Alliander is one of the largest energy companies and grid operators in the Netherlands. The organisation plays a key role in the Dutch energy transition and works every day on making the energy system more sustainable. Alliander manages and develops the energy grids and ensures that homes, businesses and public institutions have access to reliable, affordable and sustainable energy.

The Netherlands has ambitious climate targets to meet and is fully committed to the transition towards sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind power. This transition requires a large-scale expansion and reinforcement of the energy grid. As a result, Alliander’s role has become increasingly critical, while at the same time the organisation faces growing pressure to onboard large numbers of new professionals quickly and effectively.

These challenges are familiar to many organisations dealing with rapid growth, complex societal responsibilities and a tight labour market. At Alliander, this led to a fundamental question. How do you create onboarding that is not only scalable, but also meaningful and effective?

That question resulted in the development of the onboarding programme Join the Grid, created by Alliander in collaboration with Digital Chefs. A digital warm welcome that combines online learning with an interactive serious game on the introduction day.

From day one, new colleagues learn how their work contributes to the bigger picture and feel part of the organisation straight away. Randy Dommerholt, Manager Learning and Development at Alliander, Rosa van der Deen, L&D Consultant at Alliander, and Remco van den Hout, Learning Innovator at Digital Chefs, share how Join the Grid was created, what it delivered and why it works.

 

Thousands of new colleagues

Alliander faces an enormous growth challenge. Within ten years, the organisation must complete work that would normally take several decades. This includes laying new cables, building medium voltage substations and expanding and reinforcing the electricity grid. Heleen Cocu (CHRO), Wouter van der Loo (Manager Labour Market Transformation), and Floor Dijkstra (Employee Lifecycle) realised together with their teams that the existing approach could not keep up with the pace of growth. Randy Dommerholt joined Alliander’s Employee Life Cycle team in 2023. “At that time, we had around 7,000 employees, and now we have grown to 11,000.”

This growth required more than a traditional introduction day. “Onboarding 3,000 people means dealing with internal mobility, replacing people who leave and filling newly created roles. Combined, this results in a recruitment target of 3,000 new employees per year.”

 

Good onboarding supports retention

The existing onboarding approach was no longer sufficient. On the one hand, it required too much time and capacity from internal colleagues. On the other hand, new employees lacked a clear overview of the organisation. Randy explains: “Before Join the Grid, onboarding consisted of several separate e learning modules. We noticed that the context of Alliander and your place within the organisation did not come across clearly.”

Information was fragmented. “People found it difficult to create a coherent story from what they received. What is my role within this large organisation?” This had a direct impact on retention. “We saw that attrition during the first year was too high.”

 

From constraints to design principles

At this scale and level of complexity, time is limited. Alliander was building its Learning and Development team while simultaneously needing to deliver results. “When I joined, I had four team members within L&D (excluding our Technical L&D department). That was my entire team responsible for supporting 7,000 employees,” says Randy.

Rosa started as an L&D Consultant at Alliander within the Labour Market Transformation department, together with the team of Marnix de Groot (part of the team of Wouter van der Loo), working on the development of the technical onboarding modules. It quickly became clear that the challenge went beyond content alone. It also required structure, ownership and long term sustainability. The goal was not only to design onboarding, but to ensure that business units could maintain and develop their own onboarding in the future.

From these constraints, clear design principles emerged. The onboarding needed to provide overview, align with the role of the employee, make progress visible and above all offer context before detailed content.

 

The solution: Join the Grid online and Time is Now

Join the Grid was designed as one coherent onboarding experience, consisting of two complementary components.

 

Online onboarding through an interactive map

Previously, new colleagues received separate e learning modules in their inbox. This approach was ineffective. Remco explains: “At first, there were fifteen separate e learning modules sent to employees all at once, in random order. It was difficult to create structure. We reduced this to a single email and one onboarding journey. This journey contains approximately eleven modules, tailored to the role of the new colleague.”

The onboarding journey is presented as an interactive map that reflects the world of Alliander. “You see a village that needs to be powered by energy. Employees build their route step by step. Each completed module is represented as a medium voltage substation on the map. Once a module is finished, the village progressively receives energy from sustainable resources such as windmills, solar panels, and biogas.”

This approach supports self directed learning, makes progress visible and reduces cognitive load for new employees. According to Randy, the feedback has been very positive. “People experience it as a pleasant way of learning, especially because they can clearly see their progress. It makes onboarding structured and motivating.”

 

Time is Now: connecting colleagues and mission

In addition to knowledge transfer, Alliander wanted new colleagues to feel connected to each other and to the organisation’s societal mission. The introduction day, organised by HR Events, previously consisted of physical workshops with a maximum of 150 participants. “While we needed to accommodate 250,” says Rosa.

Engagement in large groups proved challenging. “You might have five people actively participating.” The serious game takes a different approach. Employees work in teams, move through the building and complete assignments together. “It strongly supports connections between colleagues and helps them experience the culture and mission of Alliander.”

 

Implementation: launching quickly and continuously improving

The pressure on the organisation was high. Large groups of new employees were ready to start and the work had to continue. As a result, Alliander chose speed and continuous development. “We did not have time to fully follow the ADDIE model. We chose to implement and iterate,” says Randy.

This meant launching a first version quickly and improving it continuously based on feedback and experience. Rosa noticed that onboarding became a widely discussed topic internally. “Whenever I mentioned onboarding, doors opened.” Accessibility was also a key focus. “All texts were rewritten to B1 language level and the onboarding is available in English, as the target group is very diverse.”

 

Results: faster competence and greater impact

Join the Grid enables new employees to become productive more quickly. “Through this programme, new colleagues understand how Alliander works much faster and can contribute to the energy transition earlier,” says Randy.

After the first month, employee satisfaction increased from 7.1 to 8.3. In addition, the programme delivered clear measurable results:

• Feeling oriented within Alliander increased from 6.7 to 8.2

• Feeling connected to Alliander increased from 7.3 to 8.0

• Introduction day capacity increased from 150 to 250 participants

• Annual investment in onboarding reduced by 49 percent

• Cost per employee reduced by 73 percent

• Time to competence reduced by an average of 65 percent

Surveys among managers show that new colleagues reach full competence on average 65 percent faster. As a result, managers can spend more time supporting employees in their day to day work, rather than providing general explanations.

 

Learning Technologies Awards

In addition to its measurable and organisational impact, the onboarding programme received international recognition. “In November 2025, we won two Learning Technologies Awards from over 400 submissions,” says Remco. “Bronze for Best International Learning Technologies Project and Gold for Best Learning Technologies Onboarding Programme.”

 

Collaboration and continuity

According to those involved, the success of Join the Grid lies in short communication lines, trust, and professional craftsmanship. “This was possible because I had already seen Rosa and Remco at work. Without them, and of course all the Alliander colleagues who worked on this project, this would not have been possible,” says Randy.

Join the Grid is now the central onboarding programme at Alliander and is being further embedded across the organisation. “We are working towards a situation where all 29 business units have onboarding programmes that meet the established guidelines.”

Digital Chefs remains involved to ensure continuity. “In addition to monthly hosting, maintenance and support, we continue to work closely with Alliander on the ongoing development of the programme.”

 

Randy Dommerholt, Manager Learning and Development at Alliander

Rosa van der Deen, L&D Consultant at Alliander

Remco van den Hout, Learning Innovator at Digital Chefs