{"id":7056,"date":"2022-04-28T15:02:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T22:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intuitblog.com\/?p=7056"},"modified":"2023-05-22T11:52:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T18:52:33","slug":"introducing-the-intuit-silver-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intuit.com\/blog\/social-responsibility\/introducing-the-intuit-silver-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the Intuit Silver Network: our newest employee resource group to support older employees and their allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launching an employee resource group, or ERG, hadn\u2019t been on my career roadmap. But after being in a somewhat marginalized demographic for more than a few years, I was motivated to find other employees like me. And based on the response from those I found, they were looking for the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The seed for the Intuit Silver Network was planted in February 2019, when I learned about the book \u201c<\/span>Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder<\/span><\/a>\u201d by Chip Conley. As the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Conley had created dozens of boutique hotels throughout California before selling his business to Hyatt in 2010. In 2013, Airbnb asked him to take on a leadership role to coach the company\u2019s young executives. It was through this work that he developed the concept of the modern elder: a midlife mindset that marries wisdom with curiosity and a willingness to evolve \u2013 and also values two-way intergenerational mentoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his book, Conley states that while the workforce is aging, much of the emphasis in the tech industry is on hiring and catering to early-career employees. One of his recommendations is that companies create an ERG dedicated to the interests and needs of older employees. This struck a chord with me, and I decided to explore launching such a network at Intuit.<\/span><\/p>\n

I started by gauging the interest level at my local office. We soon had a list of 40 members and a prioritized list of topics we wanted the network to address. Then the pandemic hit and the effort took a pause.<\/span><\/p>\n

In February 2022, I felt ready to return to pursuing official ERG status for the network, so I reignited the conversation with our founding members. The first task was to name our ERG, which wasn\u2019t easy. We discovered there aren\u2019t many positive words to describe our demographic. We liked \u201csilver\u201d best because, in addition to the reference to our changing hair color, it\u2019s also a precious metal with enduring value.<\/span><\/p>\n

We then created our mission statement: \u201cThe Intuit Silver Network is a community focused on the interests and needs of older employees.\u201d We\u2019re using <\/span>AARP<\/span><\/a>\u2019s definition of \u201colder\u201d to mean over 50, but anyone is welcome to join. Then we invited members from Intuit\u2019s other ERGs, which resulted in our membership quadrupling in a few days. We created a steering committee of six members who are motivated to launch and build the network. And once we identified our executive sponsor, we had all the pieces in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our initial priorities are to develop programming around the following topics:<\/span><\/p>\n