New provisions for postings to the Caribbean part of the Kingdom

Daniël Witjes, head of the Staff Posted Abroad Group, and Zerline van Rossen, coordinator for the Caribbean postings team, have implemented the new provisions at 3W and adapted its support accordingly. Yvonne Bijman, head of operational management with the Joint Criminal Investigation Team (RST), is currently posted in Curaçao. From 1 January 2025 the new provisions apply to her, and the support she receives from 3W will be adjusted accordingly. As a manager, Yvonne is responsible for a large group of staff posted abroad, and she has the important task of informing them of the changes. For example, the updated housing provisions now take better account of staff members’ family situations, which will make things significantly more comfortable. The provisions also reduce paperwork by replacing individual expense claims for items like car rentals and official travel with a single fixed travel allowance.

Reasons for the new provisions

‘In recent years, the way that our staff posted to the Caribbean part of the Kingdom work has changed. In some situations, the existing provisions no longer adequately addressed local needs. Insights from preparatory meetings between 3W’s client managers and staff about to be posted abroad highlighted the need for new provisions,’ Daniël explains. In late 2022, BZK launched a process to update the provisions. ‘Initially it seemed that only a few changes to the text would be necessary, but gradually the need for more modern provisions became clear,’ says Daniël. At BZK’s initiative, a working group was established that included staff from 3W and the National Police. ‘3W put together a list of action points based on feedback collected from staff abroad during preparatory meetings, in response to specific questions and cases,’ Zerline explains. The list helped provide BZK with a solid basis for updating the provisions.

Challenges and surprises

As the implementing organisation, 3W is responsible for putting the new provisions into effect. ‘We’re well aware that the various processes are interconnected and often overlap. We’ve now experienced the complexity of this up close, for all provisions. We hadn’t expected the technical updates of the provisions to be so extensive. Over the course of six months we had to overhaul everything that we’d built with BZK, trade unions and other ministries in recent years,’ says Daniël.  ‘On 1 July I received a message from 3W that the CAO Rijk had been published and that it included new provisions for postings to the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. We knew that BZK was working on a new collective labour agreement,’ says Yvonne, ‘but the fact that staff were already being informed of this came as a surprise to us.’

Implementing the new provisions

‘Implementing the provisions and supporting staff posted to the Caribbean part of the Kingdom remains the task of 3W. The changes to the provisions mean that we, as the implementing organisation, must update our existing processes and working methods. That’s why we’ve been implementing the new provisions and modifying the support we provide in phases,’ explains Daniël. Zerline: ‘We worked closely with 3W’s Information Management team and the software developer, and collected feedback from the ministries’ customer liaisons.’ Yvonne tells about the good working relationship she and Zerline have: ‘Contact with 3W regarding the new provisions has been smooth. I understand that 3W is an implementing organisation and, as such, can’t always answer all our questions about what’s behind the new provisions. But it’s great that in such cases she’s reached out to BZK for clarification, allowing me to relay that information to our staff.’

From planning to implementation

Zerline: 'The client managers have always worked independently, but this has noticeably shifted in our group because of all the changes. Last summer marked a turning point for us as we transitioned from planning to implementation. This was a moment that really energised the client managers, because the new provisions were suddenly taking concrete shape. It was also incredibly educational for us as a team to work so intensively with the new provisions. As a result, the client managers are being recognised more and more as experts in their areas.' 'I’m really proud of the team for successfully making the transition together. Along the way, we encountered challenges, of course, but because we all trusted the process and the planning, we’ve been able to adapt our support to the new CAO Rijk provisions, ' says Daniël. ‘The implementation won’t be finished by 1 January 2025. At that point we’ll enter another phase where we’ll focus on the transitional provisions and on phasing out the old ones,’ says Zerline. Twice a year 3W uses an external research consultancy to assess how satisfied staff are with its services. Staff gave the posting process for the Caribbean a rating of 7.7 out of 10. ‘We expect staff satisfaction to rise in response to the new provisions,’ says Daniël.