What truly changes when re-integration puts people first
Behind every re-integration trajectory is a person. Someone whose working life has been interrupted by illness or redundancy, and who has lost not just a job, but often a daily rhythm, a sense of certainty, and a piece of their identity.
In the Netherlands, around 200,000 people enter re-integration trajectories each year. Yet for many, the process falls short of what it promises. In second-track re-integration, when someone cannot return to their original employer and must find work elsewhere, only 7% reach sustainable employment with a new employer. Labour market expert Roland Blonk has called this figure “disturbingly low.” And that while the Netherlands faces a projected shortage of 1.4 million workers by 2030. The talent is there. What’s missing is the right kind of support.
Not the process, but the person
According to Reveal, the problem lies in how we tend to approach re-integration. Too often it becomes a process to be completed rather than a search for new perspective. Reveal deliberately takes a different angle: the person comes first. Before looking at what the labour market requires, Reveal asks who someone is, what they still have to offer, and where their energy lies. From that starting point, a realistic and personal path forward takes shape, combining coaching with active employer matching, and translating someone’s potential into concrete opportunities.
The results speak to the strength of this approach. Around 30% of Reveal’s second-track trajectories lead to sustainable placement with a new employer, more than four times the national average. A further 26% of participants return to their original organisation. But at Reveal, these figures are not the end of the story.
What really changes
Finding work is a meaningful milestone. But Reveal’s ambition reaches further. Long-term absence from work carries consequences that go well beyond lost income: social isolation, declining confidence, and an increasingly high barrier to returning. When that turns around, when someone rediscovers that they have something to offer and finds a place where that is recognised, the change is felt across all areas of life.
Bram* spent seventeen years in the Dutch military before personal circumstances made it impossible to continue. Looking back on his re-integration trajectory with Reveal, he identifies a clear turning point: “The most important step forward for me was accepting that I was going to leave Defence after seventeen years, and starting to look for something new.” Once that shift happened, the focus could move from what was lost to what was possible.
What Bram found was not just a new job, but a different quality of life. “My new workplace is closer to home, and I’m no longer going on exercises or deployments. That brings more peace and regularity into my life.” The practical support he received along the way made a real difference too: “The guidance I got from Reveal was very pleasant. There were short lines of communication and messages were responded to quickly, in a personal way.”
People regain control over their situation. They rebuild trust in their own abilities. They experience perspective where there was previously only uncertainty. They become part of a team and of society again. These shifts, in confidence, in health, in social connection, are what Reveal is ultimately working towards, and what they want to make visible.
“We want to create real impact on people, by putting the person at the center. A new job matters, but what we’re truly working towards is the broader transformation: confidence returning, social connections being restored, a sense of purpose re-emerging. That is what investing in people really means.”
Investing in human capital
Reveal wants to measure and demonstrate this broader impact, because -maybe even more than success ratio’s and growth numbers- it tells the true story of what their work achieves. The real question is: what changed in someone’s life? Reveal works best with organisations that look beyond absence rates and direct costs, and that understand investing in people generates lasting value, for the individual, for the workforce, and for society.
Belinda Beerthuizen, case manager and HR adviser at Witte Kruis, has seen this firsthand through her organisation’s partnership with Reveal. “Reveal looks beyond limitations,” she says. “They see the future possibilities of each person. Their jobcoaches build trust quickly and communicate clearly with everyone involved, from employees to occupational physicians and managers. This approach ensures that employees feel heard and gain confidence in the re-integration process.”
A natural fit with Shaping Impact
With SI3 Fund, Shaping Impact invests in solutions that expand access to meaningful participation. By helping people reintegrate in sustainable work, Reveal reduces unequal starting positions and strengthens opportunities for participation, contributing to a more inclusive labour market over time, one where everyone’s talent is recognised and put to use.
