An investigation is planned into intimidation and other inappropriate behaviour within this organization. The investigation, announced back in June 2012, will be led by ex-HRM director Margaret Zijlstra. She will establish where and under which circumstances people encounter undesirable behaviour. Recommendations will be made in June. This investigation is a response to contradictory figures from staff surveys. The figures from the staff survey of 2010 are very different to those of the 2012 survey, possibly because the questions were different. In the one survey less than 10 percent of the staff indicated that they had experienced intimidation, while in the other survey the figure was 19 percent. There is also the matter of the complaint expressed by Kees van Diepen, member of the employees’ council at the ESG. In the Dutch daily De Volkskrant of December 2011, van Diepen accused Aalt Dijkhuizen of creating a culture of fear. Dijkhuizen then demanded that Van Diepen provide examples, but he says he cannot do that because people talk to him confidentially. The Ziljstra committee invites staff members to tell their stories anonymously and confidentially. A telephone number and an email address will be announced on the intranet. The committee emphasizes that it will not attempt to solve individual disputes. Its aim is to catalogue the grievances in order to get an overview.
Wanted: stories about inappropriate behaviour
Ex- HRM director leads study of intimidation.Staff invited to tell their stories.