Combination of experience and soft skills, the key to success

In an industry such as civil engineering, which often involves rapidly changing teams, effective collaboration is incredibly important to complete projects within the planned time frame. Inadequate communication creates unnecessary noise on the line. Bouwhuysch therefore consciously invests in the soft skills of its employees. According to the civil engineering project management and consulting firm, the combination of experience and soft skills is the key to a successful project.

The employees of Bouwhuysch make an efficient daily contribution to the most diverse infrastructure projects in our country. "Currently we are involved in almost all major infrastructure projects in one way or another," says Michiel Pieters, partner of Bouwhuysch. "Think of projects like Rotterdam A16, the reconstruction of the Afsluitdijk and Aanpak Ring Zuid in Groningen. Our people are college or university graduates and can be deployed from the tender phase, the design process and realization of a project to management and maintenance. We do this with 80 engineers and consultants in permanent employment and a large flexible shell of 90 freelancers who we mainly deploy in positions such as project leader or director and contract or environmental manager."

Social aspect

"People are central and in our eyes are the foundation of every project," is how partner/advisor Mark Peters articulates Bouwhuysch's philosophy. "We therefore pay a lot of attention to training and education. And not so much on the technical side, because that is usually fine, but mainly on the social aspect, the soft skills. A very important part in civil engineering, but one that is actually always underexposed. Even in basic training. Often people are selected based on their resume and experience, but are not looked at how a person profiles himself in a team. Qualified personnel are already scarce and burn-out complaints are lurking in a dynamic environment like the infrastructure sector, so it is important not to lose sight of the human aspect. That's what we focus on with our Insights Discovery methodology, where we focus on optimizing and improving the soft skills of our people."

Insights Discovery methodology

"Large-scale infrastructure projects are often approached with composite teams consisting of people from different organizations and companies, including ours. It is then very important that people feel in place quickly in order to work together efficiently. We work hard at that with our Insights Discovery methodology where we give our people insight into their own personality first and foremost," Pieters explains. "What can you expect of yourself, in which environment do you thrive, et cetera. Understanding each other's preferences and pitfalls leads to better communication and effective cooperation, reducing the chance of noise and, consequently, failure costs. It also increases job satisfaction and reduces the risk of burnout complaints."

In addition to its own employees, Bouwhuysch's Insights Discovery methodology is also widely used at the kickoff of a new project (team). "We coach teams to gain accelerated insights in order to get to know each other better," says Peters. "Our own employees, on the other hand, are continuously coached, because the social aspect (which leads to pleasant cooperation) is often even more decisive than just the technical skills."