54% of employees are highly engaged, but that group is shrinking. 21% report burnout symptoms, up from 13% in 2015.
ImprofityFor leadership teams of organisations with 25 to 250 employees who want to take a step up in quality
What is not clear costs money and energy. Every day.
Good people who leave. Weeks full of meetings. A company that stalls when the managing director goes on holiday. It has become so normal that nobody sees it anymore. With the HELDER method™ everyone knows what is expected, who decides what and what the best way of working is. You manage less and achieve more.
A free assessment first. One fixed price for the whole programme. Results measured in black and white.
Free document: 7 improvement opportunities for leadership teams, with a self-test
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What we have come to accept as normal
I worked for twenty years at large IT organisations and then as an interim manager at a wide range of companies. Everywhere I saw the same patterns. For years I was part of them myself. Now I know it can be done differently.
- Good people leave
That is the labour market.
- Meetings on Monday, meetings on Tuesday
That is how we stay up to date.
- Lots of communication, little real contact
But it was in the newsletter?
- The managing director cannot get away
Without me, things do not run.
- You only hear ideas in the exit interview
My door is always open.
- The goals live in one head
Surely everyone knows where we are going?
- Everyone does it their own way
As long as the result is good.
- Processes from years ago
That is just how we do things.
In many companies, a lot is not clear enough. The way of working lives in someone's head, a lot of coordination is needed and a working day with meaning and a good result is too rare. When everything is clear to everyone, things go right the first time more often.That is where HELDER begins.
You are not the only one
Strategy is rarely the problem. The problem is focus, rhythm and letting go.
A lack of clarity has a price
Staff turnover is the cost everyone knows. But what is not clear also costs money in places where nobody receives an invoice. In meetings just to keep up. In searching, waiting and fixing. In new colleagues who need months to really learn how the work is done. Below you can see, per area, roughly what this costs your company. Set the sliders to match your situation.
Unnecessary extra costs per year
€0
That is €0 per employee per year.
One fewer leaver per year€0
Only the part above a reasonable level is counted. It never goes all the way to zero.
Role of the manager
Too much control or too little guidance. Good people leave and take their knowledge with them. Each leaver costs on average 38% of an annual salary.4Your turnover 15%, reasonable is 10%
€0extra per year
Goals and priorities
Nobody knows exactly what counts this week. Status meetings fill the gap. Employees spend a fifth of their time on meetings, administration and email, and 72% of meetings are seen as ineffective.1 9On average 1.5 hours of status meetings per week, reasonable is half an hour
€0extra per year
Roles and decision rights
Who does what, and who may decide what? Work waits until someone approves it, or gets done twice. About half of all employees do not know exactly what is expected of them.13On average 30 minutes per week waiting and checking, reasonable is 10 minutes
€0extra per year
Way of working
Everyone does it their own way. That leads to errors, rework and uneven quality, especially at handovers between departments. Managers estimate that poor communication costs 7.5 hours per employee per week.15On average 1 hour of rework per week, reasonable is 15 minutes
€0extra per year
Information and communication
Documents in five places, questions through every channel, duplicate tools. Knowledge workers spend almost 20% of their working week looking for information or for the colleague who can help. A well-searchable knowledge base can cut that search time by up to 35%.10Extra search time: 35% of 19%, counted for only half of the employees
€0extra per year
Onboarding
Without a plan, it takes months before a new colleague is fully up to speed. Only 12% of employees think their employer does onboarding well.11On average 24 weeks to full productivity, reasonable is 16 weeks
€0extra per year
Attention for the person
Work pressure and worries at home are noticed late. Sickness absence in the Netherlands averaged 5.4% in 2025. In 2019 it was 4.4%.12Absence 5.4%, reasonable is 4.4%: the level before covid
€0extra per year
Customers and ideas
Quality depends on who the customer happens to deal with, complaints do not become lessons and ideas from the shop floor are left unused. When an account manager leaves, 13 to 18% of the revenue from their customers disappears.6Calculated with 0.5% extra customer loss
€0extra per year
Total unnecessary extra costs at an average company:
€0
An indication, not a promise. For each area, only what exceeds a reasonable level is counted. Those reasonable levels are my estimate based on the sources listed. Employment costs 1.3 times salary, 1,625 productive hours and 44 working weeks per year, revenue of €120,000 per employee with a 40% margin. In an intro call we go through your real figures together.
Discuss your figures in an intro call or first read the seven opportunities
It can be different
| What we accept | What is possible | |
|---|---|---|
| Good people leave | → | People grow and are seen. That is the best reason to stay. |
| Hours of meetings just to keep up | → | Coordination happens naturally; meetings are for decisions |
| Too much broadcasting, or too little and too formal | → | Short, personal and in conversation, like in a good family business |
| Everything goes through the managing director | → | The company becomes less and less dependent on you |
| Ideas stay on the shop floor | → | Every idea gets a first response within five working days |
| Everyone works their own way | → | One best way of working, which everyone may improve |
| Quality depends on who the customer happens to deal with | → | Every customer receives the same quality |
What it means for your people
Money is only part of the story. People notice the biggest difference every day at work.
Knowing what is expected of you today
If you know what counts today and how the work is best done, you do not have to guess. That brings calm and a sense of safety.
Mistakes are allowed
A mistake is a lesson, not a question of blame. If you want to innovate, people must be able to make mistakes and learn from them. The improvement goes into the way of working, so nobody makes the same mistake again.
A manager who really helps
Where you are still developing, you get help. Where you are good, you get room and trust. And your manager thinks along with you about how you can develop further.
Less ego, more quality
It is not about who is right, but about what works best for colleagues and customers. Agreements apply to everyone, including the leadership team.
A little better every day
Ideas from the shop floor are used and small improvements add up. This is called kaizen. It puts you further and further ahead of competitors who stand still.
Enjoying the work
A clear and open workplace with attention for each other and for customers. People like working there and stay longer.
What it delivers: more than savings
The biggest gain is often not in costs, but in customers who stay and people who enjoy their work. The most engaged teams keep developing. Worldwide research across 183,806 teams shows how big the difference is between the most and least engaged teams.7
These are differences between the best and the worst teams, not a promise for your company. That is why I measure in your own organisation, before and after.
The HELDER method™
The HELDER method™ is a way of working for SMEs with 25 to 250 employees. Together we record what everyone does, how the work is best done and who decides what. Everyone knows what is expected, everyone can contribute ideas and everyone gets the right support. The method is built on proven management methods, translated into what works for small and mid-sized companies. Helder is Dutch for clear. Each letter stands for one of six building blocks.
H
Clear assignment
Everyone knows the goals, what is expected of them and why.
E
Honesty
Open in both directions. The leadership team shares goals and concerns, employees can say anything.
L
Learning and growing
Tailored coaching and room to develop.
D
Close by
Attention for the person behind the job, also when life at home is difficult.
E
Ownership
Freedom and responsibility where you are strong. That gives energy.
R
Rhythm and results
Short fixed moments instead of endless meetings. We measure, adjust and celebrate what works.
I help make it clear
In three months, in six steps. At every step we check together that everything is on track.
1
Prepare
Week -2 to 0. A full check of what is already there: processes, documents, tools and rhythm. What already works well and is clear to everyone stays as it is. You will already have seen the main issues in the free assessment.
2
Listen
Week 1 to 4. You kick it off yourself. An employee survey and conversations with employees and customers.
3
Direction and roles
Week 5 and 6. With the leadership team: the direction on one page, the roles and who decides what. Everyone hears the outcome, including what scores badly.
4
Together in the teams
Week 7 to 10. Each team makes its goals, roles and agreements clear. We record work processes together.
5
Communication
Week 11. Clear communication, internal and external, with plenty of personal attention.
6
Measure and embed
Week 12 and 13. Measure again against the baseline. The agreements get a fixed place in the yearly, monthly and weekly rhythm.
Where needed, a second phase of three months follows: going deeper, embedding and measuring again at the end. The support grows with the complexity and your ambitions.
Change always takes some getting used to. But when things become clearer for everyone, it is a good journey.
What we agree together
1The direction and the roles are on paper within six weeks, owned by the leadership team
2Each team has recorded and measured its most important work processes, with an owner who keeps them up to date
3We measure before, after three months and at the end: turnover, absence, meeting hours and satisfaction
4You see the outcomes in black and white
See how everything is connected
Separate measures rarely work. Training without clear goals evaporates. More freedom without coaching creates unrest. Hover over a block or tap it to see what it connects to.
The HELDER method™ connects, among others, OKRs, Situational Leadership, Self-Determination Theory, psychological safety (Edmondson), Lean and Gallup's engagement research.
Make it HELDER and quality follows naturally.
What you get in black and white
After the vision presentation to the leadership team and the Helder survey among all employees, it is clear what is already clear and where clarity is needed. Much is often already well organised. What is well set up and clear to everyone does not need to change. We only work on the items below where needed: we put them in black and white and improve them. Everything is recorded in the systems you already use.
Direction
Addresses: goals and priorities- Mission, vision and purposeShort and in plain language, so everyone can retell it
- Core values and behaviourMade together, with concrete behaviour for each value
- Direction on one page: the HELDER compassAnnual goals and two or three priorities per quarter
- KPI overviewA few figures per team, with an owner and a target
Organisation
Addresses: roles and decision rights- Organisation chart with ownersWho is responsible for which process, figure and document
- Role and task descriptionsOne page per role, drafted and accepted together
- Mandate and decision rightsRecorded per task: who decides what
Rhythm
Addresses: meetings- Rhythm calendarFixed moments per week, month, quarter and year
- Weekly goals per teamA short weekly kick-off, at most three priorities per person
- Communication agreementsWhich channel for what, response times and time for focused work
Way of working
Addresses: errors, searching and rework- The business process on one pageFrom customer request to invoice, with links to the way of working
- Process handbookOne best way of working per core process, with an owner, which everyone may improve
- Improvement route and change logA response to every idea within five working days, every change shared
- A fixed place for documentsOne place, with an owner and version date
- Tools overviewOne tool per purpose, no duplicate licences
People
Addresses: turnover, onboarding and absence- Coaching per task and a 1-on-1 rhythmLeadership style per task, a short conversation every week
- Review cycle and training planA development goal for everyone
- Onboarding programmePrepared before day one, a plan for the first 90 days and a dedicated buddy
- Employee handbook, onlineAnswers to practical questions, easy to look up
- Absence policy and risk assessmentUp to date, with a manager who stays in touch
- Leaving and exit interviewKnowledge stays, lessons come back
Customer
Addresses: customer loss and quality- Customer promiseThree to five measurable promises, known internally
- Route for complaints and feedbackFrom complaint to a better way of working
For each item I follow methods that have proven themselves in research and practice, including OGSM, Situational Leadership, Lean and kaizen, the four Cs of onboarding and Gallup's engagement research.
Everything is connected
A process handbook without an owner becomes outdated. Weekly goals without a direction create busyness, not focus. An onboarding plan only works once the way of working is recorded. That is why I tackle it as a whole, in the order that suits your organisation.
And it does not stop when the programme ends. Anyone who spots a mistake or a better idea updates the way of working, and everyone hears about it. That way the company gets a little better every day.
Why work with someone from outside
From the inside you no longer see what has become normal. Employees tell an outsider more than their own leadership team. And in the daily rush there is rarely time to do it properly.
I bring experience from many organisations. I record the first process in each team myself, together with the people who do the work. After that they do more and more themselves, so it lasts when I am gone.
Johan Joldersma
I worked for twenty years at large IT organisations. After that I worked as an interim manager at various organisations, where sales, organisation and processes meet.
What I kept seeing: organisations with good numbers and still a lot to improve. Ideas are left unused and the leadership team finds some things hard to change from the inside. For years I worked with weekly meetings and fixed structures myself. Now I know it can be done differently.
With the HELDER method™, through Improfity, I combine a wide range of proven management methods with practical experience.
20 yearsat large IT organisations
Interimwhere sales, organisation and processes meet
How we work together
Every organisation is different, and most already have a lot in good order. That is why it starts with a free, no-obligation assessment, fully online: a 45-minute conversation and a 20-minute questionnaire. With these we measure how clearly everything is set up today. You receive a report that shows what is already in good order, where the opportunities for improvement are and what it costs you now, with a proposal. What is already well set up and clear to everyone does not need to change. That way the HELDER method™ builds on what is already there. We then tailor the support to your situation and your ambitions.
Start at no cost
The assessment costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. You first see what there is to gain.
One fixed price
For the complete programme. No billing by the hour. You know in advance where you stand.
Measured results
I measure before, after three months and at the end. You see in black and white what it has delivered.
What you get
- A baseline measurement: employee survey, conversations with employees and customers and a check of processes and documents, with a report
- The items from the overview above that are not yet clear, recorded in your own systems
- 3 to 6 months of support, depending on complexity and ambitions
- An interim and a final measurement, so you see what has changed
What it asks of you
- Leadership team: about 10 hours in the first six weeks, and after that mainly setting the right example
- Managers: a half-day of training, their own team session, two coaching conversations and time for 1-on-1s
- Employees: 15 minutes for the survey, a 2.5-hour team session and 5 minutes per week
What it costs
- One fixed price for the complete programme, matched to the size of your organisation and your ambitions
- A one-off investment. What a lack of clarity costs comes back every year. Calculate it for your company
- Any external costs only by agreement
- 1. Intro call30 minutes. Where do you stand, and is the HELDER method™ a good fit for your organisation?
- 2. No-obligation assessmentFree and online. A conversation and a 20-minute questionnaire. You receive a report: what is already clear and where are the opportunities?
- 3. BaselineWithin four weeks an honest picture with figures, from employees and customers.
- 4. ImplementationIn phases over three to six months, starting with what gives quick results.
- 5. Measure and showAfter three months and at the end, also if results disappoint.
Who it is for
Managing directors and leadership teams of organisations with roughly 25 to 250 employees.
Who really want to take a step up in quality, internally and externally, and are willing to set the right example themselves.
Not for those looking for a report that ends up in a drawer.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost?
The assessment is free and without obligation: an online conversation, a 20-minute questionnaire and a report with the opportunities for improvement. After that you receive a clear proposal with one fixed price for the complete programme, matched to the size of your organisation and your ambitions. The return can be a multiple of that: the calculator shows what a lack of clarity costs you per year today.
How much time does it take from our organisation?
The leadership team about ten hours in the first six weeks, and after that mainly setting the right example. Managers a half-day of training, their own team session and two coaching conversations. Employees fifteen minutes for a survey and a team session of two and a half hours.
What if managers or employees do not want to take part?
Resistance is normal, and often understandable: many people have seen programmes without any follow-up. That is why it starts with listening, we share the outcome with everyone, including what scores badly, and managers lead their own team session. People who are invited to think along, join in.
What will employees notice?
Mostly calm. They know what is expected of them, who decides what and how the work is best done. Their manager helps where they are still growing and gives room where they are strong. Ideas get an answer within five working days. The work becomes cleaner: less ego, more attention for quality, for colleagues and for customers.
What happens when someone makes a mistake?
Then we look for the cause in the way of working, not in the person. What we learn goes into the process handbook, and everyone who works with it hears about it. That way nobody makes the same mistake twice. Research shows that teams with good leadership actually report more mistakes: it is safe to name them there.
Will it not become too many rules and too much paper?
No. I only record what saves time, and I would rather have three good processes that are used than twenty that sit in a folder. One best way of working actually gives room: you do not have to figure out again and again how something should be done. And everyone may improve that way of working.
What if we already have a lot in good order?
Then that stays as it is. The assessment measures how clearly everything is set up today. What already works well and is clear to everyone does not need to change. I only work on the areas that can be improved, and build on what is already there.
Do we need to buy new software?
No. I record everything in the systems you already use, such as SharePoint, Teams, Google Drive or your ERP. If something is really missing, we discuss it first.
Can we not do this ourselves?
Partly, certainly. But from the inside, everyone is used to how things are set up now. Employees tell someone from outside more than their colleagues or their leadership team, in confidence of course. I bring the experience and take the time to make everything clear. In departments such as HR, sales and production I show how to write out their processes. They then complete the work themselves. With a fixed rhythm to keep everything up to date, the organisation can carry on by itself afterwards, without outside help.
What if it does not work?
Then you see that in black and white. I measure before, after three months and at the end.
Can your company run without you for four weeks?
Let us talk about it. In 30 minutes we look at your situation and your figures. You come away with an honest picture. Whether we continue together after that is up to you. I work in Dutch and in English.
Not ready for a conversation yet? First read the document with seven improvement opportunities and a self-test and see for yourself where you stand.
Discover where your organisation loses time, money and customers every week
In almost every company, time is lost every day on things nobody notices anymore. This free document shows where that happens, what it costs and which opportunities there are.
- The seven places where clarity is most often missing
- What it costs you per month if everything stays as it is
- Why 63% of leavers could have stayed
- How much better clear teams score on quality, customer loyalty and profit
- A self-test of ten questions: in five minutes you know where you stand
Thank you. The document is ready for you.
Download the document (PDF, 7 pages)What Dutch research says
The HELDER method™ builds on what Dutch researchers and knowledge institutes have been seeing for years. A selection per theme. Most sources are in Dutch.
Meaning does not come automatically with a job. It needs autonomy, recognition and connection. People who find meaning are healthier and take less sick leave.
Too much freedom and too much control both cost you talent. Match your style to the person and the task: directing, coaching, supporting or delegating.
Managers feel responsible for development, but often do not know how and have too little time for it.
Managers who invest in people see more enjoyment, motivation and productivity. Under pressure, that is exactly what gets dropped first.
Research among 1,107 employees and managers: 46% do not feel heard, 60% think managers do not know exactly what is expected of them.
Internal communication is leadership communication. Commitment comes from human contact, not from yet another digital channel.
Employees see the opportunities for improvement, but ideas stall on time, priority and recognition. Managers who hold on to control are the biggest brake.
Renewal lies mainly in how you lead, organise and work together, and much less in technology.
The value of work can only partly be captured in data. Measuring without dialogue costs autonomy and increases work pressure.
Sources for the figures on this page
- DNB (Dutch central bank), In a tight labour market much time goes to non-core tasks (2 April 2026)
- Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, Netherlands
- Effectory, exit research, via HRMorgen: Retention and turnover in figures (2025)
- Oxford Economics, The Cost of Brain Drain (2014)
- Intelligence Group, Recruitment Kengetallen
- Shi e.a., Journal of Marketing (2017)
- Gallup, Q12 meta-analysis, 11th edition (2024): best versus worst quartile of 183,806 teams
- TNO and CBS, Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2025, overview
- Atlassian, State of Teams 2024, via Fortune: 72% of meetings ineffective
- McKinsey Global Institute, The social economy (2012): almost 20% of the working week spent searching, up to 35% less with a searchable knowledge base
- Gallup, Practices for a Better Employee Onboarding Experience
- CBS (Statistics Netherlands), sickness absence 2025: 5.4% and 2019: 4.4%
- Gallup, Employees Don't Know What's Expected at Work
- Edmondson, Learning from mistakes is easier said than done (1996): teams with better leadership report more mistakes
- Grammarly and Harris Poll, The State of Business Communication (2022): 7.47 hours per week lost to poor communication, estimate by 251 business leaders