Services Fontys move to Eindhoven city centre mid this year

Chantal Snijders and Remco Schapendonk both work as process managers in the Housing and Facilities Department (H and F) and are involved in the relocation of internal services. Why this operation? Remco: 'There are several reasons. The services are now spread over several locations in Eindhoven: on the grounds of the Technical University in building S1, on Theodor Fliednerstraat in building TF and on campus Rachelmolen. The leasehold of S1 and TF expires at the end of this year. The move to a new working environment also offers an opportunity for Fontys Services to work together more intensively and to optimise services to Fontys clients.'

Not moving to new building

The intention was that the services would be housed on the Rachelsmolen campus in Eindhoven after the lease expires. Chantal: 'New education buildings are under construction there for education. The number of students was expected to start decreasing. That would trigger a movement within existing buildings, freeing up space for services. In Eindhoven, however, the shrinkage is limited. Some institutes are even growing. As a result, there is insufficient space for services at the Rachelsmolen for the time being.'

In September 2022, Fontys decided to house the home base for the services off campus for the next three years. A prime location was found in the heart of Eindhoven: the offices of De Lage Landen (DLL), a financial services provider. Chantal: 'Partly because their employees have been working from home more often since corona, they had space left on the fourth and fifth floors. We will largely rent those floors for our seven services and PMO (Project Management Office). In addition, we will realise flexible working environments for employees of the services on the larger Fontys campuses in Eindhoven, Tilburg and Venlo, so-called hubs.'

The move involves some 680 employees (about 530 fte's). Remco: 'There will be about 250 workstations in total. In our estimation, that should be sufficient. After all, not everyone works full-time and not everyone comes to the office every working day. Some of the staff will stay on the campuses, such as front-office staff, the service desk and the deans.' In principle, housing the services in De Lage Landen's building is temporary. Chantal: 'We rent those two floors for three years. After that, there may be space again within Fontys buildings and we will move back there.'

Flexible concept

For some departments, the new workplaces (and a different way of working) will take some getting used to, Chantal suspects. Especially for people used to working at the same desk all the time. That will no longer be the case. In principle, everyone can and may sit wherever they want.

The campuses in Tilburg, Venlo and Eindhoven will have so-called hubs; departmental staff can work there too, for instance if they have an appointment there that day or want to collaborate with a project group. And of course you can also work from home; useful if you need to concentrate. In the office, there will be more consultation areas, project rooms and meeting rooms where you can confer with people who are present on site as well as people who follow the meeting remotely. And the workstations will have double monitors. In short: excellent facilities, giving employees a lot of choice'.

DLL has done well for itself, Remco knows. 'The climate in the offices is very pleasant; climate ceilings provide clean air at an attractive temperature. A nice company restaurant and bar are located on the ground floor. Our services may also use that. Underneath the building is a spacious car park. There are plenty of parking spaces for employees to park their cars. Their bicycle too, for that matter, and there are charging points for E-bikes. You can even take a shower there. You walk straight into the city centre and walk to central station in less than ten minutes.'

If everything goes according to plan, the move will be completed in September. Remco: 'We will probably do it in stages. That is why we are investigating whether we can stagger the move by moving certain services or parts of them earlier.'