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“You dedicate yourself daily to making a difference.”

Sharon Reijmers

Head of sales & marketing

‘IT’S NOT A JOB ANYMORE IT’S A CALLING’



Sharon worked at a large multinational for many years, but still she has to think long and hard about the big differences between a mega corporation and a scale-up like Orbisk. “Sure, you can’t call an IT department if your laptop crashes and there’s no outside HR consultant to handle employment contracts, but those are small things.” She can’t imagine ever going back to a company that isn’t impact-driven. As Head of Sales and Marketing, Sharon is responsible for achieving growth, and has spent the past few years working on a marketing and sales approach that can be rolled out globally.

These are the three reasons she (and others) love working at Orbisk so much:

#1 YOU ONLY HAVE COLLEAGUES WITH THE SAME DRIVE AND MOTIVATION

“Everyone at Orbisk wants to make a difference for a better world. That connects us. Our mission means we attract highly motivated colleagues who are willing to go the extra mile when necessary. We have only one goal in mind: to make impact as a company. We don’t have a revenue goal, we want to save 25 million kilos of food waste by the end of 2025. Everyone in the company is constantly working to make that happen, from salesperson to developer.

We are all given a lot of opportunity to contribute to the process of innovation. That’s something I also appreciate in my job: the freedom and responsibility. One of our interns – now a part-time employee – made a major contribution to the development of the conveyor-belt solution. That’s not uncommon, and our sales interns have their own client meetings after a few months. Employees learn more within six months with a scale-up than in two years at a corporate, because all the developments happen so fast.”

#2YOU MAKE A PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION TO ORBISK’S IMPACT

“Our recruiting partner recently carried out a survey of current, former and prospective employees to find out why people want to work with us. They revealed that virtually everyone works here because they fully support the mission. Reducing food waste is one of the most effective measures against climate change, so together we’re really doing something that contributes to this. ‘It’s not a job anymore, it’s a calling,’ the researchers stated. I recognize that feeling in myself as well. Of course it’s a job and I get paid a salary at the end of the month, but you dedicate yourself daily to making a difference.

Everyone is proud of the company, even our customers. We experimented last year with targeted advertising through LinkedIn. One advertisement was a picture of a very happy-looking hotel chef in the Middle East, and a quote by them. Lots of other people at the hotel started sharing the advertisement themselves because they were so proud. Those are the successes that really make our marketers smile. How cool that we create online advertising that people from that company then go and share themselves.”

#3 YOU GET TO WORK IN A VERY YOUNG, INTER- NATIONAL TEAM

“I stopped counting the number of nationalities when we hit 15, but we have colleagues from all over the world, from Italy and Spain to Canada. I find it extremely interesting to work with so many different cultures. Despite our international team, our communal lunch is typically Dutch. The kitchen fills up quickly at noon, and we really take the time to have a nice meal and catch up with each other. This creates a feeling of connection and helps us to build a company culture that comes not just from management, but from everyone.

New colleagues always prize the warm welcome they get and say everyone is so helpful. But it’s not like we say guys, be extra nice when the new employee arrives, it just happens. Although our founders do put a lot of time and energy into creating a spontaneous, approachable and open culture. We’ve had two overnight trips with the entire company, and there are lots of parties, drinks and dinners where everyone chats with everyone. We have a friendly culture with little hierarchy, in which people aren’t afraid to ask critical questions.”

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