THE HAGUE – Every person receiving benefits must speak Dutch. This was stated by the VVD in a government proposal which will be submitted by Member of Parliament Cora van Nieuwenhuizen next Tuesday.
The VVD is of the opinion that people on social security should be able to speak Dutch at least as well as those integrating into Dutch society. According to the proposal, social security payment will be reduced to 80 percent should there be a reasonable suspicion that the person involved does not speak Dutch. After 6 months that percentage becomes 60 percent and if, after a period of...Read more

Consulting and research firm Great Place to Work announced for the 10th time the list of best employers in the Netherlands. More than 100 companies participated in the survey that measured and evaluated employers based on issues such as working conditions, development opportunities, rewards and leadership.

And the winner is…
The list is split into 3 categories: Large & Multinational Companies (LMNC with more than 250 employees), Medium Sized Enterprises (MSE with between 50 and 250 employees) and Small & Young Enterprises (SYE between 20 and 50 employees). Employees that participated in the survey had to answer questions like: how do the...Read more

AMSTERDAM – The right job can play an important role in a person’s sense of happiness. A staggering 87 percent thinks that the right job adds to, or even determines their sense of happiness. This is shown by research performed by Monster under 2972 visitors to their website.
Well over half of the Dutch interviewees say that they believe that the right job is very important to their sense of happiness. Almost a third says that they believe it is somewhat important, and 17 percent state they only work in order to be able to pay the bills. German workers...Read more

AMSTERDAM – Employees are dismissed more and more often because of statements and outbursts made public through social media.
According to an article by service provider Arag published in the AD last Monday. Research shows that one in three employers check their employees’ behaviour on Twitter and Facebook. A spokesperson says in the article, “It is quite easy for an employer to find out through Twitter or Facebook what his or her employees get up to in their spare time.” The Arag report shows that one in three employers check their staff’s behaviour. 10 percent of them even do this...Read more

AMSTERDAM – Employers do not offer their workers enough room to improve their position within the organization. This became clear from research performed by Effectory , over 300,000 workers were interviewed.
57 percent of workers score their possibility to better their position with a unsatisfactory mark and the opportunity for promotion scored 4.9 on average. In addition, there is also too little focus on career development (5.6) and educational training (5.0). According to Effectory’s managing director, Guido Heezen, this is due to low budgets for staff training and promotion is often not in the equation at all.

Creative
According to...Read more

Hire me! A Diary Series

I find it hilarious when speaking to my grandpa (who is 94 years old and, as you can expect from a man of his age, is spending his days at home with no mayor occupations) and asking him to do me a favor he replies – ‘mmm I’ll see I don’t know if I can find the time to do that’. Ahh!? How is it possible that he comes up with this when we both know he spends his days doing ‘nothing’? I’m used to tease him by replying ‘ahh well, off course, doing nothing...Read more