The Enexis Group swept the pool at the last Best Traineeship awards, taking out the Best Traineeship Manager, Return on Investment, and the Overall Best Traineeship awards. The trainees choose the Best Traineeship Manager with new rule changes rather than the jury. This means that the win is based purely on the votes of trainees, and their experiences with the company. In order to be eligible for the overall award, a company must be a Best Practice winner from Round 2. Enexis won Best Traineeship Manager and the Overall awards in a historic first.
With over 4,300 employees and 100 years of experience, The Enexis Group is committed to sharing their expertise and knowledge and building today’s trainees into tomorrow’s employees and leaders. Mart Koeslag, the then manager of their traineeship program, talks with us about the experience of winning the awards and how it motivated the company.
Mart is now at Ludens Talent Development as a Senior Consultant,Trainer, and Coach. He reflects fondly on his time at the Enexis Group with us in this blog.
Hi Mart! Congratulations on the clean sweep of Best Traineeship 2020, with your Overall Best Traineeship Award and Best Traineeship Manager! How does it feel?
I am very proud of this! Proud of myself, of course, but above all of the team at Enexis. Every year with this team, we look at what can be improved. The world around Enexis is changing rapidly, affecting how Enexis organizes itself. Other unexpected matters such as Covid also require quick and unexpected adjustments. And last but definitely not least, how new generations learn requires that we continue to move into the future with this.
Together with our recruiters, involved (former) trainees, a management assistant, colleagues from different departments, HR colleagues, and external parties, we managed to respond to this to achieve an optimal Traineeship.
Receiving these titles is excellent recognition for all of us!
One of the things that we noticed was how you utilized social media to announce your participation and win – what was your motivation behind sharing in this way?
Mainly because we are proud of the results achieved. Social media is also a powerful way to make yourself known as a company with new potential trainees and other colleagues. We see it as an important trainee recruitment tool. Enexis is a terrific company with many possibilities. We are happy to tell everyone this. Participating in ‘Best Traineeship ‘ provides an excellent platform for this.
Did you get feedback or reactions from (potential) trainees regarding your posts?
Yes, we have received a considerable amount of positive feedback.
One of the exciting things we found was the number of people just commenting positively and congratulating Enexis on the win. Comments like how well deserved it was, and our proud they were of our program made us proud.
When trainees apply to our program, some have mentioned that they saw the Best Traineeship Awards recognized us.
What would you consider to be the significant benefit of the awards for anyone considering taking part in the benchmark survey and annual competition?
I believe there are three essential reasons.
1. It gives an excellent insight into how other companies and their traineeships are organized.
2. The benchmark survey among the (former) trainees provides a good overview of how they experience the traineeship. The specialists from the jury also provide feedback. This together provides valuable input for any desired adjustments.
3. Almost every medium to large company has a Traineeship. Enexis recommends participating in the competition, it will bring your distinctive company to the attention of new potential trainees.
What was the added value or positive impact of having the Best Traineeship recognition for Enexis? Can you give examples?
Almost all newly started trainees stated that they had seen that Enexis had been voted the best traineeship this year.
It has ensured a wide range of applications. This year we again had many trainees applying to our program, even in this difficult labor market
It has also given us insights into where we can improve our Traineeships and what is especially good about it. This helps us to identify the areas we should invest in, but also the areas that are good as they are or are potentially being over-invested in. Clarity in strengths and weaknesses give direction for investment and improvement.
What are the key learning points from the awards that you’ve taken away from the benchmark survey and jury feedback? What initiatives were implemented internally after receiving the report? Can you give examples?
I find this difficult to answer because a few months later, I changed employers. But I do have an example from the year before. At that time, we got the tip from @Best Traineeship to put the trainees more behind the wheel themselves concerning the content of our training components.
Enexis decided to make portfolios of various Traineeship components. Two trainees are responsible for each portfolio—for example, a portfolio of energy facilities training. Previously, the program arranged this for the trainees.
Now the trainees can see for themselves in the market who they want to talk to about this, which training courses are appropriate, etc. Most portfolios have a budget that they can deploy independently after a good plan.
In this way, they have more influence on the content and impact on the actual learning.
What words of wisdom do you have for future applicants to the annual competition?
Enter the conversation! Network and talk as much as possible with involved parties. Ask for feedback! Each time, this has given me new valuable insights to set up the best possible program for both your company and the trainees.
We want to thank Mart Koeslag, and the Enexis Group for their honesty and openness in answering all our questions and allowing us to interview them for this blog. (We’re looking forward to seeing what they bring to this year’s competition!)
You can join the 2022 Best Traineeship awards and showcase your incredible traineeship programs against the best. Click here.
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