A job for life – celebrating two careers at HCM Nederland

In honour of Women’s History Month, we wanted to shine a light on the achievements of two of the longest-serving employees in the Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) dealer network.

Part of the family

Judith Bax has been employed by HCM Nederland, based in Oosterhout, for 43 years after starting work in the service department in 1980 and joining the sales team after five years. Her colleague, Esther Navest, arrived eight years later, initially temporarily to assist in the sales department, later pursuing roles in PR and marketing among others. Here they explain why they have remained working for the company ever since…

Judith: “Several of our colleagues have worked here for a long time. It feels a bit like family. At the start, we were a small group of around 30. What I still remember is that in the mornings we went to every department to bring coffee. When it was somebody’s birthday, you treated your colleagues, and everyone congratulated each other.”

Esther: “After starting in sales, I worked for about a year in the financial department, then I went back to sales administration doing international sales. In 2005, I moved to the Dutch division as sales coordinator, also to do PR and marketing. Nowadays I work full-time as an account manager. It’s a very good company to work for.”

Throughout both of their careers, much has changed in the construction industry, not least the shift towards digitalisation.

Judith: “Formerly we worked with a typewriter and telex. Nowadays we have computers, and strive for paperless offices.”

Esther: “Technology has had the most positive impact on our industry. Nowadays everything is digital, computerised, accessed remotely, and that makes such a huge difference to everybody’s lives.”

The two colleagues also noted another significant development between then and now – an increase in industry regulations.

Esther: “In the past, when I started with Hitachi, a customer ordered a machine with any option he wanted, and we could do anything. Nowadays that’s much more difficult with all the regulations that are now in place.”

Moments of pride

There have also been numerous successes and moments of pride throughout their time at HCM Nederland.

Esther: “If I think about the biggest achievements, I have to say that being accepted as a woman within Hitachi, from the start. I’ve never felt that I had to hold back or couldn’t speak my mind – so I think that is the thing I am quite proud of.

Their experiences in the company over the years have given Judith and Esther unique perspectives on how they view the future of the industry.

Judith: I think that everything will be science fiction like Star Wars, with more automation and robots.”

Esther: “I think in the next 50 years we will still be digging, but not with an operator anymore. I think everything will be remotely controlled, maybe by one person who is controlling many machines at once.”

And both are agreed on how they feel about continuing to work for HCM Nederland:

Judith: “I still enjoy working here after all this time.”

Esther: “Hitachi means everything to me; I don’t know anything else other than Hitachi. And I still enjoy working here every day.”

Congratulations to Judith and Esther on their long and successful careers with HCM Nederland, for their loyalty to the Hitachi brand, and being part of the valued female workforce within the HCME dealer network.