You get stuck in the system. You are stuck in the system. Or you change the system. If you divide the labor market and the social domain into these three categories, entrepreneur Martin Kniest would fit into the third. He runs Matz Carwash, located in Zutphen and Deventer. This year he also started Matz Social: a company that brings people from the aforementioned categories together.
Category one includes job market candidates who need guidance. They often have a Wajong or WIA benefit or are status holders. He links them to employers through Matz Social. “Employers need at least as much guidance to get this target group employed and, above all, to keep it,” says Kniest.
Category two consists of job coaches, social workers, civil servants, language coaches, etcetera. “All well-meaning individuals from various social organizations, who guide the candidates from their own defined perspective. But keep in touch with each other about a candidate, anyway. Let alone that they guide his employer in dealing with a worker who needs extra attention.”
That could be better, Kniest thought. Hence Matz Social, where he brings together the tasks and roles of all those coaches and supervisors. They can give candidates a good start and help employers build a lasting employment relationship with them.
With the profits from his car washes, he financed the office, staff and the development of the vision and working method of his new company. His most important clients are the ‘work companies’ that look for jobs for people who need help in Deventer, Zutphen and Apeldoorn.
The municipal learn-work company Konnected from Deventer engaged Kniest as an experiment to mediate a number of clients. Director Jeroen van der Geest: “As a private reintegration company, Matz Social has slightly more innovative strength and entrepreneurial spirit. In this way it complements us as a public implementing organisation. We must always be accountable to the city council and allocate money and time to the most vulnerable people we mediate.”
Van der Geest is particularly curious about the guidance that Kniest offers employers and about his integral coaching of candidates. “I see it as job coaching plus, a form that we are not yet able to offer. Together we will monitor whether this extra attention will lead to success.”
Detours in their heads
The Matz Carwash warehouse with brushes and water sprayers is central to The car wash – a documentary series by producer Beau van Erven Dorens and broadcaster Human. The viewer could sympathize with Martin Kniest and ‘his boys’ last January. Six of them, all with a ‘guidance need’, gave a very diverse picture. The ambitious Syrian Abdul, who as a teenager traveled alone ahead of his family to the Netherlands. Tim with a Wajong benefit, who fights against demons from his youth. Patrick from the working-class area, who keeps himself afloat with his love for Go Ahead Eagles. And Vincent and Maurice who recognize each other in ‘the detours in their heads’, so that they learn and act more slowly.
Car wash boss and TV maker had the same motivation: putting this vulnerable group in the spotlight. So that employers and customers open their hearts to them. In response to the TV series, Kniest received loads of letters, emails, apps and messages via social media. From parents of vulnerable young people, from job coaches, administrators, workers, entrepreneurs. They were touched, wanted to work at Kniest, work with him, learn from him, expressed appreciation or recognition. That acted as a catalyst. Kniest had long wanted to reach more people than just the ninety employees of his car washes. That’s why he started Matz Social: to help other entrepreneurs open up their business to this target group.
“On the work floor, my boys came to me with all their problems. Whether they had a fight at home, could not manage their salary well and got into financial problems, or got into trouble with their residence permit – none of their supervisors helped them to a structural solution. As an employer, I noticed the consequences: being late, dropping out, working unconcentrated, causing unrest in the team, difficulty with customer contact.
“In the workplace I am able to build a relationship of trust with those guys. So I took them by the hand and went with them to legal counters, the housing association, the sports club. I took on the role of father, coach, legal assistant, talent developer and therapist. That works.”
Until one of his boys got completely stuck. “I couldn’t get him on track anymore. I invited his nine supervisors to my office. No one felt ultimately responsible. While a boy with a slight disability, trauma or disadvantage needs an outstretched hand from someone who can provide direction. Instances are so large, and many tasks are outsourced. People are caught up in a system of inimitable rules and laws.”
That is what Kniest wants to change. “The documentary allowed me to watch myself from a distance and I became aware of my approach and its value. I believe I can reverse the failing system. I strive for direction, I can forge coalitions.”
Also read this TV review of Martin Kniest’s show: Between washing we see the dents in the men themselves
profit motive
The office of Matz Social offers a view of the car wash, on the industrial estate of Deventer. Social entrepreneur and director of a company with a profit motive. Does that go together?
“I can’t stand the civil servant mentality,” says Kniest, adding immediately that every civil servant he has encountered has good intentions. It is mainly the system that he denounces. “I am commercially oriented, I will not sit and wait for a subsidy. I see the lack of entrepreneurship in the social sector and jump in that gap because I believe I can make a difference.
“Thanks to the documentary, I got such a big stage that I was in a position to push the buttons myself. Despite all the positive attention, it took a lot of energy to gain trust. I had to prove that I am not a commercial cowboy, that I am and remain with integrity.”
In recent months, he has rigged the organization with people who unite tasks that are done elsewhere by more people and different agencies. “It’s about really connecting employees and employers – so not that you quickly place someone as a kind of job coach or employment agency. You have to look carefully at what someone needs to survive, to be able to work, to be able to develop. I have recruited specialists such as social workers, job coaches, a budget coach and even a GP. By combining their expertise, we can provide the direction that candidates and employers need to work together for a long time. We want to make it easier for them and guide them, so that a new employee does not disappear from the workplace after two months.”
Matz Social is now helping twenty people to find work as a trial, which have been put forward by the municipalities. Kniest: “We look at their needs and talents. We will use them to demonstrate that we can achieve a success score of 75 percent, so that three quarters will definitely remain in service, instead of the usual 30 percent. At Matz Carwash, that percentage is much higher, so I’m sure it will work.”
Three of them will join IT company Indito in Deventer next year. Last year, owner Edwin de Goede tried to offer “people who needed a chance” a learning path. But of the fifteen participants, more than half dropped out in the meantime. “Complicated problems that keep them awake at night or that cause them to get into debt require intensive personal guidance. I can’t offer that,” explains De Goede. Matz Social will have to solve that soon. “With that extra attention, we hope to guarantee a new workplace for them through our internal training.”
No subsidy
According to Kniest, his company does not need a subsidy, but it does provide “relief” that the municipalities pay a fee, plus a percentage of the income from secondment. “A benefit claimant costs a municipality about 20,000 euros per year. If we ensure that the people we place keep their jobs, the municipality will pay for it in no time.”
Matz Social has about forty companies where it can place people. Anke Jansen, who runs the restaurants St. Tropez and St. Maxime in Deventer, is part of that network. She would like to contribute to a better society, she says. But previous experiences with people with limited capacity did not please her. “Their job coach or supervisor kept them out of the wind too much. If it is necessary for someone to avoid stressful situations, we will arrange that. But I’m not going to say in advance that someone doesn’t have to work evenings or weekends.”
According to her, Kniest understands the language of the entrepreneur. “He keeps asking questions and knows what options a candidate has. I expect an active attitude from every employee. Then it is fine that everyone works according to their ability.”
The people that Kniest places are initially employed by Matz Social. After two years of training and supervision, the hirers must offer the candidate at least one year’s contract.
Kniest: „That is stated in our contracts with the employer. After that, they can still come to us for specific guidance, because the social problems of the employee are often not over yet. This construction offers time to let a candidate get used to it.
“In the rest of the country, we can roll out the same template that we’re starting here in the east,” says Kniest. “Because the idea of the participatory society – each individual is responsible for his own life without professional help – has failed.”
Not without pride, Kniest reports that, at Overijssel’s request, he has joined a consortium that wants to implement his working method throughout the province. The investment application has been submitted to the EU.
He has always been involved in society. „I started my career as a dance teacher and tutored young people with Down syndrome. Parents who thought dancing was just a pastime later found themselves crying and watching their child dance to the beat. I want to be successful, let people get a degree that others think will never succeed. I want to make all those pearls shine.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad of 24 December 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of December 24, 2021
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