Valuable

“Diversity & Inclusiveness often involves colour, sexual orientation, your origins. But in my view, it also includes the older employee. The image of ‘the older employee’ is often that of an older person in a grey suit walking around at a sluggish pace. Justifiable or not, their brain capacity may be spot on. Moreover, older employees often have other qualities: a helicopter view, a toolbox of experience to draw from. Being older does not mean that you are no longer valuable.

Ruby anniversary

I have been working for the bank for 38 years now - after my military service it was my first employer. And to make matters worse, I am also still working in the same department. But I have done many different things, for example, I was also on the Employees Council for ten years. Now I am responsible for the functional management of our applications, but I am also involved in the Blue Zone project and Silver Club. I started with content, then process, and now it's people. It is all possible at DNB.

Silver Club

I had a lot of contact with JongDNB. I enjoy discussions with young people and I don't shy away from a sociable get-together. That club kept growing and it inspired me as an older employee. After assessing the need for it within DNB, we set up Silver Club two years ago. We have since organised a number of events. We watched the film Aging, about healthy ageing. We had an open debate about pensions and life after retirement. And we arranged a training course on vitality.

In the coming period, we want to continue organising events, such as a meeting about informal care: how do you do that and how do you combine it with work? But it's more than serious topics, we also just want to get together and, for example, organise social events with JongDNB to better understand each other's perspectives.

Grey matter

DNB has 2,100 employees, of whom about 500 are over the age of 50. I am also part of the bank's collective memory. My knowledge is important to share with the new generation of workers, because when I retire, I otherwise take that knowledge with me. You can also learn from each other's energy. Young people mainly want to move quickly, fast forward. We may have less productivity, but we work more efficiently. Young people are throwing away their energy, older people save up their energy. What matters is the output.

Diverse team

I like to compare it to football. In successful teams, you often see a number of older players who, thanks to years of high-level experience, know exactly what to do and what not to do, and how to avoid being overtaken. Surround them with young, talented players and a champion team will emerge. See, ultimately everything within DNB is about quality. And that might just as well come from an older employee. It is about your spirit, not whether you can still run the 100 metres under 15 seconds. And let's not forget: young people grow old too.”