Effectory

2013 – Effectory in Amsterdam, the Netherlands is a consulting firm that helps companies to collect, analyze and use feedback from employees and customers. They start from the premise that organizations that stay in good contact with their employees and customers, perform best. Every year the company organizes the election " Best employer of the Year’. Effectory has 130 employees.

Workplace  innovation
For two years, the company operates in self-managing teams organized around customer groups (sectors and themes) and without managers. Meanwhile, the teams are fully self-managing and they determine their own mission and objectives. Staff assess each other, even with financial consequences.

Approach
The company had a functional structure and due to the rapid growth of the staff, the span of control became too big for the manager. Rather than setting up an extra management layer, the board asked the employees what to do about it. They knew of a few good examples from their own work of companies that work in self-managing teams and have no management. The MT of Effectory then decided to abolish itself. Initially they still had leaders per team. “A kind of compromise not daring to work without any supervision," said one of the founders. 

Result
The company has grown rapidly to its current 130 employees. Customer satisfaction has increased significantly after the introduction of self-managing teams. Effectory now proposes to fulfill societal purposes above making profits.

Reference
On the Energy Day of the MKB Krachtcentrale (a network of SME’s initiated by Syntens, a former state owned agency) the company is named one of the “Smartest companies in the Netherlands." The jury report is attached.

Topics : Dynamic management & leadership, SME , Team Work , Self-organizing
Sector : Business Services
Source : Case

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