
Remote working: that's how it's done here
In these exceptional times of seclusion and care, all businesses are looking for new ways to keep in touch.
Sofico’s 30th anniversary in 2018 was the perfect time to make Sofico’s fundamental values and vision clearly visible once more. So we decided to make it something special. Not just an ordinary text with the nth clarification, but a real book, literally setting out the values and way of working.
Sofico’s values are based on five major pillars: Craftmanship, Agility, Empowered teams, Shared leadership and Partnership. These values come up on each of the eight theme pages.
Each page is divided into five equal parts, but the text forms a single whole. Flipping one of the five parts changes the significance of the text (and the drawing alongside it) but it still forms a single whole.
This results in endless possibilities (in text and image). This set-up reflects the way Sofico operates: all empowered teams or departments click into place, can shift, are complementary and the outcome of the cooperation is varied and always forms a single, coherent tale.
Because the Sofico values and working method convey a transparent and agile vision, the Manifesto is not just an internal (working) document. (New) customers are given a copy, too.
Each new Sofico colleague receives their own Manifesto from Human Resources. The team or unit coach goes over the substantive pillars and the local practices with new colleagues. The latter are pages at the end of the book where we look together at the local arrangements and customs. These pages may vary and even be supplemented – given our various offices on different continents. This may, for example, concern birthday traditions, arrangements about travel, leave, shared meals, etc.
You don’t know if something is good until you try it. So after six months’ employment, Sofico organises an informal (group) discussion with new colleagues. This provides an opportunity to look at the correlation between the values on paper and the actual implementation and existence of these foundations in day-to-day operation. We work constantly to ensure a dynamic and self-improving organisation and culture.
The Manifesto is a working document to be constantly kept in mind. It merits a central place in every toilet or living room, so that it can be picked up every now and then. This way, everyone who wants to be part of a growing company with room for initiative is reminded that the first person who can direct their career and qualities is themselves. As a company, we make room for that.
In these exceptional times of seclusion and care, all businesses are looking for new ways to keep in touch.
Sofico has been awarded Investors in People Silver level accreditation, thanks to initiatives rolled out as part of the companies’ ‘Learning Organization’...
Since a couple of months, we started at Sofico with our ‘Sofico - How is the weather', a weekly meetup between colleagues.
After 21 years working for BMW Financial Services, Bert Vanden Bergh decided it was time for a new challenge. “I had to step outside my comfort zone in...