On Thursday, October 26, the TopFem network was invited to world’s most sustainable building: The Edge, Deloitte. The in-house event was organized in collaboration with the Deloitte Women’s Network, which ensured a nice mix between the two networks. After former TopFem board member Esther de Zeeuw welcomed us to Deloitte, recruiter Julia Plandsoen gave a small introduction about ‘Deloitte-as-one’, providing us with information about the opportunities for young ambitious women within the company.

Next, the floor was given to Hebe Boonzaaijer who works for the Human Capital practice of Deloitte Consulting. Hebe joined Deloitte almost 10 years ago and is very passionate about her job. While describing herself as a ‘workaholic’, she emphasizes how important our well-being at work is. She gave us some insights about how small changes can have a huge impact on our lifestyle at work. For example taking a break every 90 minutes really helps to stay focused throughout the day. If employees are physically more energized, emotionally more connected, mentally better focused and spiritually more aligned, this will have a positive influence on organizational performance. To bring this theory into practice Hebe introduced us to her mindfulness training. After practicing this for five to ten minutes, everybody was very relaxed and ready to hear more from the next speaker: Bram Jonker.

Bram Jonker has been working at Deloitte for almost 2 years now. Before joining Deloitte, Bram was an entrepreneur and successfully founded two companies in the field of data analytics. Currently, he works in the Tax & Legal department. His background in data analytics landed him in the position of being responsible for the Deloitte’s innovation program where he focuses on disruptive technologies. Bram gave us several insights about the fast-changing technology of today and how this might change our jobs in the future. He encouraged us to visualize how our jobs would look like in ten years from now. Robots and technology might take over large parts of our jobs and we should already start thinking about different ways to give meaning to our jobs. It was an inspirational talk, especially because of the relevance and of the topic and its possible effects on everyone.

After the insightful speeches of several speakers, it was time for some drinks and networking.

Check the photos of the event here.