Written by Madelon Timmers, Win Werkt Amsterdam
What if we stopped designing work systems around vacancies and started designing them around people?
Across Europe, labour shortages are growing, burnout rates are increasing, and many people feel disconnected from the way work is currently organised. At the same time, thousands of individuals with talent, lived experience, creativity, and motivation remain excluded from the labour market because they do not fit existing structures.
At WIN Werkt, based in Amsterdam South East, we believe the future of work requires a different starting point: human potential before productivity.
Through our collaboration with Groot Amsterdam’s “Ongekend Talent” program, we are exploring what happens when employment support is built around co-creation, trust, local ecosystems, and human development rather than standardised pathways. The results challenge traditional assumptions about labour market participation.
The problem is not always a lack of talent
Many employment systems are still built on linear models: assessment, placement, productivity.
But in practice, many people first need something else: safety, stability, confidence, belonging, recognition, and the opportunity to rediscover their own value.
Especially in urban communities, we increasingly encounter people whose capabilities are not visible on paper. Some have caregiving experience, informal leadership skills, entrepreneurial instincts, artistic talent, or deep social intelligence; qualities that are rarely acknowledged within traditional recruitment structures.
This is why we intentionally use the term “natural work”. Natural work starts from the human being instead of the function. It asks:
- Where does somebody naturally come alive?
- What environments help people thrive?
- How can communities, organisations, and employers co-create work that is sustainable for both the individual and society?
These questions become increasingly relevant in a world shaped by AI, digitalisation, and changing labour dynamics.
Working in networks instead of silos
One of the key lessons from our work is that sustainable employment cannot be created in isolation.
At WIN Werkt, we work deeply embedded in the local community of Amsterdam South East. Our programs are built through collaboration between residents, coaches, social workers, employers, creatives, educators, and local organisations.
The partnership with Ongekend Talent strengthened this approach even further. While their initiative focuses on recognising hidden potential, we focus on creating supportive developmental journeys that connect people back to themselves, their environment, and eventually to meaningful work opportunities. This network-based approach shifts the role of employment support from transactional to relational.
Instead of asking: “How quickly can someone be placed?” We ask: “What conditions are needed for long-term participation and well-being?”
Co-creation as a methodology for the future of work
A central principle within our programs is co-creation. Participants are not passive recipients of support. They actively shape the process together with us and with one another.
Within the program “Blij op reis naar Werk!” (“Happy on the Journey to Work”), participants move through four phases over the course of approximately one year:
- discovering who they are
- identifying and expressing their talents
- positioning themselves towards work opportunities
- ultimately: taking action
The process combines:
- group workshops
- peer learning
- coaching
- practical support
- creative reflection
- direct labour market guidance
What makes this approach unique is that development does not happen individually alone. Participants strengthen each other through shared experiences, recognition, encouragement, and collective learning. This creates something many labour programmes overlook: community resilience.
Why the future of work also requires inner development
The current conversation around the future of work often focuses on technology, efficiency, AI adoption, and productivity. These developments are important. However, one crucial dimension is often missing: human inner development.
In our experience, sustainable participation in work is deeply connected to self-awareness, emotional safety, creativity, and the ability to adapt from an internal sense of ownership rather than fear.
As automation increasingly takes over repetitive tasks, uniquely human capacities become more important: creativity, empathy, imagination, collaboration, intuition, adaptability, and meaningful impact-making. This requires organisations and policy-makers to rethink not only skills development, but also the environments in which people develop.
The future of work is therefore not only a technological transition. It is first of all a human and transition.
The power of “3 x WIN”
Our work is guided by a principle we call “3 x WIN”: People, Planet, Profit. For us, these dimensions cannot be separated. When aligned naturally this is what happens:
- People: individuals regain confidence, direction, and agency.
- Planet: social organizations and government become facilitators of connection and (inner) growth.
- Profit: business & free market organisations gain intrinsic motivated people that co-create and keep innovating themselves and their work.
This creates value that extends beyond employment statistics alone.
Towards a more human-centred labour market
The collaboration between WIN Werkt and Ongekend Talent continues to show us that talent exists everywhere, especially among people who are often overlooked by existing systems.
The challenge for the future is not simply creating more jobs. The challenge is learning how to organise work in ways that are healthier, more inclusive, more adaptive, and more human. At a time when societies are rethinking the meaning of work itself, co-creation may become one of the most essential skills we have. Because the future of work will not be built for people. It will need to be built with them.