here - ERIM - Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators
office) which does not fit with the current situation in our society. The structure will have to be
changed into a project or sector-based structure in order to go deeper into the core businesses.
De Unie is aware of the change in society and in the way work is going to change in the future. One of
the issues mentioned by all interviewed employees is the change from “industrial employment” to
“knowledge employment”. Although management of De Unie is aware of this change, they realize
that the organization in general still acts as a traditional labor union. Another very important external
trigger is the fact that the traditional market of De Unie is shrinking. The number of members is not
growing anymore; in fact it is going down for about ten years now.
Process
The head office Unieplaza is facilitated with flexible workplaces at all departments. People can
choose to work in cocoons for effective meetings, concentration rooms and flexible workplaces
between colleagues. Secondly working at home is already a common fact at De Unie. A lot of
employees, when possible in their function, work one day a week at home. Employees are satisfied
about the offered hard- and software which makes remote-working possible.
Although there might be some resistance to decisions made by the management, the adoption level
of new technologies is perceived to be high.
New concepts
De Unie is the first labor union in the Netherlands that started with a labor union on the internet; the
online union (www.internetvakbond.nl). One of the differences with a labor union in the traditional
environment concerns the price of a membership. For the traditional labor union a standard price is
set, whereas for the online union members pay a small standard price for which they can get help for
one question. After this, members will have to pay for each request separately.
In line with the concept of the online union is the concept of www.ruziemetdebaas.nl. This site acts
as a sort of platform to discuss (starting) conflicts with the boss. The site is free to access for
everyone. Main goal is to give people a deeper understanding about the conflict itself, their position
in this conflict, and off course possible solutions. Another new and unique concept, applicable on the
site of the online union, is the Medstick. The Medstick is a completely electronic mobile medical
database (USB stick) with the same size as a normal credit card. The Medstick consists all the medical
information of the owner of the stick. This concept is perfectly in line with the mission of De Unie to
find realistic solutions to individual needs and matters relating to work, income and personal
development.
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