Ergon is cutting €2 million from its own organisation. The social work company considers this necessary due to declining government subsidies. Clients and support staff will remain unaffected, says Ingrid Hems, the newly appointed director.
“We anticipated since 2024 that we would have to take steps to prepare the organisation for the future,” says Hems, who previously served as interim director and has held the permanent position since July of this year.
“That’s not good, because we now have to cut €2 million from the organisation. Some of these cuts involve expiring contracts, but we are also being forced to lay off people. That hurts,” says Hems. “This is especially necessary because subsidies are declining. We saw this coming in 2024, so we were able to anticipate it.”
The staff now being let go mainly includes managers and HR staff. “We don’t want our clients (people with sheltered or social work, ed.) to be affected by the budget cuts,” says Hems. “That’s why we want to avoid cutting support staff. That’s why we’ve focused on the office.”
No cutting corners
Will the workload for the remaining staff increase? “That’s possible,” says Hems. “But above all, I think we’ll work much more efficiently as an organisation. We’re truly going to change as an organisation. So we’re not going to cut corners, so we can distribute the cuts evenly across the organisation; we’re going to restructure things.”
And that’s necessary if Ergon wants to remain financially healthy. “In the 2025 forecast, we assumed a saving of 3.5 million euros. The fact that the savings are lower is because we’ve become more efficient within the organisation. We’re more critical of the investments we make and the materials we use.”
Success
What also helped is that Ergon has recently achieved several commercial successes. “We started looking at which clients are still a good fit for us, and what they’re paying for the work our people do,” says Hems. “Does that align with what we think it’s worth? In some cases, clients have started paying more, which means the difference in the financial balance is smaller than we anticipated,” says the director.
Future
These are positive developments for the future. By the end of this year, the social work company must develop a plan for the coming years with its client municipalities: Eindhoven, Waalre, Veldhoven, Valkenswaard, and Heeze-Leende. “This plan must include what can be expected of us, what we can offer, and the financing aspect. Those discussions are going well, so I expect we’ll reach a satisfactory agreement with the municipalities,” says Hems.
Source: Studio040
Translate :Ayşenur Kuran
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