What is it like to work at Summiteers? To get a good picture, Consultancy.nl spoke to co-founder Lidia Swinkels, the first employee Jules van Merrienboer, and Cleo Mauritsz, who has been part of the team for over a year now.

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In the autumn of 2017, Lidia Swinkels, Dolf L'Ortye and Paul van Bekkum joined forces to set up their own organizational consultancy firm together: Summaries. The Utrecht office helps clients with vision and strategy development and the execution of the change. Always in combination with the behavioral development of the professionals and teams that we work with.

“When I started, it was little more than an idea what the agency could become,” says Jules van Merrienboer. “At the time I was hired, there wasn't even an office. On my first day at work, I got a phone and laptop at our office — which had been rented a week earlier — and then I was allowed to assemble my desk. On the second day, I already sat directly with a customer.”

Since then, Summiteers has been going fast. “In a short time, we have grown into a club of fifteen people — with a good balance between men and women — and experience how the arrival of new people leads to new ideas over and over again,” says Lidia Swinkels. “We are very clear about what kind of agency we want to be and are developing in that direction. Together, we make it just that little bit more fun and better every time!”

A place where you can be yourself

The corporate culture plays a central role in this. “I would describe the culture as warm and human,” says Cleo Mauritz on. “It's really nice, colleagues love to see each other. Your work is organized around you, not the other way around.”

“We've created an open and informal place where you can be yourself and where people trust each other,” says Swinkels. “A place where people work hard but there is always room for a lot of humor.”

“And where everything can be discussed,” adds Van Merrienboer. “Everyone helps each other and makes time for each other. We set the bar high and want to get the best out of each other. Employees are encouraged to be creative and to shape the future of Summiteers together. There is always room for new ideas, even if they have nothing to do with work. For example, consider a Minibrew, a beer brewing machine, that we have in the office. And we also do cool things together outside of work, such as taking an ice bath, training in breathing exercises and bouldering.”

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The person behind the consultant

When forging a strong team, it is of course also important to take good care of the individuals who make up that team. “There is a genuine eye for the person behind the employee,” says Mauritsz about this.

“In addition to Summiteer, we are all a lot of other things: boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, father/mother, and so on,” explains Swinkels. “Every quarter, everyone makes a plan that they will work with. This also deliberately includes a “these things outside of work are important to me this quarter” section. So that we can pay attention to that together. In line with this, we also don't have a fixed number of vacation days, but as many as you need.”

“Employees are encouraged to be creative and to shape the future of Summiteers together.”

Within the often busy consulting industry, it takes extra attention to maintain this work-life balance, Mauritsz acknowledges: “It starts with not making yourself and each other crazy. We are really critical when it comes to prioritizing tasks: is this important to make an impact with the customer or not? Working in the evening is also definitely not considered normal. That's how we keep each other on the ground.”

She says that there is also plenty of room to organize your own hours: “Working days, parental leave, vacation: it all starts with specifying what you need and making sure that fits with your work. My colleagues are all role models for me because they are real people with jobs and lives. It's important for me to see that fathers also make time for their children, that partners and consultants go home on time, and that I was not experienced as a burden when I was pregnant, but that it was celebrated.”

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Teddy bear and asparagus

In addition, showing appreciation for one's own people is sometimes also in the little things. “When I broke my nose last year, I was sent a teddy bear and card a few days later,” says Van Merrienboer. “At Easter, we received an asparagus dinner delivered to our home and great performances are often rewarded with a gift or dinner.”

“We do a lot of fun things together and occasionally try to surprise our people,” says Swinkels about this. “Celebrating a work anniversary, a nice gift at an important moment, having a drink or boating together, that sort of thing.”

“My colleagues are all role models for me because they are real people with jobs and lives.”

“My first day of work after maternity leave was during the 'intelligent lockdown',” says Mauritsz. “I was surprised with flowers and a card with the best tips for working from home. It felt like a warm welcome back from my colleagues and made the first day of work a lot less exciting. The map is still behind my home office, so everyone I'm video calling with can see it clearly.”

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Get the basics in order at home

The sudden massive amount of working from home posed a challenge for companies worldwide. This is also the case for Summiteers. “The basis for pleasant work also suddenly had to be in order at home from March,” says Swinkels. “We quickly placed quite a few orders of balance pillows, laptop stands and headsets,” she adds with a smile. “In addition, at the beginning, we sent everyone flowers to brighten up the house. And they haven't forgotten me either: on my birthday, my colleagues gave me dinner at home.”

As many organizations have noticed by now, being productive from home isn't even that difficult. What is especially important is to actively maintain the team atmosphere. “We have an online check-in and check-out every week,” says Van Merrienboer, “to talk about everything but work.”

“Great to see everyone on screen during this meeting and hearing how everyone is doing,” Mauritsz adds, “whether they had a fun weekend, how they like the kids going back to school, whatever.”

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Fun stuff with nice people

Together in the office, or together remotely from home: the Summiteers team is having a good time together and is looking forward to the coming years. “For me, doing fun things with nice people is Summiteers,” says Swinkels. “We measure everything by that: will this make it more fun if we do this?”