a huge difference, we see that very quickly."

Emine Turksever (Gom Trainings)
Bart Godding (FairField)