Insights

Committees for starting supervisory board members

Posted on by Jef Hendrickx
commissies voor startende toezichthouders

Experience with supervision is desirable or required in many vacancies for supervisory board members. In itself, it is logical and understandable that many organizations want experienced supervisory board members. As a supervisory board member, you are at a certain distance from the organisation you supervise. The advantage is that you can look at the organization with a clear view. At the same time, the biggest challenge is to have sufficient insight and distance from an organization is not necessarily an advantage. In that case, it helps supervisory board members that they can fall back on their experience and recognize certain patterns. The desire to attract experienced supervisory board members is justified.

Starting as a supervisory board member

If experience is required in many job postings, how do you build up experience as a supervisory board member? Many supervisory board members started their careers as directors. This is also reflected in the vacancies for supervisory board members If you have no experience as a supervisory board member, you are often a fully-fledged candidate with director experience. Another opportunity to gain experience is an internship on a supervisory board. More and more supervisory boards are taking advantage of this opportunity to attract new supervisory board members. However, it often depends on the organisation how this internship goes. As an intern, are you an almost full-fledged team member, or are you the fifth wheel on the wagon that takes care of the report and the coffee? Both scenarios and everything in between are reality.

In a world of accelerating changes, it is increasingly challenging for organisations to organise supervision properly. Additional expertise is always welcome, but how do you do this better? By making use of the existing structures and possibilities: committees.

Supervisory boards can be supported by committees. A survey of 100 recent job postings for supervisory board members in the Netherlands shows that more than 80% of organizations already have committees that support the supervisory board. The purpose of these committees is to advise the supervisory board on all kinds of matters such as finances, risks, remuneration of directors, etc. The committees prepare a piece of advice, and the supervisory board follows the advice or decides something else.

Committees for starting supervisory board members

These committees are very often composed of supervisory board members. However, no general legal provision exists that committees may only consist of supervisory board members. There is specific legislation for some sectors, but often there is not. This interpretation offers many opportunities to attract talent. As a starting supervisory board member, you can gain experience in contact with the external accountant by becoming an audit committee member. At the same time, you get to know the organization and the supervisory board while working as a committee member. This gives you a clearer picture of what is expected of you as a possible future supervisory board member.

There are also many advantages to this approach for the organization. That means committees are becoming a way to attract talent as advisors to the supervisory board. Not every committee member has to move on to the supervisory board. Committee members can supplement the existing supervisory board members’ competencies without making the supervisory board’s functioning more complex. At the same time, supervisory boards can better prepare for their succession.

Therefore, a warm appeal to organisations not only to use committees to make the internal functioning of the supervisory board more efficient but also to use them to attract additional expertise and talent and thus strengthen the future.

Other topics

Perhaps you want to know more about turnaround management, value-based healthcare, new business models in healthcare or governance.

Market Forces & Healthcare Quality – What’s The Impact?

Posted on by Jef Hendrickx
market forces healthcare quality

The healthcare sector is one of the most important industries in any country. With the introduction of market behaviour, however, things have changed. Health insurers are trying to reduce costs, while health providers want to maintain the quality of care for patients. This begs the question: Is this a zero-sum game where the quality of care is reduced when costs are cut? Or can we have both quality and low-cost healthcare?

Market Forces & Healthcare Quality – What’s The Impact?

The introduction of market behaviour in healthcare has positive and negative impacts on the quality of care. Market forces such as competition can lead to improved services and more cost-effective treatments. On the other hand, insurers seeking to cut costs may result in less investment in essential medical services and resources, which can negatively impact patient care.

Market Behaviour & Cost Cutting – Are They Compatible?

There is no simple answer when it comes to striking a balance between cost-cutting and quality care. Health providers have successfully used market forces to reduce costs without compromising the quality of care for patients. However, too much emphasis on cost-cutting may have the opposite effect, leading to reduced patient access and quality of care.

Finding A Balance Between Market Forces & Healthcare Quality

The key is to find a balance between market behaviour and quality care. This can be achieved by implementing measures that incentivise health providers to focus on providing high-quality services at an affordable price. For instance, healthcare authorities can put in place regulations that tie cost reductions to improvements in patient care outcomes or look into payment models that reward providers for delivering value-based services rather than excessive treatments.

How To Achieve A Balanced Market In Healthcare

Achieving a balanced market in healthcare requires investments in technology, data management tools, and other tools that allow health providers to optimise their services. Additionally, healthcare providers need to be provided with the right incentives and resources to ensure that they remain focused on delivering high-quality care while controlling costs.

Market behaviour can have both positive and negative impacts on the quality of care in healthcare. To achieve a balanced market, health insurers and providers must focus on reducing costs without compromising patient care outcomes. Implementing measures such as regulations that tie cost reductions to improvements in patient care outcomes and introducing payment models that reward providers for delivering value-based services can strike a balance between market behaviour and quality care.

A model for hospital governance

Posted on by Jef Hendrickx
implementing the healthcare of the future

I came across this interesting article on governance in hospitals in the International Journal of Health Governance. Traditionally the focus of governance in hospitals was/is on health governance. Lipunga and the team included organisational governance in the framework for hospital governance. Looking forward how this will work with hospital networks

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJHG-03-2019-0018/full/html

Preventing data breach by changing habits

Posted on by Jef Hendrickx
Data Breach - Datalek

Data breaches are unfortunately no exception any more. With the roll out of the GDPR, companies have a real obligation (with fines) to report a data breach. We can assume that the number of reported data breaches will raise in the near future. This does not necessarily indicate more security issues. It definitely is caused by better reporting.

4 tips that help you to prevent  a data breach

There isn’t a single solution that is 100% waterproof when it comes to avoiding a data breach. But there are several things you can do yourself. And the good thing is: there often for free. It will take some effort, that’s all!

Lock your computer when you leave your desk

When you park your car in a parking lot , you lock your car. If you leave from home, you lock the door. When you leave your computer unattended, you lock it. It sounds logical but unfortunately very few people do it. You often hear arguments like ” I do trust my co-workers, you know” or “What can go wrong when I’m working at home” These are reasonable arguments but humans are creatures of habit. When we do something in exactly the same way time after time, at a certain moment, it seems like we don’t need to think about it. And that’s what we do, we stop thinking about it. This also goes for locking your computer.  When you make a habit out of it, you don’t need to wonder whether you locked it when working at another location. A small effort to prevent a data breach.

Don’t limit your actions to your car or computer

Locking your computer is the first step in decreasing the chance for a data breach.  Never limit your actions to your computer or car. Are all your documents with confidential information stored safely? Why would you try to hack a computer, if you can take the file with all confidential information from an open cupboard? The same goes for back-up tapes or disks. The most companies safeguard their back-up tapes close to their server. Just like the files with confidential papers and the back-up tapes, other data in the company should be protected against unauthorized access: contracts, customer and supplier data, order histories, staff records, …  When loosing certain data would cause you a lot of problems, then it’s definitely worthwhile to safeguard this data.

A clean desk when you’re not around

It probably already happened to you. You entered an office and you saw files with confidential or commercial information. The solution: a clean desk. There are multiple reasons to introduce a clean desk policy.  Working at a clean desk reduces the distractions. You can fully focus on the job at hand. When you store the files that you don’t need to do today’s work, you never have a backlog of files to file. At a certain moment you want to avoid the backlog at all costs. On top of these productivity advantages, data protection is the biggest reason for implementing a clean desk policy. By filling a possible information, you reduce the chance that sensitive information gets exposed.

Old documents end in the paper bin aka data breach nightmare

It seems logical but unfortunately a lot of confidential data end up in the paper bin. This includes copies of bank statements of draft order forms. To prevent data breaches, confidential documents should be shredded.

If you want know more about data protection, don’t hesitate to contact us.