CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
RETIREMENT IN SIGHT
Marijke Voorkamp, HRM advisor ROC Mondriaan:
“Employees find the Retirement insight course a gift”
As an organization, how do you give substance to being a good employer? For more than 20 years, ROC Mondriaan has offered Essenburgh Training & Advice’s Retirement insight course to older employees. With great success, observes HRM consultant Marijke Voorkamp. “Employees become aware of the change, reflect on it and prepare. People experience the course as a gift.”
ROC Mondriaan is a Regional Training Center in The Hague, Delft, Leiden and Naaldwijk. A total of 28 schools for some 30,000 students are involved. The ROC offers secondary vocational education, adult education, corporate training and job-related training. ROC Mondriaan has about 2,000 employees.
Everything changes
As the retirement date approaches, an employee is offered the Retirement insight course. “Beforehand, not everyone is enthusiastic. Many employees think they don’t need such a course. They then tell me about the plans they have. But often little comes of it. That’s not surprising, because retirement is quite a change. You enter a different phase of life. You leave your work and colleagues behind. Everything changes: your daily routine, daily activities and social contacts. It is important to reflect on this. To think about what has been and what is to come and to prepare for your new phase in life. This is only possible if you step out of the hectic everyday life.”
Full of energy
That the Retirement insight course is useful, according to Marijke, is evident from the reactions afterwards. “Employees always come back enthusiastic. Recently, a colleague participated whose wife had just died. So he was dealing with loss twice in a short period of time: loss of his wife and loss of his job. This man came back from the course full of energy. He saw perspective again.”
The colleague Marijke speaks of chose a course in Mallorca. Because even that is possible. “Essenburgh has been offering all kinds of Retirement insight courses in recent years. A 3-day or 4-day, combined with cycling, golfing or wildlife watching. And so also a course on Mallorca. We allow employees to take any course they like. However, if they choose the course on Mallorca, they pay the additional costs themselves. In my experience, most employees nowadays choose Retirement insight Cycling. Retirement insight Mallorca is also chosen quite often.”
Positive feeling
The course is a mix of a substantive program and relaxation. Participants look back on their working lives and receive expert information on such topics as health and finances. “For as long as we have offered the course to employees, we have been working with Essenburgh,” says Marijke. “Of course there are other providers, but we are enthusiastic about the format of the course. What also helps is the beautiful surroundings of Castle de Essenburgh and the delicious food. You really unwind and get pampered.”
Essential, according to Marijke, is also the long-term relationship with Essenburgh Training & Advice. “They know our organization and our culture. That’s nice, because sometimes in the conversations negative emotions come up about the employer. Those emotions are allowed to be there, but sometimes it is necessary to provide nuance. We would like people to leave the organization with a positive feeling.”
