Social Innovation at KLG Europe
28 July 2020
Social Innovation at KLG Europe
Case Study KLG Europe - JOI
About KLG Europe
KLG Europe is a global logistics service provider with 15 locations in three countries. We offer transport by road, water, rail and air. In addition, we provide customs activities, we have large warehouses and we offer value added services.
We are a company with a familiar feel with an informal corporate culture in which norms and values play a major role. People are the most important factor within KLG Europe. Quality and innovation are of paramount importance. More than 200 employees work at the location in Venlo. Our services can be divided into three main activities, namely Transport, Warehousing and Customs.
Our goal with regard to Social Innovation
Our own employees are leaders in innovative improvements and social innovations, so that subjects, issues and bottlenecks are tackled faster and more broadly. As a result, improvements are implemented faster and we as a company can adapt more quickly to the dynamic environment. The improvements and social innovations make employees feel more involved and give them more responsibility and participation, while also creating a better working environment.
SILL pilot project
In 2018, the location in Venlo participated in the pilot project SILL (Social Innovators Logistics Limburg), made possible by the Province (Limburg – NL) and various Dutch and local educational institutions (such as; Fontys, Windesheim) and TNO. In this project, ten logistics companies started to work on Social Innovation within the company.
Our reason for participation in this project is because we want to continuously prepare for the future. We are aware that our employees are the largest, tangible, but also the most fragile capital we have within our organization. We want to increase the involvement of our employees and listen to the ideas they have. This not only ensures higher employee satisfaction, but it also ensures innovations, higher productivity and profitability.
During this SILL project, we also set up an internal SILL group within KLG Europe. This group is a composite group that is a representative reflection of the organization. Our motto is: BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR OF YOUR IDEA! This internal group was established to bring more entrepreneurship to our employees. Employees can submit ideas to the SILL group and may participate in the implementation process. These ideas are discussed in the group and they give feedback about the sequel of this idea to the employee(s). The most important result of this is that employees feel better heard and involved. Their ideas are taken up seriously and are discussed, which contributes to a culture in which every employee contributes in his own way and is part of this fast-learning culture.
JOI
JOI is the successor of the SILL pilot project. JOI stands for Jointly Organisations Innovate and is a learning community. The SILL pilot project has yielded KLG Europe a lot of results and has brought it far in taking steps in social innovation. That is why we also indicated that we would like to follow up on this pilot project and were immediately enthusiastic about the JOI project.
We share our knowledge and experience with other logistics companies and discuss our bottlenecks with them. It is nice to be able to discuss this with other logistics companies where the same issues play or have played a role. The meetings are very practical and concrete, so you go home with concrete action points for yourself and the organization. The follow-up of meetings works like an extra motivation to achieve these action points, so that they are no longer left behind by the issues and workload of the day. Each time you discuss how you followed up on the action points, what went well, where you ran into problems and what else is on the schedule. Guidance and support from knowledge institutions is also of great added value. They can provide tips based on proven models and research and provide the companies with useful and practical tools.
In the meantime, two meetings have already been organized from JOI (Internal Communication and Sustainable Employability) and we have also registered for the third meeting about ‘Developing entrepreneurship in the organization’. This is a current topic within KLG Europe and of course closely follows the overarching topic of Social Innovation. We have already identified our bottlenecks that we would like to discuss during this meeting and look forward to sharing our findings and experiences with other logistics companies.
