Young Mavericks Encourages Employees to Travel Sustainably

Stimulate Sustainable Travel

Young Mavericks is joining the youth-driven movement to take ownership of the climate crisis by inspiring their employees to reduce their carbon footprint. Starting in 2020, Young Mavericks is adding a new employment benefit to stimulate more sustainable travel by discouraging the least sustainable means of travel: flying. From then on, anyone who does not use an aircraft within a calendar year will receive two extra vacation days. This policy rewards the employee for reducing their carbon footprint while also giving them the time and freedom to make a difference.

Motivated to Cut Carbon

Recent environmental research has shown that simple lifestyle adjustments such as abstaining from cars, meat and air travel have a large aggregate impact on lowering atmospheric carbon emissions. Out of all of these, lowering the impact of air travel has been the most underestimated. We believe the Netherlands, where bikes and public transportation are popular and per capita car ownership is below the EU average, is the perfect place to implement low-carbon staff journey days. On top of this, our central location in Northern Europe makes travel by land practical and enjoyable. Our motivation is to raise awareness of sustainable travel by offering more days off so that we can move people to reach their destination without boarding a plane.

Incentive-Based Behavior Change

Many of our employees make trips by air that can be completed by other means. Giving them two extra holiday days gives them the incentive and opportunity to choose alternative transportation or destinations. Traveling by train, for example, can be a much more relaxing and rewarding experience and open up new areas that are off the beaten tourist path. Overall, we are hoping to expand our employees’ access to leisure time in a way that aligns their well-being with the well-being of our planet. We understand, of course, that not every employee will be able to use this option, but we are convinced that any step towards a more prosperous future must be taken immediately.

Data Science and Data Engineering: Training in Multidisciplinary Teams

This fall, Young Mavericks growth is accelerating, with the hiring of a dozen new trainees – in one fell swoop. Half of them will soon start with our fourth Data Science program; the other half will participate in our first Data Engineering program. They will not only learn the tricks of their trade, but also how to collaborate on scalable insights and models throughout their traineeship. Moreover, they will develop the ability to come up with strong and creative solutions by viewing projects from a multidisciplinary perspective.

NIBC Case: Performing Analyses Faster through Machine Learning

NIBC Bank and Young Mavericks started a text data mining proof-of-concept at the Agency Management and Operations departments. Text mining is a form of analysis in which relevant information is extracted from large amounts of text material. The solution supports the banks’ employees to provide clients with accurate and relevant information, almost in real-time. By automating document review processes, employees can focus on offering personalized customer services to their clients and leave the routine analyses to machines. The application is ready for implementation.