Loes van Es: “Psychological safety is key to innovation”

As prevention officer and confidant, she monitors and ensures that Ampelmann's employees feel safe at work, both physically and mentally. As she puts it herself: “I talk to people. It has been said that I’m approachable and I have antennae that indicate I need to talk to so-and-so or have a ‘bakkie’ – a coffee – with someone just to see how they are doing.”

For Loes, being involved in so many sides of the company means that Ampelmann’s core values are crucial to how she effectively deals with many different work scopes and departments. "For me, they are my anchor, they denote the company’s moral values and social norms. They tell us how we deal with each other, how we can reach agreements, how we can understand each other, what is expected of us, how we should behave, and they ensure that everyone is on the same page. I’m someone who really likes rules and procedures and I like to stick to agreements. It gives me a very good feeling that people know what the common ground is, that they respect each other and know where to turn whenever there is conflict.”

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Ampelmann's values are the heart of the company

Ampelmann’s core business is safety, and for Loes, it has many different meanings that resonate with her role as a prevention officer and confidant. As she says, “It's very important that people stay safe, not just physically, but also in terms of what I like to call ‘psychological safety’. In the past, people were hesitant to point out when their jobs were getting to them. It's really good to see that, nowadays, many more have become aware of their personal and professional limits and know when to take a step back. As a company we’ve also become more aware of this side of safety over the years.”

Today, Ampelmann offers anonymous personal and psychological support through our partners at OpenUp – quick and easy access to personal support from trained psychologists – and OnzeCoach – a digital platform with advice, training and coaching on how to improve your life skills and mental health. According to Loes, “it really helps to have the tools that support you to feel safe enough to dare to take a step back.”

Yet, mental wellbeing is just one side of the coin that constitutes ‘psychological safety’. “Unfortunately”, she says, “I have experienced that people do not always feel safe enough to express their ideas and opinions. I think this is a really important subject because it’s very unfortunate that some people needlessly inhibit their own personal and professional growth because they are afraid that they might get rejected because of who they are or what they think. It’s particularly unnecessary because I'm sure that within Ampelmann no one will ever be judged on these things. Making mistakes is part and parcel of innovating and I think it's very important that everyone feels safe enough to keep doing that.”

As Loes points out, these two sides of psychological safety are what allows the company to be so successful at what it does. She notes that having the courage to be different, in turn, allows people to dare to make a difference and to drive engineering excellence. “Sharing your opinion, challenging your manager and, especially in innovations, expressing new ideas, can only lead to beautiful things, but you need to be confident enough to allow yourself to make mistakes.”

Making new ideas a reality

In her daily work, Loes also tries to make a difference by nurturing and trying out new ideas. One such idea was the ‘workation’ for Ampelmann employees and their teams, which she pitched, worked out and introduced in late 2022.

As she explains, “the concept behind the workation is that you offer your staff a location where they can come with their team for a few days to work on a deadline or a kickoff. It’s completely facilitated by the company and the only thing you need to do is to arrange your own transportation. I found a nice cottage in the countryside, surrounded by nature, where you can take a stroll or go for mountain bike rides during your spare time. I think this is a very good example of a culture that dares to make a difference through the experimentation and adoption of new and exciting ideas.”

One of Loes’ many other tasks is to organise internal events, be it technical workshops, annual parties, traditional Dutch Sinterklaas evenings or Christmas gifts. “I think that to be one team is one of the most important core values we have. I'm a connector. When I’m organising new events, I always strive to bring people together. Especially since we have become a hybrid work place, and frequently work from home, we don't always get to see each other, so I organise these parties and events so that we can see, meet and greet each other.”

The core values are always in the back of her mind when organising these events and Loes thinks it is especially important to involve all international offices. As she notes, “at Ampelmann, people respect each other despite, and because of, their differences. Our offices and employees are spread out across the world, so, what always comes to mind when organising internal events is how to think inclusively and to involve everybody, wherever they may be. Even if a certain physical component is occasionally lacking due to the distance between us, we try to be as globally inclusive as possible.”

Loes takes great delight in seeing the results of her and her colleagues’ efforts and observes that nurturing the foundations of team spirit is a great starting place to foment ideas and further understanding across the world: “What I really like at Ampelmann, whatever the event, whether it is a lecture by an external party, or a workshop, or a training, Ampelmann people always participate enthusiastically, they always take the host and each other seriously. I think it’s so cool that they always commit and try to make something beautiful out of it, together, as a team. This really helps us to drive engineering excellence.”

With her decennial anniversary coming up this September, Loes knows the ins and outs of Ampelmann and has seen it transform from a small startup into a sprawling global company. Reflecting on the changes, she thinks that “the culture has definitely changed in the last decade. Ten years ago, Ampelmann really was a small startup, but we have matured along the way. Many people have joined and left the company over the years, so the dynamics have naturally changed, but we are still one team, at least I feel that way. So yes, something has changed, we have become a global company and have matured together with the growth of Ampelmann, but the soul is still there, the values and social norms are still the same.”

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