Ellen Reints-Horlings - Purchasing Advisor at RE&F

Ellen has been working as a purchasing advisor at our university for over thirteen years. 'The reason I decided to apply was actually very practical: my previous job was increasingly far away from home, which was difficult with a young family. When I saw that EUR had an interesting purchasing position available, I was surprised. I seized the opportunity – and I have never regretted it.'

'No two days are the same, and I love that'

'My days are varied and dynamic', says Ellen. 'As an account manager, I maintain contact with colleagues from various services and faculties. We discuss their vision on service provision, see how we as a department can support this, and tackle purchasing-related issues together. I do this while walking around the campus or simply by phone. I also coordinate the workload within the team and focus on quality, progress and cooperation. I also give workshops, select new colleagues and organise our team days. No two days are the same, and I love that.' 

Ellen's team consists of about twelve professionals and is, according to her, very diverse – in terms of age, background and interests. 'It is a colourful, enthusiastic group in which everyone contributes his or her own expertise.' She therefore finds the collaboration with her team the most enjoyable aspect of her work. 'Previously, I was in the middle of the tender process, where you could create social value as a team and really make an impact. Now I get a lot of satisfaction from building relationships: within our team, but also with our colleagues outside of it. Thanks to this good collaboration, they can better fulfil their purchasing responsibilities, and we can support them more intelligently.'

'Purchasing in a public environment is not as simple as it seems'

A nice result of this collaboration is, for example, the tender calendar that Ellen developed with her team. 'It provides peace and predictability, and helps with planning capacity – both for us and for the internal assessors. And that is necessary, because purchasing in a public environment is not always as simple as it seems. We work with public money, so there are rules that we have to adhere to. Sometimes that conflicts with what seems best in practice. Yet I see that this is precisely where the opportunity lies to think along and be solution-oriented.'

'What motivates me is that purchasing at EUR is a shared responsibility. We do not work alone – we do it together. And together we get further. This also applies to the social impact that we strive for: we try to give sustainability and social value a place in every tender.'

Within her position, Ellen is given a lot of room for her own initiative. "My manager also encourages that. If I see opportunities to improve processes or cooperation, I am given the confidence to do something with it. That not only makes the work meaningful, but also personally very satisfying."